celebrate your history as a book, audio or film

In 1920, William McMullan, an apprentice chemist, and his brother JG McMullan registered a new business in Dublin that sold and distributed lubricating oil and paraffin. Following an alliance with one of the country’s foremost hauliers, McMullan Brothers fortune was greatly boosted in 1921 when, on the eve of the partition of Ireland, they became the sole distributor of a popular petrol called Mex Motor Spirit across the thirty-two counties.

By the close of the 1920s, the company had one of the largest truck fleets in the country, and twenty-three fuel depots. Known today as The Maxol Group, the family-owned business is now one of the biggest energy providers in Ireland, and a global leader in terms of food innovation and convenience retail on the forecourts of its 237 service stations.

Maxol’s pioneering stamp can also be found in matters of distribution, publicity, welfare and green energy, as well as in the gas industry, where it was integral to the success of both Calor and Kosangas. 

The company has enjoyed a long history as a patron of multiple sports and sporting events, with a particular fruitful focus on the ‘all-Ireland’ sports of amateur boxing, rally driving, rugby and the GAA. A constructive, cross-border outlook also enabled Maxol to complete a successful integration of its northern and southern management teams in the 1990s, providing an inspirational blueprint for other companies seeking to do likewise. 

Replete with episodes of brilliance, ingenuity, serendipity and success, this sweeping book tells Maxol’s fascinating story from the formative years of the McMullan family through the drama of global wars, oil crises, political conflict and economic hardship to its present-day responses to climate change, Covid 19 and technological advance.  

Adare Manor has always been remarkable. Its story began eight centuries ago when the original manor was granted to a Norman knight while a substantial monastic community was established on the nearby riverbanks. 

From the seventeenth century to the 1980s, Adare Manor was home to ten generations of the Quin, or Wyndham-Quin family, including the seven Earls of Dunraven.

In 1832, the 2nd Earl and his countess, Lady Caroline, started work on a new Gothic Revival mansion; the project was completed thirty years later by their son Edwin, the 3rd Earl. An equally impressive project got underway in 2016 when the present owner initiated a meticulous conservation of the existing mansion, along with the construction of a new wing. 

At the same time, the championship golf course at Adare Manor was thoroughly redesigned by Tom Fazio with the specific goal of hosting tournaments.  The course will host the Ryder Cup in 2027. 

In  2019 Adare Manor won the  Condé Nast Traveler Reader's Choice Award for European Resort, retaining a Top 10 position in 2020. The Oak Room was awarded a Michelin star in 2019, while the Adare Manor sommelier won the inaugural Sommelier Award for Britain and the UK at the same ceremony. Adare Manor has been named as Ireland's Leading Hotel at the World Travel Awards for three years in a row, 2018, 2019 and 2020. It was also voted Ireland's Favourite Hotel at the Irish Independent Reader Travel Awards 2020.

The book was designed by John Power and edited by Yvonne Gordon, winner of the Travel Extra Irish Travel Journalist of the Year award in 2017 and 2019. 

Turtle Bunbury’s book traces Adare Manor’s wonderful journey from medieval manor house to its 21st century status as a shimmering 5-star hotel.

In 1869, Thomas Weir, a Scottish jeweller, moved to Dublin to establish what would soon become one of the biggest and busiest jewellery and silverware manufacturers in the city. Based at 3 Wicklow Street, the store subsequently expanded around the corner into a fabulous Victorian redbrick block at 97-99 Grafton Street.

150 years after Thomas Weir’s arrival in Dublin, Weir and Sons continues to be run by his descendants, Chris, Lucinda and Natasha Andrews, who represent the fifth generation of the family. 

This celebratory book tells the story of the Weir family from their Glaswegian origins to Thomas’s rise through the ranks of Dublin jewellers and onwards into the twentieth century when his charismatic sons and grandsons built the business up into one of the world’s largest privately-owned chains of jewellery stores on the eve of the Second World War. 

Offering a behind-the-scenes insight into the romance and ingenuity of the jewellery, silverware and watch trade, the book features cameos by actresses such as Grace Kelly and Rita Hayworth, as well as connections to the brilliant philanthropist Sir Isaac Wolfson and the political icon Michael Collins. It also explains the origins of the Liam McCarthy Cup, the All-Ireland Senior Hurling trophy, and the Dublin Horse Show’s famous Aga Khan trophy.