Analog Devices’ Successful Start-up in Limerick

In 1976, despite the reservations of some corporate board members, Analog Devices began operations in a small SFADCO advance factory unit in Limerick with a start-up team of 13 people – among them the author of The Future Years, Pat Cunneen.

Today, Analog’s Limerick wafer fabrication facility is one of the most important success stories in the company’s 50-year history. It employs over 1,200 scientists, engineers, production and support staff in one of the largest, most successful, most technologically advanced campuses in the country and has achieved a sustained stream of world-class innovative new products, profitability, and growth. In his Afterword for this book, Analog Co-founder Ray Stata reflects that “the Analog Limerick story vividly illustrates what is possible against all odds”.

With its consistently high levels of added-value employment, investment and growth, Analog has been hugely important to the economy of Limerick. In turn, the Limerick campus has been the source of extraordinary talent, hugely important to the continued global success of Analog Devices Inc., and has been a ‘jewel in the crown’ of the IDA as it regularly showcases Limerick’s success with its leading-edge technologies and advanced manufacturing processes.

Pat Cunneen’s story covers the first dozen or so years of the start-up, recording and celebrating the success of all the people who worked in Analog over those early years, including those sadly lost along the way. It touches on the technology and operational challenges, the vibrant sports and social environment but, mostly, it is a story about people.

The Future Years is an important contribution to the industrial history of Limerick – and Ireland – over the past half-century.