This book represents a 150 year review of biscuit manufacturer, Jacob's. Starting with a brief history of the Jacob family and their Quaker background, the book follows the firm from its initial base in Waterford, to Peters Row/Bishop Street in Dublin, through the factory fire of 1880, expansion abroad and the 1913 lockout (sparked, incidentally, by a lockout in Shackleton's Mill in Lucan) and the 1916 rising. Later events include the merger with Bolands in 1966 to create Irish Biscuits, the move from Bishop Street to Tallaght and the takeover by French Group BSN Danone.
This book, amongst other things, shows some of the less pleasant sides of Quaker philosophy, including an incident involving a halfpenny which gave rise to the following lecture "halfpennies make shillings, shillings make pounds and that is why I am sitting where I am and you were standing where you are" and that of Ireland generally, with the dismissal of unmarried women for pregnancy, a practice which can only be described as un-Christian.
A concise chronology of significant events on the company's history complements this worthwhile publication.