In the early 1970s, driven by an overall increase in needs for raw materials – aluminium in particular – the Alcan company established an alumina production plant in Aughinish near Limerick. But why build a plant costing several hundred million pounds in the middle of the Irish countryside, in Aughinish, on the Shannon estuary? The mystery deepens when we consider that the Republic of Ireland lacked raw materials (good-quality bauxite, sodium hydroxide, abundant and cheap energy), outlets (a smelter), expertise in this field or even a highly developed industrial sector. But in the context of an increasingly international aluminium industry and the enlargement of the European Economic Community (EEC) – with the accession of Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark in 1973 – setting up an alumina production plant on the west coast of Ireland was not as absurd as it might have seemed.