The History of Cleeve's

However the business suffered a massive decline once the war ended and the company went into liquidation in 1923. Such a change in its fortunes can be attributed to a number of factors:

• Thomas was no longer around to guide the business, having died in 1908.
• Once the war ended there was a huge slump in dairy prices and the price of milk fell drastically.
• Limerick was the centre of the most militant trade union activity around 1920 and Cleeve's being such a large employer were a primary target for the unions and as a result wage rates and production costs increased by large amounts.
• The Irish War of Independence saw many attacks by locals on the factory and creameries owned by Cleeves and considerable damage was done to the business by these actions with the Cleeves family being seen as staunch Unionists by the local population.
• Despite their close links with Britain however the business was also very adversely affected by the actions of the British Army in 1920 when they burned down a number of Cleeves key creameries.