HISTORY OF BELLEEK

The History of Belleek begins, like most great things in Ireland, with the potato. It was duriing the potato famine that land owner ---- looked to the earth to provide an alternative source of employment for his tenants. The concept of Belleek was initiated after getting his land surveyed, and finding it to be mineral rich To create the company the original owner took three years to establish the pottery. He then orchestrated the construction of a railway to bring coals that would heat the kilns. The porcelain can be identified by it's charactaristic thinness and slighlty irridescent surfaces. Historically it was the mastery of this highly refined ceramic technique in that initially made the company famous in the 1920s. Preceding this, there was a short period within the history of Belleek during the first and second world wars when the primary focus of Belleek was to produce earthen ware. However, swifly following post war industrialization the refined ceramic techniques re-imerged bolstered by the addition of electric kilns.