In 1947, Czech immigrant Charles Bacik, grandfather of Irish senator Ivana Bacik, established a glassworks in the city. Skilled crystal glass workers were not available in Ireland so continental Europeans were used. Assisted by fellow countryman and designer Miroslav Havel, the company started operations in a depressed Ireland. By the early 1950s it had been taken over as a subsidiary of the Irish Glass Bottle company, owned by Joseph McGrath (Irish politician), Richard Duggan and Spencer Freeman of the Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake, who were heavy investors in Irish business at that time.