"made In Ireland"

[Tweel]

I sometimes see posts asking when Cross manufactured pens in Ireland.

 

I posted this a couple of days ago as a reply in another thread, but I think it might be more easily found as a stand-alone topic, should anyone find these bits of info useful. Hopefully others can add to it, too. Sorry I forgot to note my sources -- they were old newspaper articles archived on the Web, an old website created by former Irish A.T. Cross employees, etc. (There are probably enough internal clues in the items to re-locate the sources with Google.)

 

I was curious earlier this year, due to my own Irish Townsend, and tried to do some digging. What I tentatively pieced together was this:

 

• Cross may have had some presence in Ireland since 1972;
• Their factory was formally opened on May 10, 1973, at Ballinasloe in County Galway. I don't have any sort of details regarding their production over the years;
• An announcement of the coming layoff of 100 of 160 workers was made on Feb. 18, 2000;
• An announcement of the coming closure of the plant was made on Dec. 28, 2000, with the wind-down to finish in Mar. of 2001;
• After which the plant was to serve as a Cross distribution center. (I believe they still have an Irish distribution center, but no longer in the old factory.)

Also, there was a reunion of former workers at Gullane's Hotel in Ballinasloe on Jan. 22, 2010.

 

Thanks for reading -- hope to see more on the topic!

Edited September 25, 2017 by Tweel

[jslallar]

thanks. appreciated

[RonE]

I have a Cross Townsend made in Ireland. It is perfect and amazing. A Chinese Cross I recently bought fell apart...a sad piece of junk.

[Tweel]

My Irish Townsend, which I bought used 11 years ago, is still going strong and is in frequent use.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Tweel

[Uncial]

I was told long ago the nibs for Cross in Ireland were made in a factory just south of Waterford City. Not sure if the factory bore the Cross nam or was some manner of subsidiary. The same individual claimed that at one point the nib manufacture had to be outsourced to Japan. No idea if that is all true, just repeating what some bloke said down the pub...well, actually, I was in a pen shop at the time.

[Tweel]

Thanks for the tidbit about Waterford City.

 

Some of Cross's nibs have been made by Pilot.

[jslallar]

I was told long ago the nibs for Cross in Ireland were made in a factory just south of Waterford City. Not sure if the factory bore the Cross nam or was some manner of subsidiary. The same individual claimed that at one point the nib manufacture had to be outsourced to Japan. No idea if that is all true, just repeating what some bloke said down the pub...well, actually, I was in a pen shop at the time.

 

at one point Cross nibs were out sourced to Pilot but not he whole pen, just like the Peerless Nibs are manufactured by Sailor TTBOMK

[Jerome Tarshis]

While it is true that manufacturing a fountain pen can involve contributions of various parts from various nations, and in some cases the entire pen is made in a country you might not immediately think of (Waterford fountain pens are not to my knowledge made anywhere near Waterford, nor indeed in Ireland), I don't think Cross was using Pilot nibs on the pens it was manufacturing in Ballinasloe.

 

More recently, yes, but not on the entire Cross line. On particular models. I have a sense that the Cross Verve was made in its entirety by Pilot, and a similar feeling about the Solo and the Radiance. (Am open to authoritative information about those models.) I am prepared to believe that recent-production Century II and related models have Pilot nibs. Pilot is good at manufacturing a satisfying nib or an entire satisfying pen to a rather modest price specification, as witness the Pilot Metropolitan/MR.

 

Pen manufacturers, and indeed other kinds of manufacturers, often tend not to be eager to tell the entire truth about who actually did what in manufacturing the object. One should perhaps not assume too readily that a luxury handbag that says "Made in Italy" was made in Italy.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Jerome Tarshis

[Raymond3]

I own several Irish made Townsends. They are far superior to the China made ones, but, compared to the USA made ones, they seem to get loose faster. For example with posting.

 

AS far as nibs, weren't the original gold Townsend nibs made in Germany? Thought I remembered that from 20 years ago.