Oh Sugar, Sugar Part 2: The Carlow Sugar Factory

January 20, 2026 · 36 min · Episode 75

About this episode

The episode explores the experiences of former workers at the Carlow Sugar Factory, highlighting their first days on the job and the factory's community involvement.

'The first thing I had to do was go out and buy a skirt’, so says Loretta Kenny after her first day in the Carlow Sugar Factory when she came to realise that women didn’t wear trousers there when she started in 1979. ‘ It was just jaw-dropping to walk into the factory to see the massive machinery in 100-foot high ceiling, big vessels big moving machines and you wouldn’t think that passing the road’, recalls former fitter Joe McDonald. In the 2nd programme in the radio documentary series ‘Oh Sugar Sugar’, some of the former workers recall their first day on the job, the company’s sports and social club and its involvement with the community, their participation in the tops of the town and trips abroad. The apprenticeship scheme within the factory provided young people with great skills that were highly sought after and a pride and an ideas and inventions scheme encouraged innovation within the company. Made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television license fee and sponsored by the Sugar Factory Display at Carlow County Museum and the local studies section at Carlow’s Central Library

People in this episode

Guests: Loretta Kenny, Joe McDonald

Topics covered

Carlow Sugar Factory
women in the workplace
community involvement
apprenticeship schemes
innovation

Keywords

factory machinery
sports and social club
tops of the town
trips abroad

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Oh Sugar, Sugar Part 2, Oh Sugar Sugar

Places: Carlow