"The centre is a unique, theatrical experience, " says owner Joe Queenan. "We have mannequins that move around and audio visual displays in English and in four foreign languages. The oldest machines on display date back to 1923 and the most recent was made in 1997. You come through the door and you see the loom working and the cloth coming off it. You can see furniture covered in examples of that cloth. Ninety per cent of what we sell here are impulse purchases.

You can buy a sofa for 1,800, or a scarf for 15. One big attraction is the thriving restaurant. It's hugely popular with local people. That's down to Maureen Leonard who's passionate about the food she serves to her customers."

For over a century the Foxford brand was synonymous with tartan rugs and blankets. "It wasn't Irish at all, " Queenan says. "It was robbed from the Scots and the company quickly became associated with the look. I remember in 1999 it struck me that this traditional product had become tired. The dynamics of the market had changed. People had become more design aware. So we took a gamble. We took on Helen McAlinden, a designer from Belfast. And we gave her free reign to throw out all the old well-loved designs and to do her own thing. Now we have a totally new product range. What we're trying to do is create the wardrobe for the bed. We manufacture mainly bed linen, duvet covers and pillow cases. Our products have clean lines with an obvious Scandinavian influence. If you look at our items and think where you'd come across similar designs you'd recognise the typically Scandinavian minimalist look."

Foxford Woollen Mills currently has five stores, one in Foxford, one in Westport, another in Dungannon and two in Dublin. The company has an expanding overseas market and exports to England, the Netherlands, North America and Japan.

Joe Queenan was born just a few miles from the mills which were set up by the Sisters of Charity in 1892 . While he is enthusiastic about the newly refurbished centre and optimistic about the direction his business is headed, he admits that it hasn't always been plain sailing. "In 1987 the Mills closed down. I was an accountant working for the receiver. My brief was to find a buyer who would retain the Mills as a going concern.

I couldn't find anyone. I'm a romantic at heart and when I looked around me at all the history in the place I thought what a shame it would be to let it all go. The place has its own energy and I think I was inspired by that.

"With a grant from the Business Expansion Scheme we set up a new company and bought the assets from the receiver. I was buying it off myself in one sense. I was young and naive. The economy was in bad shape. I think it was the enthusiasm of youth that kept me going. We had to start from scratch providing the traditional product the company was famous for."

The visitors' centre opened in 1992. For a number of years it attracted upwards on 100,000 visitors per year before numbers started to fall off in the late nineties.

Upgrading facilities at the Co Mayo centre has involved extending floor space from 5,000 to 14,000sq ft.

"In 1999 we were at a crossroads. We looked at the business and wondered about winding it up. Rural tourism was under threat and we were suffering. The only positive aspect to emigration was that people would come back here as tourists. Traditionally, tourists flew into Dublin or Shannon, hired a car and spent three weeks touring the country. And all the tourist locations got a crack at the market. Cheap flights have changed the market.

Short-stay visitors arrive at different airports and only tour within those environs.

On top of that, the gra for the Auld Sod isn't what it was.

"But we've managed to cope with those changing trends. Now we get people coming from Dublin and from along the east coast to visit the centre, as well as from the north and south of the country. For us, the Irish are the new Americans."