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Showcase number 45

We should be glad and impressed that the Showcase Exhibition, held in the RDS every January, last year reached its 45th anniversary. It bills itself, correctly, no doubt, as Ireland’s leading Trade Exhibition, for fashion, household, gifts and other goods. But some former colleagues may be unaware of CTTs progenerative role in this perennially trade-productive institution..

It was, indeed, in the seventies -and Yes, about 45 years ago. CTT used to do a lot of promotional work in North America, both at consumer and trade level, and usually featuring a high class, design and reputation-influencing major department store (and its branches) most every year. This had the interesting result that Ireland became fashionable, for some while, and recognised as a Go To country for quality and well designed imported goods, due to our continuous association with influential top department stores. (And, it must be said, because of the phenomenal market position of Waterford Glass ) (I believe Ireland was featured inside stores and in their newspaper advertising, etc more than any other foreign country in the 1970s). This in turn led to some unexpected benefits of real importance. One was the Revlon promotion in 40 cities across the nation, which you all know about (No?). Another was a very interesting spawning of Irish Gift Fashion boutiques, or specialist shops selling Irish clothing, household good, textiles, gifts, gourmet foods, etc. These sprung up across the country and almost all of them, no exaggeration, were created and later managed with very close assistance from our offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Biddy Greene recently estimated to me that there must have been c. 150 of them. I’d say maybe closer to a hundred. Tony Courtney, Ann Tormey, Rosemary Craig and others on the team in those days could probably write a book about them. We should have built a franchise (- and, truth, I nearly did.. Nobody knows that till now )(I still have the business plan!)

John McLoughlin R.I.P.

We are sad to receive the news of the recent passing of former CTT man John McLoughlin.

John was a highly qualified Civil Engineer, with superb overseas experience (Saudi Arabia) before he joined CTT’s new International Services Department in 1983.
His relevant experience contributed to the very high regard in which he was held by CTT’s clients in this area, for whom he could provide vital assistance as an experienced engineer. He was highly respected by Ireland’s largest exporters in his field, helping many companies with prequalification and bid preparation for overseas projects, and at least one major exporter bid for a large civil works project in Libya.

He was a very valued colleague as he was knowledgeable in a technical field which CTT was only entering at the time. John is well remembered and much appreciated by his CTT colleagues, particularly those with whom he worked closely in the Services area.

We extend deep condolences to his children and their families.

all / People Posted by admin 20 Feb 2021 / 0 comments

John McGough RIP

On John’s passing, some words from our Chairman, Frank O’Conor, who worked closely with him:

I learned with great sadness of John’s death, having had the great pleasure of working with him in the then Clothing & Footwear Section in the early 80 ‘s. He was a wonderful colleague – efficient, considerate and possessing a great sense of humour while at the same time delivering for the numerous menswear companies, for which he was responsible. He also spent time working as a “frontiers man” for the Irish Export Agency in Iraq.

However, his first love later proved to be the Food area, perhaps a commitment inherited from his father, Joe, who headed up the Irish Dairy Board for many years. John moved, with other CTT colleagues to Bord Bia in 1995 where he helped build the Consumer Food and Drinks division.

To Maura and her family, we send our sincerest condolences on his passing.

Frank O’Conor, on behalf of CTT Alumni Association

all Posted by admin 20 Feb 2021 / 0 comments

Frank Loughlin R.I.P

We are sad to hear of the passing of our esteemed former colleague Frank Loughlin, Manager of the Transport & Shipping Section of CTT for many years.

One of the major impediments to the growth of exports from Ireland in CTT’s earlier years was the lack of regular, scheduled shipping connections to many of Irelands leading export markets. In the pre-containerisation years of the sixties, and even the seventies, connections to the major American ports, for example, were usually no more frequent than fortnightly, or even monthly. Later, containerisation arrangements via Liverpool gradually became available. But shipping to more distant markets remained a matter for careful advance planning and expert advice, for which purpose Frank was the Go To person for many Irish exporters. His expertise was also recognised by the Government who appointed him to the Board of the State-owned Irish Shipping Ltd.

Later, as the shipping situation eased with the growth of two way volumes, Frank’s logistical skills were deployed in the International Projects area of CTTs activities.(Our Chairman, Frank O’Conor, remembers providing assistance to Frank when he arrived in Lagos supervising delivery arrangements for an enormous quantity of Irish Aluminium cookware for the Nigerian Military!).

As Frank sails to his final port-of-call, we extend our condolences to his wife Bernadette, children Aongus and Louise and families; and for Frank we pray that he may Rest In Peace.

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all / News / People / People-Places Posted by admin 21 Nov 2020 / 0 comments

CTT Alumni Golf Outing, 2020

The Annual Golf Outing was held in glorious sunshine at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club on Thursday, 17 September. There was the usual strong field of seasoned players and, given the difficulty of the course, all the hot money was on one of the Dun Laoghaire members to seize the Claret Jug. Local members included Mary Cryan, Alan Dixon, Liam Kelleher, Martin McCarthy and Malachy Scally and accounted for almost half the total field. Liam almost did it with a great score of 36 Points but he was pipped at the post by Lisheen Falls member, Gerry Morrissey with a whopping 38 Points. Rathfarnham’s Gillian O’Donnell was third with 29 points. The other players, not already mentioned, were Peter Bennett, Don Briggs, Karen Rothwell and John McGuire. After the game, all dined safely outside watching the dusk descend on the mountains in the distant landscape while quaffing their favourite beverage to replenish the body and mind after a great test of golf enjoyed in wonderful company.

all / Culture / Events / People Posted by admin 04 Oct 2020 / 0 comments

REGISTRATION Problem is now fixed

Thanks, and apologies, to those who emailed me to advise that the Registration procedure was not working.
As I advised elsewhere, we’ve been having pronblems with our operating system, Word Press, especially since we changed server a few months ago.
It is now fixed, I hope, so you should be able to register at “CTT members Register”, in red font, upper right side. Then your registration will be accepted withing hours, I hope, after we are sure it is not a spam registration. (I don’t believe we have any of those currently and all members are genuine ex-CTT personnel)

As for those who tried the Contact Us form. We will continue it for now, but these forms have become a real problem for website operators, as they are used for spreading junk by scammers and spammers. It is not easy to filter out the spam people
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all Posted by admin 28 Jul 2020 / 0 comments

Geoff MacEnroe R.I.P

We were shocked and saddened to hear of the recent passing of our old friend and colleague, Geoff MacEnroe, after a long and bravely-fought illness. A number of us attended his funeral service on video from Merrion Church. Were it not for covid restrictions many former colleagues would have been present at the grave.

Geoff served in CTT for many years, as Manager in Tokyo and later in Brussels, where his remit included the EU Commission “market” and in which he contributed greatly to the development of a high quality “brand” image for CTT and the Irish business sector. In between these posts he spent some years organising trade missions in far away regions of the planet with export potential, rather exotic places such as Mexico, Peru, Irak, Argentina, where the purpose and justification for trade missions was to get business, not just to “junket”. The success of these missions was due to the fact that Geoff went there as the advance party weeks, even a few months ahead, on his own, established a “popup” office, did research for each participant, made appropriate meetings for all companies in advance, and managed all aspects of the programme in great detail. Geoff was conscientious and scrupulous in his work, always aiming at the highest achievement standards.

Geoff served as a committee member and for some time as Chairman, of our Alumni Association. I doubt that he ever missed an event. He enjoyed the idea of keeping in touch with, and sometimes helping out, former colleagues, very much. Even after he left the committee, he often volunteered ideas and help, such as photos from the great old days of CTT. And, being a good player himself and maintaining excellent fitness, he ran the CTT tennis tournament every year until recently.

Geoff will be missed for many reasons and by all in CTT who worked with him. No doubt he is now in a good place, with his beloved son Mark. Our deep condolences to his wife Sheila and his daughters Lisa and Jane

(A few more images related to Geoff are at https://www.netsso.com/visitordocs )

all / News / People Posted by admin 27 Jul 2020 / 0 comments

Become a Member of this site

This web site has c. 90 signed up memebrs, all of them also members of the CTT Alumni Association. This means that app. 100 members of the Association are not signed up members here, so…you are invited to join!

To join, just register at “CTT members Register” , upper right side of this page. Later members can login in the Login area lower right side

The benefits are not great, to tell the truth. But every three posts or so, you will get an update notification straight from the website itself. Also, you will have the right to comment at the end of posts in the Comment box (To find it, double click the title of the post and see it open in a new window with Comment at the bottom). Also, you will have the right to submit a Guest Post, over your name, subject only to Editors review of legal aspects

PS: Links from this server are not working well currently so links from the current posts must be displayed on the Netsso.com server, as you will see.. We’re trying to fix it or make new arrangements.

all / People / Technical Posted by admin 27 Jul 2020 / 0 comments

The Age of Video

The covid lockdown put the kybosh on the Alumni Programme of events and outings for this year (- so far, anyway), so the committee decided to check out the possibility of continuing communications in the cyber sphere, via video

Its been going very well. Marjorie McHenry has been doing programme management and John McGuire is video master, using the Zoom from his dining table. There have been two sessions so far, with 12 in attendance at the first and 16 at the second. I think John’s Zoom is limited to 12 at any one time, but that can be increased if the regular demand grows beyond that. (PS: The next session will be Tuesday 28 July at 4.30 Dublin time)

The tentative plan at the moment is to have one “all comers” Alumni session- that is, for anyone, any purpose, once per month. Marjorie will send out the date for that each month and anyone who would like to participate then sends his or her name to Marjorie or John, so that John knows who to send the meeting link to, usually the day before the session.

But there is also an idea, under development- or at least discussion- to have sessions for specific purposes, for example “regional” meetings- for example, any staff who served in Dusseldorf- or chat groups for particular agendas, such as…(pure examples !)… experience of doing consultancy in Bosnia,…trade mission to Bordeau for investing in this seasons grand crus…or…anything.

If you have any ideas about that, or just any ideas.. then please let the committee know, by emailing Marjorie, or John or Frank or (if you have become a “member” of this blog), just send your thoughts in the “info-box” at the bottom of this post. You’ll find that when you double click on the Title of this post and open it in its own window. (To join as a member- very quickly- see the link in the upper right side of the Home page, in red). (Only members can comment/reply)

all / Culture / News / Technical Posted by admin 22 Jul 2020 / 0 comments

Apologies

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I have two Word Press sites on a server in a hosting data centre. This one and my own blog BrianODOherty.ie. Both have been on the blink for over two weeks. I am told the problem. related to Word Press updating, it seems, is now fixed (but I think I will seek another host anyway). It means the next two posts have been delayed

Apologies, especially to avid readers, both of you

Brian