Frank Curran – A Lifetime in the Irish Motor Trade | Season 6 – Episode 44 (Part 1)
Wheels May 15, 2026
Here on Ireland Made – Stories of Irish Transport, we continue to collect and preserve the stories that shape our transport heritage. On a cold day in January 2026, Galway man James Francis “Frank” Curran welcomed us into his Dublin home, where he shared the story of a working life that began in the Irish motor trade in the mid-1950s.
From his early days as an apprentice mechanic in Galway to his move to Dublin, Frank worked with Denis Mahony and P. R. Reilly, took part in the assembly of Panhard cars and later spent two decades as a lecturer in Dublin Institute of Technology. Now aged eighty five, his recall for people, places and events remains sharp, offering a detailed and personal insight into a changing industry across generations.
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ABBEY SERVICE GARAGE
To begin his working career, James Francis “Frank” Curran attended the Technical School in Galway. On December 23 1955, at just 15 years of age, he started his apprenticeship at the Abbey Service Garage in Galway.
As Frank recalls, the garage was a state of the art, newly built premises on College Road. There was also a sister garage in Tuam, with both operations run by the Clarke brothers. Dennis Clarke managed the Galway branch, while his brother John oversaw the garage in Tuam.
Both the Galway and Tuam garages were dealers and agents for a wide range of marques. They handled Rootes Group products including Hillman, Sunbeam, Singer, Humber, Commer and Karrier, along with Mercedes Benz cars.
They were also agents for General Motors vehicles such as Vauxhall, Bedford and Chevrolet, as well as Allgaier Porsche tractors, which were assembled just over the County Tipperary border in Borris-in-Ossory, County Laois.
BORRIS-IN-OSSORY PORSCHE
The Allgaier-Porsche tractor emerged from a late-1940s partnership between Allgaier, a German agricultural-machinery firm and Porsche. Ferdinand Porsche had designed a tractor in the 1930s, but production stalled until after the war. Allgaier adopted Porsche’s designs and built tractors featuring Porsche’s air-cooled single or twin-cylinder diesel engines to a “System Porsche” design.
In researching our previous story, “Heard the One About the Porsche Assembled in Laois – It Was a Tractor | Season 2 – Episode 27,” we uncovered how tractor production began in Borris-in-Ossory.
The story starts with an Irish civil engineer working on the Caledonian Canal in Scotland, who was searching for an alternative to water-cooled tractors, as such machines were prone to freezing in cold winter temperatures. His search led him to Porsche tractors, which proved reliable in these conditions.
He subsequently contacted Porsche to secure the rights to assemble the tractors in Ireland. Having succeeded, he established an operation in Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois, assembling CKD (Complete Knocked Down) tractors.
The factory operated between 1950 and 1965, with tractors sold across Ireland, the UK and as far afield as Iceland. The large house and yard on Main Street, where the tractors were assembled, later became the Grand Hotel and the Royal Ballroom, a venue famous for showbands, was run by the Reynolds brothers, Albert and Jim.
The tractor models Frank encountered were the AP11, AP22 and AP33. He recalled that there was also an AP44, though he never saw one during his time working in Galway. These models were noted for their simple operation and multi-speed gearbox, while Porsche introduced an oil-hydraulic clutch to allow smoother shifting. Produced until 1955, these orange-red machines later evolved into the Porsche-Diesel range under Mannesmann.
A PORSCHE FOR IRISH FARMING
The company sold quite a few of these distinctive tractors in Galway and the surrounding counties. However according to Frank there were several problems with the Allgaier-Porsche tractor in relation to Irish farming. Firstly there was no thresher pulley or roller on the side of the tractor which buyers did not notice until it came to what is known in Ireland as meitheal time (the traditional harvest time and a cooperative, communal labour system), taking place from late July to mid-September, with the peak of activity occurring in August.
During meitheal stacks of corn had to be fed through threshing machines and a tractor was needed do drive the belt to power the threshing machine. These machines were typically made by the Allen Brothers from Scotland or Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies from England. And according to Frank; “the fella with the Allgaier Porsche tractor was no use to them”.
As Frank recounts, in their case they had to order up the services of Patsy Ruane who had a Fordson TVO Major tractor. This type of tractor was in those days on ‘irons’ – iron wheels as there were no pneumatic tractor tyres until the 1930s. Patsy was the man who connected up the belt to the thresher and milled the corn.
Another issue that arose with the Allgaier Porsche tractors was the exhaust system. They were originally imported with the exhaust coming down from the engine and trailing out the back. On the AP 11 1 model in particular, the exhaust discharged beneath the bell housing, meaning that when the tractor was stationary, the driver could end up inhaling the fumes.
It was something that clearly had to be addressed. The rear trailing exhaust also posed a risk after hay cutting, as it could easily ignite the dry grass. As a result, various makeshift solutions began to appear, with people fabricating different manifolds to bring the exhaust up vertically.
Frank recalls that, as an apprentice, he was fortunate to work alongside a mechanic from Ballycastle, County Antrim, named Johnny O’Brien. He had a reputation for being a bit of a genius. One day he said, “Frank, I have just realised all we have to do is turn the manifold upside down and the pipe will go up.” And that is exactly what they did.
The Allgaier tractors were fitted with a fluid flywheel, something also found in many American cars of the time. It is similar to a torque converter, but simpler in design, with just two elements an impeller and a turbine and no stator.
The idea behind it was that the driver would not need to press the clutch when coming to a standstill. Instead, you could simply apply the brake and the tractor would stop and start again in any gear, with the fluid flywheel effectively catching up.
However, Irish farmers were not used to this system. Out of habit, they continued to use the clutch, often slipping it to build up speed. As a result, clutches were burned out on a very regular basis and it proved difficult to re-educate drivers on how to use the fluid flywheel correctly.
Bringing Part 1 of our interview to a close, Frank simply remarked, “that’s it in a nutshell.”
In Part 2, we will look at how Frank serviced these Irish assembled Allgaier Porsche tractors and explore the rest of his career in the Irish motor trade.
Check out our previous video story “Heard the one about the Porsche assembled in Laois – it was a tractor | Season 2 – Episode 27” : https://fb.watch/GNLNMjFUGA/
If you have an idea for a story, please email Kevin Reid [email protected]
Sources of Information, Photo, Video & Music Credits:
All music and sound effects used in Ireland Made – Stories of Irish Transport are royalty free and are fully licensed through Epidemic Sound. Ireland Made – Stories of Irish Transport therefore holds the legal right to use this audio material within its productions under the terms of the Epidemic Sound licensing agreement.
Handh Auction House
Irish Farmers Journal
Photograph – David Boden
Skehana & District Heritage website
The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Tractors
Vintage Tractors website
