Making an Irish Free State City – Flour, imports & dumping

During several days in February 1926, the great majority of the flour mills in Cork city and county were closed due to protests and strikes. The Cork Examiner on 4 February 1926 outlines that the strikes were caused by what was deemed the “dumping of foreign flour into the city in county”.

In an interview with TJ Fitzgibbon, manager of JW MacMullen and Company Cork, he revealed that about 400 mill workers were directly affected. In addition, a large number of other trades were also impacted. Those who indirectly profited by the milling industry included dockers, quay labourers, carters, and many others, even including blacksmiths, painters and those engaged in the coal trade.

The context behind the closures was that in the mid-1920s, a large proportion of Irish mills were struggling to remain profitable. National economic reports from the time indicate that roughly one-third of all mills in the Irish Free State ceased operations within a short period during this era. The industry faced an existential threat from cheap flour imports (primarily from the UK) and high operating costs. Political debates in Dáil Éireann in the late 1920s highlighted that many of these mills had ceased to work without any apparent prospect of restarting.

Hence, the Irish Free State’s flour industry was controlled by a few large firms. The 1920s coincided with a shift away from smaller, local mills toward larger, consolidated, and more economical operations. Such a move was often spurred by the need to handle foreign-milled flour competition and new government policies that eventually prioritised Irish-milled flour.

The Irish flour milling industry was deeply dependent on imported wheat, with domestic production covering only a section of demand. While local wheat was utilised, there was a high reliance on imported grain for high-quality white flour. In 1926, only 29,386 acres of wheat were grown in the Irish Free State, enough to feed the population for only about three weeks.

Discussions on flour importation from the UK was a regular topic in agricultural debates in Dáil Éireann from 1926 into the early 1930s. In 1926, Michael Joseph Hennessy, TD for Cork East, brought a focus to agricultural debates on the high importation of UK flour. Michael Joseph was first elected in 1922 for the Businessmen’s Party (Business and Professional Group) and later joined Cumann na nGaedheal. He held his seat through several elections until 1932.

He was a strong advocate for the protection and expansion of Irish industries, including the flour mills that were the backbone of the Midleton economy in the 1920s. Michael Joseph called for tariffs to be placed on UK imports of flour and wheat and also for the dues of the Cork Harbour Board to be raised. His calls spurred a debate in 1926 amongst Cork millers and the Cork Harbour Board.

The Cork Examiner details that the Cork millers maintained that the dues charged by the Cork Harbour Board for wheat and flour import created an unfair and unequal competition with which it was “impossible to cope”.

In an interview with Thomas J Fitzgibbon, manager of JW McMullen & Sons Cork, he outlined the sending of surplus flour to Ireland and the selling of it cheaply. “England turned out 140% of her requirements in flour. She must find a market for the surplus 40%. Formerly she sent that surplus to Russia, the Soviets will not allow the flour to be imported. Consequently, England turned to the nearest place in which she could dump it, and for the past two years she sends it here to sell it at practically the same price as it is sold for at Liverpool.”

Thomas argued that there was no prospect of any improvement in the flour industry in the immediate future. He recommended that the Cork Harbour Board should enforce an import schedule rate of two shillings, five pence per ton on flour. Then the position of the Cork millers would be put on the same competing basis as that of the foreign flour manufacturers.

Thomas also noted that the import of foreign flour into the port of Cork in 1925 was a total of 16,000 tons. He calculated that the wage bill for dealing with this quantity was 4s 6d per ton or annually £3600. If Cork millers were put in a position to enable them to supply this huge quantity, the wages paid out Irish workers would be £2 7s and £5 on each ton manufactured, and practically creating £38,000 annually.

Thomas J Fitzgibbon’s career to that point was diverse and he was well known. The Cork Examiner on Thomas’ obituary on 21 December 1936 notes that he was connected with flour-milling all his life and coming from a Midleton family who was always engaged in this industry. He began his career with Messrs T Hallinan and Sons, Millers, Midleton, and then joined Messrs Simons, an English firm of milling engineers. Whilst in their employment he superintended the erection of mills in many parts of the world and travelled extensively in the Middle East.

He later returned to Ireland where he took up a responsible post with Messrs JW MacMullen and Sons on George’s Quay in Cork City.

An earlier version of Messrs JW MacMullen and Sons flour mills was established in 1830 by William Dunbar (who gave his name to Dunbar Street). In 1844 the Dunbar mills were described in a local publication as consisting of an “oat mill (with three pairs of stones) with flour mill, worked by one steam engine of 35 horse power, constructed on most superior principles”. In 1854 the business was acquired from Joseph Dunbar by JW MacMullen and in 1900 it was renamed as JW MacMullen & Sons.