'A rapid day': Rural Limerick town hits front page of New York Times

A SERIES of interconnected events has led to a major international newspaper featuring Askeaton on its front page.

The international edition of the New York Times, carried an extended feature of the sad closure of the Nestle factory in Askeaton and the loss of almost 500 jobs to the local economy, and used a photograph of the factory as the picture splash on its weekend edition of October 18 to 19.

Headlined ‘A Formula for Prosperity Sours’, the piece by journalist Alexandra Stevenson, focused on the aftermath of the devastating announcement made by the infant formula manufacturer in late 2023.

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Carmel Ryan, the manager of the town’s tourism office recalled meeting the reporter - who is based in Hong Kong - plus her husband alongside photographer Paulo Nunes Dos Santos, who were en-route to a family event in Cork.

Taking up the story, Carmel explained how Ms Stevenson - who is the Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times - stopped by Askeaton to get a feel for the town in the wake of the factory closure.

The party of three ran into Carmel unexpectedly when they were looking for a toilet - so Carmel allowed the use of the facilities in the tourist office which she runs.

There, they struck up a conversation.

“I mentioned my dad worked there and then the questions began. Within 30 minutes, we had set up interviews for her with the Community Council represented by chairman Jimmy O’Donoghue, the Cois Sionna Desmond Credit Union represented by Patrick Ranahan, local trader Sean Moran, and Cllr Ger Ward representing the Adare-Rathkeale municipal district,” she said.

Carmel also put Ms Stevenson in touch with retired former councillor Kevin Sheahan, the local Parish Priest, Fr Seán Ó Longaigh, and many current and former workers of Nestle, which was known as Wyeth.

The upstairs room in the Askeaton tourism office was utilised for the interviews, many of which featured in the 1,500-word long article.

“It was a bit unreal,” Carmel admitted to Limerick Live. “It was a rapid day - like we were in a parallel universe or something!”

After the day of reporting, Carmel said Ms Stevenson joined locals in the pub for a few drinks, and pledged to remain in touch.

She did not expect for a minute that Askeaton would feature on the front of the New York Times international edition, sold in more than 160 countries across the world.

“Alexandra said she was writing the article. We thought it might be the Chinese edition, because she lives in Hong Kong - because we are so well up on these things,” Carmel laughed.

“I said to everyone, we’ll probably never hear another word.”

It was actually spotted on the newspaper’s front page by Olivia Leslie, the Irish ambassador to Ethiopia, who shared a picture of page one with a friend from Askeaton.

Since then, Carmel says she has had about 20 copies of the front page sent to her via WhatsApp - and is working on getting a number of the actual newspapers themselves.

For now, the article can be read online at https://shorturl.at/hgvtA