John deLorean: Back from the future

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joe sod

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Great documentary on John Delorean and how he came to set up a car plant from scratch in war torn Belfast in the late 70s, was on bbc2 last night. It had everything suave american with glamorous wife riding into Belfast like John Wayne. The british government were desperate for any industrial development in belfast then and they bankrolled the car plant.
Also had the backdrop of the IRA hungerstrikes going on but incredibly they kept all that outside as they concentrated on producing the car. Very intelligent and highly accomplished engineer but also had a dark side as he later got convicted for trying to trade in drugs to save his car plant. Ended up penniless and divorced by time of his death in 2005.
 
Sad that story didn't have a happy ending, beautiful car... in some alternative universe, DeLorean didn't get involved in the drug trade, but signed a product placement deal with Hollywood, and the car was a success.
 
Purple said:
He approached the IDA first and they ran him.
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The Ida angle was interesting they had a clip of Des O Malley back then being interviewed. The IDA were very astute and wanted to see firm orders for the car rather than promises. In the age of social media like we have today they would have come in for alot of criticism for turning it down with the backdrop of high unemployment and a troubled Ford assembly plant in Cork
 
joe sod said:
The Ida angle was interesting they had a clip of Des O Malley back then being interviewed. The IDA were very astute and wanted to see firm orders for the car rather than promises. In the age of social media like we have today they would have come in for alot of criticism for turning it down with the backdrop of high unemployment and a troubled Ford assembly plant in Cork
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The Ford plant in Cork was the first Ford plant outside America. William Ford, Henry's father, was born in Ballinscarthy. He really wanted the plant to work and was deeply emotionally committed to the place.
I spoke to a friends father who worked there and remembers an elderly Henry visiting the plant. He said that the Unions closed the place down in what looked like a deliberate strategy to wreck it.
Edit; The size of the plant, the location on the edge of Europe and the removal of subsidies due to EEC membership were probably the main factor in the closure.
 
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Purple said:
The size of the plant, the location on the edge of Europe and the removal of subsidies due to EEC membership were probably the main factor in the closure.
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Don't let those details get in the way of blaming unions. The Catholic Church were probably culpable also.
 
michaelm said:
Don't let those details get in the way of blaming unions. The Catholic Church were probably culpable also.
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I strongly dislike vested interest groups, Unions included. They are, for me, like a institutionalised version of FF's Galway Tent.

That said in the case of the Ford plant in Cork I think it was always doomed for the reasons above (and it was full of Cork people; all those chips on their shoulders made it hard to run a production line. :D)
 
Two memories of DeLorean: my friend lived close to the factory in Dunmurray and when we'd drive past I was memorised by what was being built there.
More recently, I remember reading in Miranda Guinness' obituary that she had a DeLorean and she was forever knocking herself out on the gullwing doors when they were open :D.

www.irishtimes.com

Miranda Guinness dies after long illness

THE DEATH has taken place of Miranda Guinness, Countess of Iveagh, at the age of 70.
www.irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com
 
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