HENRY FORD, the inventor of assembly-line production of motor cars, famously said: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants, so long as it is black”. But there was a flash of green about the Ford Motor Company yesterday as Henry’s great grandson, William Clay Ford Jr, was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and awarded a certificate of Irish heritage, signed by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan.
Mr Ford is executive chairman of the company, and a very rich man. "Call me Bill," he greeted guests at the luncheon for 250 Irish-American business people, hosted by Niall O'Dowd's Irish Americamagazine*.
Mr Ford’s great, great grandfather fled famine in Ballinascarty, Co Cork in 1847. Mr Ford visited the town, with its lifesize stainless steel Model T, for the first time in August. “It’s something our family has been very proud of, and something we’re acutely aware of,” he said.
A century ago, Henry Ford built a factory in Cork, which over the years employed more than 25,000 people. Ford still has offices in Cork, and dealerships in Ireland, but the plant shut down in the 1980s. Asked whether Ford would reinvest in Ireland, Mr Ford said, “Some day, maybe again. But the whole European market right now is obviously in difficult shape. We are just going to have to weather this storm first.”
Henry Ford “changed the world” with the assembly line and the $5-a-day wage, Mr Ford said. His speech echoed today’s debate about corporate greed: “In the time of the robber barons, my great grandfather insisted on reinvesting and sharing profits with workers ... He was told he was a socialist, that he was not welcome on Wall Street.”
In 2006, Mr Ford “mortgaged the family name” to to save the company without a state bailout. It has been profitable for 10 quarters. “It’s our combative Irish heritage that got us through tough times,” Mr Ford said.
Noel Kilkenny, Ireland’s Consul General in New York, used the experience of Irish immigrants as a parable for present hardship.
“This time last year we were bailed out by the IMF and the EU,” he said. But like the forebears of the Irish-American business leaders assembled, “we in Ireland have discovered what you knew all along: you have to knuckle down and work very hard. We take pride in you, and I would like to think that you will take pride in us.”
* This article was re-edited on (20/12/2011) to correct the omission of the host’s name. The omission occurred in the original editing process.