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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Weekend Edition World Irish glass-making city shattered by economic crisis AFP - Monday, October 18 Send IM Story Print Irish glass-making city shattered by economic crisis WATERFORD, Ireland (AFP) - – Ireland's economic difficulties have hit especially hard in Waterford where the famous crystal factory closed last year, even if a new, smaller manufacturing plant has given residents some hope. The oldest city in Ireland, Waterford boasts the highest level of unemployment in the country at 18.1 percent, compared to the national average of 13.7 percent. The iconic Waterford Crystal factory's heavy leaded cut glass put the city on the map, but it also dictated the fortunes of the southeastern port in the two centuries since it opened in 1783. The first factory in the city closed in 1851, but production was revived in 1947 thanks to Charles Bacik, a Czech who sought refuge in Ireland after his glass factory was destroyed in World War II. The modern factory closed its doors in January 2009 after its parent company, the Waterford Wedgwood group, went into administration, hit by competition from companies in Asia and eastern Europe making cheaper china and glassware. At the time it had 860 workers, compared with 4,000 at its peak. Some staged a sit-in after the announcement. "Waterford was particularly badly hit during the recession with the closure of Waterford Crystal," Michael Garland, chief executive of Waterford chamber of commerce, told AFP. "In addition to that, manufacturing companies around the city, particularly some pharma companies, saw a downturn in their markets and they all had to downsize -- unfortunately at the same time and all within the same year," he said. "So for a small city that has a population of about 46,000, a disproportionate number of people were made unemployed within a 12-month period." Waterford's troubles reflect the wider situation in Ireland, which was plunged into a deep recession three years ago when the housing bubble burst. Half a million Irish are now out of work. But there is new hope in Waterford. A new crystal factory fired up in June in the city centre, and on a pleasant autumn day small groups of tourists, especially Americans, have come to visit. Following the purchase of Waterford Crystal by a US private equity firm, KPS Capital Partners, most of its production was moved to central Europe and the new plant only employs 130 people. But it still produces the brand's most prestigious pieces, such as a Celtic harp that sells for 20,000 euros (28,300 dollars) and has pride of place in the sparkling new shop attached to the facility. "We produce 40,000 high-end pieces per year, our trophies and our high end giftware," said Sharon Murphy, tour operations manager at House of Waterford Crystal. "North America would be our main market, but we have also a good number of visitors from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and of course we have our local domestic trade," she said. In a series of workshops set up for tourists, dozens of workers blow, cut and polish glasses with intricate designs -- an intensive process that takes eight years of apprenticeship to master. T.J. Grant, who has been a master cutter at Waterford Crystal since 1971, can't hide his joy at being back at work at the company. "I had no problem coming back when I was offered the job. I was driving a truck for a year and a half, a good job, but the minute that I heard that this facility was opening here, I had to come back," Grant said. "At one stage there were thousands of us at Kilbarry (the former factory) but now as we can see this is on a much smaller scale, but it's top-class stuff." Waterford residents see the crystal maker's rebirth as a unique chance for the city to transform itself into a full-blown tourist destination. The old factory, which has yet to find a buyer, was two kilometres (a mile and a half) from the city centre and the 300,000 visitors a year it attracted rarely ventured far into Waterford itself. "What we've done now is that we've brought the crystal centre to the heart of the city, within the historic quarter," said Garland. "And by bringing it back into the heart of the city, those 300,000 visitors will now actually walk through the city. It's a positive move and it's something that the city will build on going forward into the future." 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