Anna, in Co Wicklow and Rose, in Limerick, were both the proud owners of beautiful Irish made doll prams.



Castle Brand, Nenagh. Irish Aluminium Company. Castle Brand is a tributary reference to Nenagh Castle.
Photo credit. Brendan Treacy, Nenagh. With thanks to Tony Tierney.
The Irish Aluminium Company Ltd‘s first factory was established in 1934 by a number of local businessmen who had been struggling to find a way of offering employment to a town that had had long been suffering the ill affects of the 1930s global depression. Their names: Messrs. ODriscoll, Flannery, Cassidy and Flynn of the Nenagh Industrial Development Association.
Simon O’Duffy on a brief history of Castle Brand:
https://www.independent.ie/news/a-brief-history-of-castle-brand/27439155.html

The second pram label reads Clonmel. Our research is ongoing. Do get in touch if you have any information.
email: mmcallister@museumofchildhood.ie

“Rose was given the dolls’ pram for Christmas sometime in the mid-1960s by her godmother, Callie and Callie’s husband Earl (who was Berney’s brother). Callie recalled buying it in Todd’s in Dublin.

“The Great Freeze of winter 1962-63.* Here I am again in the garden in the snow with the Clonmel doll’s pram.” Rose
The pram seemed remarkable at the time because it looked just like a miniature version of the real old-fashioned pram in the house. Well-loved but still mostly intact, with original rainproof hood and cover, plus added bedding and dolls, it’s similar to the Silver Cross model, but it’s labelled “Clonmel” only. There seems to have been a pram factory in Clonmel until its destruction by fire in the early 1970s but I have no idea if the pram is actually Irish-made.
In any case, the pram housed many generations of dolls over the years, including the current occupants:

• Mairead, whose eyes opened and shut and who has alas lost a leg. Rose’s maternal grandmother, Essie gave Mairead to her, having bought it in McBirney’s Toystore in Dublin. Essie died in 1964 which means that Mairead is about 60 years old (in 2023)
• the doll in in the gold dress: Rose had two aunts (who were Sisters of Mercy) living in Australia and they sent toys from there, including a koala bear and this doll
• Seaside Dolly whose hair was plastic and who suffered the indignity of having hair glued over it, which didn’t stick
• A blonde doll in blue clothes with a bonnet.”


The Winter of 1962-1963 was one of the most prolonged and brutal of winters. Statistically, it was the coldest winter of the 20th Century in Ireland and was dominated by dry, cold, easterly winds from Europe. Although a few heavy snowfalls had occurred during the season, it was not a particularly frequent occurrence. Snow that did fall though, tended to stay on the ground for weeks on end, due to persistently low temperatures…