I'm A firm believer that people make places. We all interact and carve a niche for ourselves in society. In a sense, we are all part of the spokes of the wider wheel of life. This article is about an important spoke in the wheel of life in Co Cork, the O'Mahony family who lived in Berrings, Co. Cork.

The research started off more or less as a blank canvass with the story of a motor company to begin with but soon the search blossomed into a search for an entire family. The tools and colours to paint the full picture are based on a number of interviews with relatives, and friends of the family, mass cards, family photos, family objects, street directories, census documents, property valuations, insurance maps and the journey of detective work.

The O'Mahony name belongs almost exclusively to West Munster, the great majority of Mahony and O'Mahony births being registered in Co. Cork. However, in 1852 in Richard Griffith's Valuation of land for the Berrings area in Co. Cork note that James and Richard Mahony owned approx 350 acres of land between them. The land seems to be divided up over the later half of the nineteenth century because in a County Directory of Cork for the Berrings area in 1886, the principal land owners are listed as Denis Mahony, James P. Mahony and Jeremiah John Mahony owned. I have not ascertained the relationship between persons in 1852 and 1886.

We do know that in the late 1800s, Patrick O'Mahony, a farmer in Berrings married a Miss Margaret Scanlon. The census of 1911 notes that their family comprised nine children. The eldest was Richard (born 1887), then there was Peter (born 1889), Paddy (born 1891), John Patrick (known as J.P. and Jack and born in 1893), James (born 1895), and Mary Ellen (born 1896), Leena (born 1899), David (born 1901) and Joseph (born 1907).

A sister in law through marriage of Patrick O'Mahony was Julia O'Herlihy (nee Reen). Julia and her husband Timothy O'Herlihy from Kilmurray amassed an extensive fortune in India through the hotel business in the late 1800s. They owned a number of hotels, one of which was in Darjeeling. They also built up a range of business contacts. The wealth amassed by Julia Herlihy found its way back to Cork. In 1914 she formed the Universal Motor Company and bought the huge site of 40-42 North Main Street or the old St. Peter's Market site, which backed back to Cornmarket Street. The business had associated sites for showrooms on the Grand Parade (now the site of the tourist site). There were also storage sites in Rochestown and Carrigtwohill. Julia's mother was an O'Mahony and when Julia died in 1917 she bequeathed the business to her nephew John Patrick (J.P.) O'Mahony. John Patrick carried it on as a mercantile business and was also involved in the coach building trade.

The business became the first Ford Garage in Cork before Fords came to Cork in 1917. The Ford car was known as the 'universal car' so hence the name of the business Universal Motor Company. The Company advertised samples of the cars in the Cork Examiner in 1922 when a chassis cost £105, a runabout £120, a touring car £128, a delivery van £130, a ton chassis £145, a ton truck £170, a ton van £175, a cope £215 and a sedan £240. The company also shipped the famous Ajax tyres in all sizes from New York directly to Cork.