 During his study at Umprum, he interned in a glass factory in Světlá nad Sázavou owned by Karel Bacik.Bacik, who was losing control of his business as the Communist takeover progressed, migrated to Ireland, made plans to set up a glass factory there, and in 1947 sent for Havel to supervise the technical aspects of the factory.There had been a glassmaking factory in Waterford in the previous century, but as nothing was left of that tradition, Havel created a production process from scratch, recruited skilled craftspeople from traditional glassmaking areas of Europe, set up training and apprenticeship programmes for Irish personnel, and designed new product ranges.