*Vitalograph test technicians Rose Enright with Noelette Hartigan.
The Clare Echo is delighted to partner with Vitalograph on a series of articles exploring the history and ethos of the trailblazing company which celebrates 50 years in Ennis this year, employing more than 300 people in Clare and 550 worldwide
VITALOGRAPH today employs more than 300 people in Ennis including test technicians, cough analysts, engineers, data analysts and production operators to name a few.
Despite its exponential growth in that time some 50 years after the respiratory diagnostic solutions company opened its operation in Ennis Vitalograph continues to uphold its values as a family-oriented business where career growth opportunities are abundant for its employees.
Some 38 years ago, Kilmihil native Rose Enright began her journey at the Gort Road Industrial Estate facility as a temporary production operator before becoming a test technician, as part of a small team who test the lung function testing devices before leaving Vitalograph for medical facilities around the world. There she met Noelette Hartigan, from O’Callaghan’s Mills, who has now been her col- league for 28 years.
“There was a great bond,” recounts Noelette. “We used to go on a lot of nights out and we created nights out at times and got ourselves into a lot of trouble. We used to go for lunch every day, in our half hour we managed to pack a lot in. “I could tell you about a group that went to a funeral here one time and we had arranged a night out after and they failed to show up, they got lost coming home from the funeral in the nearest pub, Rose was the driver,” she laughs.
Rose has fond memories of the Vitalograph team bonding over the great Clare teams of the ‘90s and Ireland’s 1990 World Cup journey. “The soccer, with Packie Bonner when they won we all got dressed up. Management had a television upstairs and we were all allowed up to watch them matches during the daytime and they used to have finger food in. It was such an atmosphere, even you got off early to watch the games, now that wouldn’t happen now I’d say, but it was great. That was that time,” Rose reminisces.
“Some of the nicest people you’d ever meet have left, that’s the sad part. We probably have shed a few tears with people who left. You spend longer with them than you do with your own family at home, it’s sad in that sense but it’s great that you have good memories after it. It’s relaxed, we can talk, you’re not tied to your table. We’ve done lots of nice nights out and lots of nice hobbies,” adds Rose, who discovered her love of playing golf at Ennis Golf Club through working with Vitalograph.
Noelette’s time at Vitalograph has been so fulfilling that in January, she opted against retirement and committed to another year at Vitalograph. Having initially been hired as a temporary worker, one of her funniest memories of Vitalograph was mistaking her manager for a cigarette vending machine operator, at a time when smoking was allowed on the factory floor. The irony of smoking being permitted at a respiratory diagnostic solutions company is not lost on Noelette and Rose.
Rose takes up the story, “When I started first we were allowed to smoke on the production line, it was cool to be smoking at the time. We used to have the vending machine for the cigarettes. At the time the role of manager had changed and Frank Keane had taken over. You know with these vending machines, money was going in and getting stuck, so Noelette said ‘we’ll keep an eye out and see when the man will be in again to fill the machine and we’ll get our money back’.
So, none of us really knew who Frank Keane was and next thing Noelette spotted this man walking up the floor to where the vending machine was and she goes ‘hey you, are you the vending machine man, we have money lost in the machine!’ I won’t say what he said to her and what kind of a face he had on! He wasn’t very happy being associated with a vending machine and he the manager of Vitalograph,” she laughs. Rose says that today there are much stricter policies in place, noting, “you have to be nearly a quarter of a mile away to smoke.” However she ad- mits that one thing that has never changed is the support staff receive from their employer.
“The atmosphere in Vitalograph has always been good, very friendly and family oriented. We all get on pretty well and everybody works with each other. Even our supervisor, line lead, if we need time off on short notice, there’s never been an issue. I think it works both ways, when your company works with you, you work with your company. I can honestly say I never say I hate coming into work and I never mind putting down my hours and for that reason I’m happy at Vitalograph.”
Noelette adds, “Sometimes, when the chips were down they took care of you like family.”
Cooraclare native Seán Chambers joined Vitalograph in March, 1991, not long after Packie Bonner’s World Cup heroics. The production operator works in the manufacturing of Vitalograph machines that give oxygen flow readings to medical professionals which helps determine patient’s medication.
Seán remembers his first day in Vitalograph, working under managers John Casey and TP Healy. “I got a message one day to come and meet a manager by the name of Martin O’Connor and he said, ‘Seán, we have three weeks work, are you interested?’ and I said, ‘I am’. It’s been a long three weeks, I haven’t left since.”
There were nine operators in Seán’s department when he joined, a number which has since swelled to 35. He recounts,
“There’s been loads of funny moments, there is still a good sports and social club here. A lot of the stories, some of them we couldn’t tell… We had outings to concerts. I remember a crowd of them going to Joe Dolan one night in the West County, rest his soul, that was hilarious to see the reaction of some of the ladies who went down early to get front row seats!”
He adds, “Vitalograph is a good place to work, there are opportunities. It’s one of the main
employers in Ennis at this stage supplying local employment, and people coming into our country are getting opportunities as well to work in the medial spirometry field.”
For anyone interested in a career with Vitalograph please visit https://vitalograph.com/about/
