Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

Mrs Bennett and Dorothy McNeill (now Mrs West) sitting on both (B609/4/A/2, B609/4/C/2-3). Much modernisation of equipment occurred, and the presence of leading Guinness figures on the Board and Management Committee seemed likely to ensure a bright future for the firm. By the 1960s, however, agricultural technology was developing rapidly, and Guinness was reviewing the operations of its commission houses and the efficiency of the floor malting process (B609/4/C/31). It was decided to concentrate malting in three centres, based on processing capacity. Bennett’s was to continue to buy, dry and store barley, but malting was to occur elsewhere (B609/9/F/3). Dorothy West retired in 1969, ending the Bennett interest in the firm, and the long history of malting in Ballinacurra seemed about to end with it (B609/9/F/4). In fact, the firm continued to malt barley, while also operating as a buying and storage depot for Guinness. Irish Malt Exports had been created in 1957, to handle the export sale of malt produced by Guinness commission houses (B609/4/F/1). From 1973, firms supplied malt to a new plant in Athy, and this became the principal outlet for Ballinacurra malt until 1981 (B609/4/F/7). Subsequently malt was supplied to major malting concerns in Ireland. In 1996, the management bought out the firm from Guinness 2 . In 2003, the Cereal Station at Ballinacurra closed, and in 2006 the firm finally dried its last harvest of barley (B609/7/C/12, B609/2/D/3-4). The collection amply documents this history of over 200 years of malting at Ballinacurra, as well as over 100 years of work at the Cereal Station. Letterbooks, barley buying books, harvest records, accounts, management reports and correspondence, premises control documents, and employer and employee records cover the period from 1824 to 2006, and are particularly strong for the period from 1885 to 1969, when the ‘Bennett interest’ in the firm was strongest. In addition to these business records, however, the collection also contains personal records, particularly of John H Bennett and of his stepdaughter, Dorothy West, and of their families, which supplement these records and provide insights into the personal, social, and sporting lives of members of this prominent east Cork family, which are of great interest to social and local historians. John H Bennett kept a diary from 1881, when aged 18, up to a few months before his death in 1935 (B609/9/A). These provide a fascinating insight into his personality, and into his astonishing range of sporting interests and social and political involvements. Bennett played rugby football, a sport then in its infancy in Ireland, as well as cricket and tennis. He was also an early enthusiast for cycling, carefully recording distances travelled, times achieved, and falls endured. He also skated and fished. His lifelong passions, however, were shooting and sailing. His shooting log records the formidable number of birds shot throughout his life, and his friendships with fellow shooters (B609/9/A/57). He achieved great success as a sailor, most notably at the Clyde Fortnight, which he attended annually. He became commodore of the Royal Munster Yacht Club in 1925, and vice admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 1928 (B609/9/A/43 & 48). His affection for his boats, especially the cutter Verve, comes through strongly from his writings (e.g., B609/9/A/52).

2 Malting the Barley , p147