The Changing Fortunes of the Irish Linen Industry – A Case Study of Technological Change and Industrial Decline. Part 2: Capacity, Output and Technological Change’

This paper is concerned with technological change in the Irish linen industry during the twentieth century and, in particular, the four decades following the outbreak of the Second World War, a period of significant industrial decline despite substantial governmental assistance. Attention is focused on issues such as raw-material supply, output, employment issues, market conditions and contractions in activity. It is recognised that the adoption of technological innovations in textiles is best viewed in the context of the wider production sequence and not as isolated adjustments. Invariably in textile processing an interaction effect can be witnessed, where the adoption of an innovation at one stage in manufacture has technical ramifications throughout the processing sequence. Sources of data include contemporary trade press, trade handbooks, governmental census of production, and a range of case-study material gathered in the late 1970s when a few of the large flax-processing and/or linen-weaving concerns were still operational.