DUBLIN, Ireland — Waterford Crystal, a glittering icon of Ireland, announced last week it will lay off most of its Irish work force and move its factory production overseas after losing a six-year battle to boost sales, cut costs and control debts.

The company didn't say where the work is going but already has contracted much of its production to a manufacturer in Slovenia.

The company said that about 125 employees in Waterford will remain once 280 specialist workers, chiefly involved in blowing and hand-cutting lead crystal, are laid off in coming months.

Officials said the Waterford plant — one of Ireland's top tourist attractions with an estimated 300,000 visitors annually — will become an almost exclusively tourism-focused operation. They said dozens of craftsmen will continue to produce specialty pieces, including trophies and ornaments.

At its height, Waterford Crystal employed 3,200 people in Ireland at two plants but has steadily lost its luster here since 2002. Its smaller plant shut down three years ago as executives began subcontracting production to plants as far away as Brazil.

Waterford's ability to produce profitably in Ireland has been shattered by rising competition, particularly in Eastern Europe, changing consumer tastes that increasingly relegate crystal to impractical anachronism, and perhaps above all by chronic weakness of the U.S. dollar.