M&P O'Sullivan Ltd 100 Years

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Red Abbey Tobacco Factory, Mary Street, Cork
Paddy O’Sullivan, who proved himself to be an early-day shrewd and astute entrepreneur, travelled to
America to study the techniques of growing and processing tobacco. It proved to be a profitable crop for
farmers who participated in it in the late 1920s and early 1930s. There was no duty on Irish grown tobacco
and the duty became the profit. In 1927, Paddy O’Sullivan investigated the idea of establishing a tobacco
factory in Cork and built a tobacco and snuff manufacturing plant in Mary Street. A year later, The Irish
Times on the 30th September 1928 carried the following news on the visit to the factory of President of
Ireland W.T. Cosgrave, who was a representative in the Dáil of the Borough of Cork from 1927 to 1944;
New Industry in Cork
Tobacco Factory Opened
“The occasion was a luncheon given by Messrs. M. and P. O’Sullivan to mark the opening of their new industry in
Cork, the Red Abbey Tobacco Factory. The function was presided over by Mr. Sean French T.D. and the attendance,
which represented the shades of opinion, included Mr. Barry Egan, T.D.; Mr. R.S. Anthony, T.D.; Senator
Haughton, Mr. Frank J. Daly, Chairman, Cork Harbour Baoard; Mr. T.P. Dowdall, brother of Senator Dowdall,
and several other well-known business men in the city. A letter of apology for non-attendance was received from
President Cosgrave.
Mr. Egan proposed the toast of ‘The Trade and Commerce of Cork’. Having congratulated Mr. O’Sullivan on the
enterprise and courage that he has shown in starting his new business at the present period of depression. Mr. Egan
said what the whole country was suffering from at the present time, was under production. Too much attention, he
said, had been paid to the distributive side of the business, and not sufficient to the manufacturing side. It was only
by the introduction of such enterprises as Mr. O’Sullivan’s that they would see the transformation of Cork and the
gradual lessening and disappearance of unemployment in their midst.