Northern Ireland

Businesswoman who laid foundations of leading clothing manufacturer honoured with blue plaque on International Women's Day

Sir Denis Desmond unveiled a blue plaque honouring his grandmother Bridget Desmond in Claudy, Co Derry yesterday. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Sir Denis Desmond unveiled a blue plaque honouring his grandmother Bridget Desmond in Claudy, Co Derry yesterday. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Sir Denis Desmond unveiled a blue plaque honouring his grandmother Bridget Desmond in Claudy, Co Derry yesterday. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

A BUSINESSWOMAN who laid the foundations of one of Northern Ireland's leading clothing manufacturers was honoured yesterday with a blue plaque on International Women's Day.

Bridget Desmond was the driving force behind Desmond and Sons, leading the Co Derry company to success for more than two decades.

Her grandson, Sir Denis Desmond, yesterday unveiled the Ulster History Circle plaque in Claudy to mark the "life and work of this remarkable woman".

Ms Desmond, who died in August 1911, started out as a shirt distribution agent.

Originally from Killygordon in Co Donegal, she travelled to Scotland to find work where she met and married John Desmond in 1884.

The couple returned to his home village of Claudy and Ms Desmond set herself up as an agent for Tillie & Henderson and on a weekly basis collected pre-cut shirts from Derry in her pony and trap.

Bringing them back to Claudy, she distributed these to women who conveyed them home, sewed them together and returned them to her for quality checking and payment.

Over the next 20 years, the couple, who had 13 children, converted the outbuildings at the rear of their home and she moved the workers into these and expanded the business.

As the company flourished and just shortly before the first factory opened, Ms Desmond died at the age of 49.

The couple's shirt making factories were to become Northern Ireland’s largest privately owned company with a turnover that regularly exceeded £100 million.

The company employed more than 3,000 people and were ranked as Marks and Spencer’s fifth largest supplier, prior to its closure in 2003.

A blue plaque was unveiled to Ms Desmond yesterday in honour of her "enterprising skills, foresight and determination into shirt making in Claudy".

Sir Denis said it was "a great honour for my grandmother to be remembered in this way".