Black Monday as AMD bubble bursts

November 1985

Monday, November 18, saw the end to many dreams and hopes of the people of Greystones.

Jobs for their unemployed young people, hopes for a boost to business in the town and the prospect of Greystones becoming a centre of a vital new industry all disappeared with the bombshell news that AMD was not coming to Greystones at this time.

On Monday, the County Manager of Wicklow County Council, Blaise Treacy, issued this statement:

‘Wicklow County Council have learned with regret that it is necessary for Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated to put the project on hold at this time.

‘ This decision is understood to have been reached due to a depression of the market and the increased competition from Japan and Korea.

‘Advanced Micro Devices were recently notified of the granting of full planning permission to which no third party objections were lodged with regard to the Greystones project.

Hopes were further dashed on Monday night when the 6 p.m. Newstime programme ran an interview between reporter Charlie Bird and Andy Rothman, a spokesman for AMD in California. Mr Rotham said that no factory would be built in Greystones until ‘ there was a full recovery in the semi conductor industry and resumption of growth in demand.’