M&P O'Sullivan Ltd 100 Years

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interest in sports such as G.A.A., coursing and road bowling. He was the Chairman of the Cork Athletic
Grounds Committee and went with the Kerry footballers to America in 1933. He was also President of the
Northern Coursing Club for a time.
Paddy O’Sullivan, keen to develop his business, diversified into tobacco manufacture. Between 1800 and
1914, the importation, production and marketing of tobacco in Ireland, was increasingly dominated by a
few large firms. The production of tobacco and snuff was one of the oldest industries in the city. It was
in Cork that the second tobacco factory in Ireland was established, the first being in Dublin. Circa 1770,
Messrs. Lambkin Bros founded their tobacco and snuff factory, behind their retail premises overlooking the
Great Canal, now known as St. Patrick’s Street. In Cork, it was in the year 1832 at 69 and 70 South Main
Street that Mr. William Clarke, founder of the firm of William Clarke & Son, began the manufacture of
tobacco and snuff. After thirty years, the firm moved to Rocksavage, Cork and in 1872, the firm established
works in Liverpool amongst the Irish population.
Up to 1850, roll tobacco and snuff were the only local manufactures, but in the early decades of the
1900s, the home demand turned towards Plug tobacco. In addition to the plug and Irish roll, smoking
mixtures, cigarettes, and other tobaccos, also gave extensive employment. Messrs. Dobbin Ogilvie & Co.’s
Cordangan mixture, which was a blend of Irish grown tobacco from Lord Barrymore’s estate at Cordangan,
Co. Tipperary, with American and other growths was in popular favour, not only in Ireland as far away as
India. Lambkin’s Tipperary and Exhibition Mixtures obtained a wide popularity. Tobacco was also grown
in select areas in West Cork. In the early twentieth century, there were about seventeen specialised tobacconists
in operation in the city. Though the chief market for the Cork tobaccos was of course, the south of
Ireland, there was a considerable trade with all parts of the country. During World War I, Cork factories
exported large quantities of mixtures and plug tobacco for the War Office, to the various expeditionary
forces. The Irish tobacco industry processed twelve per cent of UK output at a time when Irish population
was under ten per cent of the UK total. Practically all the leaf for the tobacco manufactured in Cork came
from America. The spring frost in Ireland meant that tobacco could not be grown in the country. The
tobacco leaf was imported in 100lb Hessian Bales mainly from Malawi, Brazil and Kentucky. M. & P. had
a rep called Bill Sommers in Malawi who bought the year’s requirements at the annual auctions. It was
shipped to Ireland and stored at Cork Bonded Warehouse and duty paid as required.