The Maxol Story: Recent Episodes
Turtle Bunbury Histories
Founded in 1920, the family-owned Maxol Group is one of the biggest energy providers in Ireland. In this podcast series, historian Turtle Bunbury charts a story of ingenuity, adversity and fortitude from the earliest years of the McMullan family through global wars, oil crises and economic hardship to the present-day challenges of climate change, Covid 19 and technological advance.
The last of the original depots are phased out as a new generation of award-winning service stations begin to appear across the island. The company rides out the economic recession and turns its attention to green energy options, while Covid 19 rears its head just as Maxol prepares to mark its centenary.
The company pushes into third place in the race to be Ireland’s largest petrol retailer with the ‘Deal of the Decade’ and a renewed focus on retail. A transformative restructure creates the Maxol Group, while a reunification of management from ‘north and south’ becomes a corporate blueprint.
Maxol breaks free from Shell and launches a rebrand media blitz with new colours, a massively successful advertising campaign (Free a Nipper!) and some immaculately timed sporting sponsorship. Importing fuel into Drogheda and rationalisation are among the way to confront the Mandatory Regime and Price Control.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland, two major global oil crises and a glut of domestic strikes piles on the pressure as the next generation of McMullans take the helm. The company homes in on improving stations, staff and trucks, while a new venture in central heating is launched.
The Maxol brand is born in an age of newness from forecourts, pumps and trucks to strategies and uniforms. Drivers such as Billy ‘True Gel’ Murray and Rasher Halligan assert their rights at the East Wall depot while the death of the Boss paves the way for new management in Northern Ireland.
The boom strikes but the McMullans face severe pressure from the multinational oil giants and the solus system. The advent of diesel and a joint venture to establish Kosangas help save the day. Global politics comes into play with crises in Iran and the Suez leading to the birth of the Whitegate Refinery.
With Europe decimated by war, McMullans finds itself swallowed up by government ministries on both sides of the Irish border. The Boss takes a new wife, as do his two oldest sons, while everyone waits patiently for a post-war boom.
The oil industry rides out the Great Depression as McMullan’s stalwarts like the mysterious Major McMahon, Wimbledon champion Jean Borotra and golfing great Cecil Ewing make their mark. Shell pile on the pressure but a new generation of McMullans is coming to the fore.
McMullan Brothers is born into a world of pogroms, riots, partition, and civil war; the directors hold their nerve and are running the biggest motor fleet in Ireland by the mid-20s. There are pay-rises all round but the relationship between the McMullan brothers reaches boiling point.
Remarkable ties with Michael Collins, the tragedy of the Somme and the evolution of the motor car industry form the backdrop as we follow founding father William McMullan from the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup Race through to his ingenious contract with the Anglo-Mexican Petroleum Company at the end of the Great War.
A sensational bigamy trial and a historical interest in kelp are among the tales told in this first episode, which explores the back-story of the McMullan family from the plantations of the 17th century through until the birth of Maxol’s founders.