Tyrone Crystal

Tyrone Crystal is a hand made Crystal manufacturing company in Dungannon, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, which has an international reputation of producing fine quality Crystal products.

Glass making in Tyrone has a history going back as far as 1771, when Benjamin Edwards founded a company in county Tyrone Northern Ireland. Tyrone Crystal was set up two hundred years later in 1971, by Father Austin Eustace to create employment in the Dungannon area of Co. Tyrone in N. Ireland. There was not a lot of unemployment in the area at the time and nobody in the area knew anything about making Crystal. Therefore an advertisement was put out in a national newspaper to find someone who could train people in the area. Luckily enough two Austrians (a master blower and a master craftsman) were hiking across England and read the advertisement and came over to train the employees. Trainees began practicing on glass jars and bottles until the became skilled enough to make crystal on their own and they set up a glass blowing shop in Dungannon.

In 1988 the company was awarded an ISO 9000 for quality — the youngest glasshouse in the British Isles to gain the recognised standard. A new factory, built in 1990, is also a tourist attraction. Tyrone Crystal acquired Tipperary Crystal in 2000 as part of an investment plan that spent £500,000 on a new visitors' centre that opened in 2001. To this day Tyrone Crystal still makes Mouth Blown hand crafted Crystal sold to discerning buyers across the world, and one of the original master craftsman from 1968 is still working in the factory today. The tour is as unique as the Crystal and an art worth seeing, taking up to 40 minutes to view and talk with the craftsmen on site.

[http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2001/06/24/story573012928.asp Sunday Business Post article "£500,000 visitors' centre opened at Tyrone Crystal" (retrieved 14 September 2006)]

ee also

* Edinburgh Crystal
* Waterford Crystal
* Hermann Trophy

ources

External links

* [http://www.visitnorthernireland.com/opencontent/default.asp?itemid=64&section=Attractions Tyrone Crystal Visitor Centre page on the Visit Northern Ireland website]