cloth is still made, people in the wollen trade throughout t h e world refer to the many imitations, with a white backgrnund and mottled weft as Donegal tweed-in a sense of tribute to the fame and name of the genuine arti~le. In the early part of this century a lot of the genuine tweed was being made in Donegal in the cottages thr~ughout the country. Unfortunately there was no real supervision of quality and with a good demand there was a growing tendency not to keep the standard of quality as good as it should.. The tweetl was brought to the marke:~;;. and faks. usually in cree~s on the back of a donkey and there sold to one of a fe:w firms engaged in the export and marketing of the tweed. The firm of Magee, in Donegal town, which is now one of the two 'Qig firms engaged in the indus~ry, b:hg:ht tweed like th!s, as far back as 1860. The difficulty however was that while the majority of the weavers made good cloth, sometimes a bad weaver would make cloth not up to standard and if this was exported it tended to give the tweeds a bad name. even if it wa:s only one ba-d p:iece in o.. consignment. Mr. Robert Temp\€, a· Donegal man himself,. entered the firm of Magee in 1887, the original Magee being a cousin of his, and be-- came owner of the firm in 1901. He seen real'.sed that if the Donegal tweed indusfry were to survive all the handweaving must be dGne . . under supervision and, ·therefore, tock steps t ::> gather Rome of th~ hcl't Wl~nvcrs arounrl him 1h .his own factory and to send out yarn only to the good w,eave"·s in tile cottag,es, all cloth made being careful"'.y examined in Donegal. That this was the right po~icy was proved by the fact that while the Donegal tweed industry diminished greatly ar:·.er the first world war, Magees have continued to '"'eave tweed all through this difficult period, and today export their cloths in increasing quantities all over the ·world. Mr. Robert Temple, now chairman of the Compa:iy, in his 84th year still takes an active interest in the products of his firm and is regarded as one of the grand old men of Donegal. It was always :his policy to regard the employees of the firm as friends and many years ago when such a thing was uncommon he introduce:i a form of bonus or profit -"·haring. His rnn, Mr. H. L. Temple, M'an.ag.ing nireotor cf the firm, firmly belie:·£~ ~n the same policy. Magees regard service and value as being essential con~ ditions for success in business. A staff pension fund was ino c·" duccd a couple of years ago and was received with .great enthusiasm by the staff. Mr. R. Harris is Production and Export Manager and regularly visits the various Export Markets au·over the world. Last autumn he visited Ame!·lca and Canada and as a result of his visit Magees have been able to increase the amount Of employment they give. A substantial number of cottage weavers have been taken · O"n. A new weaving centre has been opened by them in Gle~~olum'b'killc nrnl work has
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