Ford 100
‘Light it up Blue’
100 years ago Henry Ford came back to his ancestral home city of Cork and on April 17, 1917, he established Henry Ford and Son Ltd on the Marina. Henry’s father, William Ford, and his siblings emigrated to the US from Ballinascarthy, Co. Cork, during the Famine and Henry was subsequently born in Michigan following William’s marriage to the adopted daughter of the Ahern family who had emigrated to Michigan from Cork city. Henry’s roots on both sides of his family were very strongly Cork-based. That pride in his Cork roots was instrumental in Henry’s decision to open the first purpose built Ford factory outside of north America in his ancestral hometown of Cork. As he said in his own words, he hoped the setting up of the factory there in 1917 ‘would start Ireland along the road to industry’.
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