Don Bluth in Ireland/ How Don Bluth influenced the Irish animation industry

A former Disney employee, Don Bluth and other animators left the house of mouse and set up an animation studio called Sullivan-Bluth
Studios in Van Nuys, California with the help of businessman Morris Sullivan. It was in Van Nuys where they helped Steven Spielberg make
An American Tail with Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. During production however, Sullivan moved the studio to Dublin, Ireland.
Why? Well, he wanted to take advantage of the government investment and incentives that the Industrial Development Authority
(IDA) offered. While most of the staff from the US Studio joined the new one in Dublin, most of the recruitment was mainly from Ireland and as a result, Ballyfermot College of Further Education set up an animation course to train new artists. Sullivan-Bluth made 8 films (despite the first one being made before the actual studio's founding) including All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Land Before Time and Thumbelina. Although the studio shuttered in 1996, it influenced Ireland's animation industry with former employees of Sullivan-Bluth starting studios of their own like Brown Bag Films and Monster Animation while one employee, Gerry Shirren went on to become managing director at the Kilkenny based animation studio, Cartoon Saloon which is known for Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea.