When Greystones Nearly Became A Microchip Mecca

agnabbit, the whole town would be dot.com millionaires by now if it had all worked out…

Then again, we could be just another bunch of ex-Nixdorf sad sacks, dragging our broken dreams around behind us on a string.

The fact is, we’ll never know what would have happened if American computer giant Advanced Micro Devices Inc had gone ahead with their plans to open up a major plant in Greystones back in 1985.

With their net revenue for last year hitting a tidy €4.27b, there’s a good chance that the Sunnyvale, Californian giant would have brought quite a bit of money to the town.

It certainly would have brought quite a few jobs – almost 1,000, according to the blaze of PR that came with the January, 1985 announcement of AMD’s arrival to Greystones.

By the 18th of November, RTE News were reporting that a dip in the market had put a pause on the 88-acre factory. Initially, that pause was meant to be a few months, but, talking with Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s spokesman Andy Rothman, reporter Charlie Bird quickly learnt that the delay would actually be more in years than months.

Jonesy!

So far, it’s been 32 years. Wicklow Planning said they’d make a decision by Tuesday.

Also featured in the report is the dynamic and sophisticated John Bruton, then Minister For Industry, as well our own local Fine Gael man on the street, George Jones. Who was important enough to be singled out as ‘unidentified man‘ by RTE.

In many ways, Greystones was saved an ugly fate by AMD going AWOL, large-scale factories tending to be not a blot on the landscape,but also the community. Especially when they go belly-up once the tax breaks dry up…

For more RTE Archives coverage of Greystones, you can catch the 1989 international angling competition report here, 75-year-old Pat Kehoe take his leaving cert in 1985 here, and the start of the new school year at David’s and Brigid’s in the same year here.