Sunday, January 11, 2009

"It is of major strategic importance that this company not be allowed to slip into oblivion."

-- Jack Walsh, mayor of Waterford, Ireland, on Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the maker of classic china and crystal, after it filed for bankruptcy protection last week. Walsh worries that closing the crystal factory would be a cultural and psychological blow to all of Ireland, calling the product an iconic Irish brand and the plant one of the country's top tourist attractions.