Booth Brothers – 190 years of bike selling, coach building & car assembling in Dublin | Season 2 – Episode 75

Over the months we have posted individual stories about selling bikes, coach building and car assembly but Booth Brothers did it all in Dublin. While researching a variety of recent stories we noticed the Booth Brothers name appearing.

What was most interesting is how long they were in business and the wider range of transport related activity they were involved in. They were even linked to the Dunlop family of pneumatic tire fame who supported Booth Brothers during a financial crisis. Booth Brothers had a very long history of engineering in Dublin going back to around 1830s when they made hand tools. They made hand planes, saws, chisels, parts for tools and mechanised tools such as lathes.

They started out on Golden Lane in 1830 and moved to 63 Stephen Street Upper around 1860. From 1860s they were making mechanical tools like treadle-powered lathes. Booth Brothers were mentioned in the ‘The Irish Builder ‘ newsletter in 1883 and described as an “old established Dublin firm’ which supplies planes for carpenters, cabinetmakers, coopers, and other wood-workers. Secondly, mitre-cutting machines for picture-frame makers and joiners, and also corner cramps for same.” In the same newsletter in 1897 they were advertising they could supply circular saws, mill saws and band saws.

The Stephen Street Upper address was also the location of the Dunlop tire factory and one of the Booths was on the Dunlop board of directors.

At this time Booth were also a cycle and agricultural implement agents. In 1888 they ran into some financial difficulties. Together with Harvey Du Cros, then president of the Irish Cyclists’ Association, Dunlop refloated the business of Booth Brothers, as the ‘Pneumatic Tyre and Booth’s Cycle Agency’. Branches in Belfast, Cork and Limerick in addition to Dublin were established.

It appears that Booths were drawn into the auto industry through their involvement with Dunlop’s who supplied tires for cars as well as cycles in the 1900s. This included coach work for cars as at this time cars were often supplied as a chassis, with an engine and related controls. Booths had the Wolseley Irish franchise from an early stage.

One fine example of this was a 1912 Wolseley 16/20 which is described as having a “versatile coachwork design which can be fully closed or fully open in the rear.” This all-weather Cabriolet bodied car is said to be well-known in Wolseley-circles. The seats were “trimmed in Bedford cloth while those in the front are in buttoned black leather.” In the pictures we have seen the rear seat upholstery and interior covering looks like the most luxurious couch you could sit in today.

While a well-established business the Booth Brothers were not above the suspicion of the authorities during the War of Independence. The National Archive has a report from the Dublin Metropolitan Police detective department which lists an inspection of a box of Booth Brothers hardware that had just been imported to Ireland. In our video we also see one of their trucks being stopped by heavily armed Free State troops around 1920.

At this time the grandson of the founders Thomas Cyril Booth was apprenticed in engineering and worked his way through all departments of Booth Bros. The importance of Booths as a Wolseley assembler was illustrated by Edwin Booth attending the 20th anniversary banquet of the companies foundation in the Savoy Hotel London in 1922.

The factory on Stephen Street Upper burnt down in 1935 and Booths moved to a premises on the North Circular Road.

With the rise of Government import duties on fully assembled cars in 1938 Booths began to assemble MG cars. These vehicles were received as completely knocked down (CKD) kits including chassis and engines from MG’s factory in Oxfordshire. Irish-made parts such as the glass, seats, tyres and battery were added as required.

Around this time the afore mentioned Thomas Cyril Booth became Managing Director in 1945. He was joint MD with relative Lionel O. Booth who later became a Fianna Fáil TD for twelve years, from 1957 to 1969. More recently a Booth assembled MG from 1952 was featured on RTE’ TVs ‘Nationwide. programme in 2021.

Around 1954/55 Booth Brothers merged with W.F. Poole Ltd., the Morris Commercials assemblers. This entity assembled Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley cars with Cyril Booth as the MD. This business closed in the 1980s and the Booth name disappeared from Irish commercial life.

Sources of information:
Archive.org
Boards.ie
Bonhams.com
Completecar.ie
Dublinforum.net
Gracesguide.co.uk
Nationalarchives.ie
Prewarcar.com
Repositorio.ul.pt
Web.archive.org
Worthpoint.com