Mini assembly in Ireland - info needed

[jonpressnell]

Hello There!

Thank-you all those who have contributed information on Irish-built Minis - much appreciated.

I have done some more digging, and have just spoken to the chap who was Stand-Triumph and then BL’s man in the Republic.

He says that BLN (the amagamated Briitains and Lincoln & Nolan) lost the job of assembling BL cars in the wake of a nine-month strike – an event that did BL's sales enormous harm.

A deal was then done whereby assembly of Minis passed to Reg Armstrong - stories about his involvement thus seem to be correct.

Armstrong apparently assembled Minis for about two years. It is not clear whether this continued until Armstrong’s death in a car accident – or whether assembly stopped earlier.

Now, the question is this: can anyone put any dates to this sequence?

Further question – if I can contact Alec Poole I should have the answer - is whether both the Riley Elf and the Wolseley Hornet were assembled by Booth Poole.

Any thoughts on these points, anyone?

Best wishes

Jon Pressnell

[Billy]

Will check out some books on Irish car production I have later. Saturday morning child shuttling duties have to come first.

Billy