Carroll's

Patrick James Carroll (b. 1803) completed his apprenticeship as a tobacconist in 1824 and opened a shop in Dundalk, later also manufacturing cigars.{{cite news|url=http://www.dundalkdemocrat.ie/dundalknews/Carroll39s-Factory-The-Carroll-and.4724139.jp?articlepage=2 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130217214830/http://www.dundalkdemocrat.ie/dundalknews/Carroll39s-Factory-The-Carroll-and.4724139.jp?articlepage=2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 February 2013 |title=Carroll's Factory: The Carroll and Burns associations |last=Bellew |first=Seamus |date=26 November 2008 |work=Dundalk Democrat |accessdate=20 February 2010 }} He moved to Liverpool in England in the 1850s. His son Vincent Stannus Carroll expanded the firm in the later 19th century. His son James Marmion Carroll moved to a house outside Dundalk. A second factory was opened, in Liverpool, in 1923. The company went public in 1934.

A purpose-built factory opened in 1970. Designed by Ronnie Tallon of Michael Scott and Partners, it was described by the journalist Frank McDonald as "way ahead of anything else in Ireland at the time".{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0222/1224290502270.html |title=Dundalk relights fire in former factory |last=McDonald |first=Frank |date=22 February 2011 |newspaper=The Irish Times |accessdate=22 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224040113/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0222/1224290502270.html |archivedate=24 February 2011 }} In 1974, to mark the 150th anniversary of its founding, P.J. Carroll published an illustrated booklet by the writer James Plunkett: P. J. Carroll & Co. Ltd, Dublin & Dundalk - A Retrospect, outlining the development of the company in its historical context.

Carroll's was acquired by Rothmans in 1990; Rothmans was acquired by British American Tobacco Plc in 1998. The company's share of the Irish tobacco market is around 17%. In 2002, the Dundalk site was sold for €16.4m{{cite journal|date=6 May 2004 |title=Carroll's cigarettes – a burnt out case? |journal=Business and Finance |location=Ireland |url=http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=450&n=471&a=1789 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721122856/http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=450&n=471&a=1789 |archivedate=21 July 2011 |df=dmy }} to the Department of Education and repurposed for the campus of Dundalk Institute of Technology. Carroll's rented back a small section for its remaining factory operations, until finally ceasing its Dundalk operations in 2008. Carrolls remains an Irish company with deep connections to hundreds of retirees and nearly 40 staff based in their Dublin offices.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

In 2013,{{cite news|title=Bill to outlaw tobacco lobbying defeated in Seanad|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/bill-to-outlaw-tobacco-lobbying-defeated-in-seanad-1.1632311|first1=Marie|last1=O'Halloran|first2=Michael|last2=O'Regan|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=19 December 2013|accessdate=9 September 2020}} some lawmakers suggested PJ Carroll should be prohibited from speaking with lawmakers on the basis of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). PJ Carroll comes under the definition of {{cite web|title=Article 5.3 FCTC|url=http://www.fctc.org/media-and-publications-20/media-briefings/industry-interference/718-article-53-framework-convention-on-tobacco-control-tobacco-industry-interference|publisher=WHO|accessdate=21 January 2014}} Tobacco Industry as set out by the FCTC, but the FCTC does not prohibit engagement between tobacco companies and public representatives, but puts in place strict rules relating to transparency.

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• "Carrolls Number 1", its first filter cigarette, was launched in 1958.
• "Carrolls Additive Free* Red" and "Carrolls Additive Free* Blue" was launched in 2013 as additive free* cigarettes started to gain popularity across Western Europe. (*No additives in the tobacco blend does NOT mean a less harmful cigarette){{cn|date=April 2022}}
• "Pall Mall" is also one of PJ Carroll's brands.{{cn|date=April 2022}}
• "Vogue" is PJ Carroll's "premium" cigarette brand.{{cn|date=April 2022}}
• "Major"

Of international brands, Carroll's manufactured Rothmans and Dunhill and distributed Winfield, and Lucky Strike{{cn|date=April 2022}}

• "Sweet Afton", launched in 1919, was named after "'Afton Waters" by Robert Burns, whose sister Agnes was buried in a graveyard opposite the old Carrolls factory in Church Street, Dundalk. Sweet Afton cigarettes were discontinued in the Autumn of 2011.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

Carroll's was a major sponsor of sport in Ireland until restrictions were imposed on tobacco advertising. The company had naming rights over the GAA All Stars Awards (1971–78);{{cite news|url=http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/claremuseum/news_events/rewarding_cream_of_crop.htm|title=Riches of Clare: Rewarding the Cream of the Crop|last=Mc Donnell|first=Fidelma |date=23 July 2004|work=Clare Champion|accessdate=20 February 2010}} and Irish showjumping horses of the 1970s and 80s, such as "Carroll's Boomerang".{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.ie/sport/show-jumping-mourns-paul-darragh-276749.html|title=Show jumping mourns Paul Darragh |last=Parkes |first=Louise |date=5 January 2005|work=Irish Independent|quote=by the mid-1970s [Paul Darragh] had joined Eddie Macken to compete under the banner of the tobacco company PJ Carroll in a sponsorship deal that ran for 12 long and very successful years. |accessdate=20 February 2010}}

In golf, Carroll's was the sponsor of several professional tournaments including the Carroll's International (1963 to 1974), the Carroll's Number 1 Tournament (1965 to 1968), the Carroll's Irish Match Play Championship (1969 to 1982),{{cite news |title=P. J. Carrolls sponsor £2,000 match-play |newspaper=Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal |location=Leinster, Republic of Ireland |date=21 February 1969 |page=3 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002330/19690221/031/0003 |via=British Newspaper Archive |access-date=2 June 2020 |url-access=subscription}} and most notably the revived Irish Open from 1975 to 1993.{{fact|date=September 2020}}

{{reflist}}

• {{official|http://www.pjcarroll.ie/#}}

{{British American Tobacco}}

Category:Tobacco companies of Ireland

Category:Companies based in Dundalk

Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1824

Category:British American Tobacco

Category:1824 establishments in Ireland

Category:Irish subsidiaries of foreign companies