Fig.59 View from the docks, c.1950

In 1927 the Free State Government established a new semistate body (the Dairy Disposal Company) to regulate and rationalise the industry. The new governmental body took control of the Condensed Milk Company noting that the factory must not be allowed to become derelict and recognizing the importance of maintaining the operation of the site for the processing of milk.76 The Cleeves name continued with the manufacture of sweets adjacent to the main milk processing factory. The Dairy Disposal Company company operated under State control until the early 1970s.

In this period the operation of the site began its managed decline. The buildings were adapted to suit the operation of the factory with new buildings arising ad hoc. The engine house was first extended to the west, and then to the south; sheds were built up against the wall of the north circular and the weaving mill appears to have had a new roof stretching over a wider footprint. A number of smaller accretions also appear. (Fig.55) The post Cleeve’s period offers little to no significance to the history of the site or its purpose. By the 1970s the Government decided to break up the Dairy Disposal Company and transferred ownership of creameries to a number of local farmer cooperatives. By 1974 the Condensed Milk Company was sold to one of these, Golden Vale, a subsidiary of the Kerry Group. In this period larger changes occurred to the buildings, all of which appear to have accelerated the decades of managed decline since 1927. Although there has been no sight of specific records of changes to the construction on the site in this period it is thought that the buildings to the North Circular were largely demolished with those remaining substantially altered. The building over the infiltration gallery appears to have received a new roof. (Fig.55)

The final remnant of the original family business, Cleeve’s Toffee, continued until 1985 when the company which had purchased the brand was liquidated. It is around this time that the large building on the shipyard site that had been home to the Cleeve’s brand for the longest period of any at the site was demolished. The construction of the new ‘Shannon Bridge’ which commenced in 1985 had a huge impact on the

76 The Munster News and Limerick and Clare Advocate, Saturday, April 23rd 1927.

Fig.55 Aerial photo of Site, 1955 Fig.57 Construction of Shannon Bridge, 1985