A-Infos (en) Top Oil - Resistance #21 / AF Ireland

[Al S <klasbatalemo@yahoo.ie>]

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The company which re-fuels the American military at
Shannon is called Top Aviation Fuels. This is a
subsidiary of Top Oil, a sub-section of Tedcastle
Holdings, part of the business empire of the Reihill
family.

Top Oil also trade in domestic heating oil, have
filling stations, and, jointly with Londis, operate a
franchise convenience store chain called Londis
Topshop with about 120 shops on both forecourts and
highstreets (some of which are company owned, some of
which are franchise). 

The other wing of the empire is called the Reihill
Venture Capital Group, and consists of two investment
companies: Trinity Venture Capital and Hibernia
Capital Partners Limited. Collectively the Reihill
companies were listed by Business Plus in August 2001
as the fifth wealthiest Irish based business. 

Addresses

Principal addresses associated with this group of
companies:

Ted Castle Holdings HQ, Dunleary House, Dun Laoghaire,
Co. Dublin.

Hibernia Capital Partners Ground Floor, Beech House,
Beech Hill Office Campus, Clonskeagh, Dublin 6,
Ireland

TOP Lubricants, Dublin Industrial Estate, Glasnevin,
Dublin 1 

TOP Dublin, Promenade Rd, Dublin 3  

TOP Cork, Riverview Business Park, Mahon Ind Est,
Blackrock, Co.Cork
 
TOP (Western Region), The Docks, Galway.     
 
TOP Kilkenny, Hebron Industrial Estate, Kilkenny.
 
TOP Waterford, Canada Street, Waterford. 


Indroducing the Fatcats

Investors in, and members of the advisory council of,
Hibernia include (amongst others): Mr. John
B.McGuckian, Chairman of Ulster Television and former
Chairman of the Industrial Development Board for
Northern Ireland, as well as being a director of AIB
plc, Unidare plc, Irish Continental Group plc; Mr.
Denis Murphy, Chairman of St. Patrick?s Woollen Mills
and Swansea Cork Ferries; and Tony Smurfit,  (CEO of
Smurfit Europe), plus John Bolger formerly of Aer
Rianta International, British American Tobacco,
Forzani?s Locker Room, Simmons Drilling and KPMG (the
later being the company that advises the government on
privatisation).

Corporate investors in Hibernia include: Bank of
Ireland Asset Management, Standard Life (Ireland),
Norwich Union (Ireland), Friends First (Ireland), J P
Morgan (Chase),  and the beautifully named Graphite
Capital (Foreign & Colonial), amongst others. 

More friends of the Reihill family include former Fine
Gael leader Alan Dukes and Senate leader and former
Fine Gael TD Mary O?Rourke, both of whom addressed the
Londis Topshop Retailer Conference, which took place
on Monday 7th October 2002 in Radisson Hotel, Galway.
  
Gillian Bowler, a Director of Tedcastle Holdings is
also a director of the VHI, Chairman of Budget Travel
Ltd, President of the Institute of Directors and a
Director of Irish Life & Permanent plc. As well as
being formerly Chairman of The Irish Museum of Modern
Art and  formerly a member of the Independent Radio
and Television Commission (and current member of the
forum on broadcasting). If that wasn?t enough she also
holds a directorship with Grafton plc. This company
owns innumerable plumbers and builders suppliers and
the D-I-Y chain Woodies. 

Interesting to note that the Reihill?s business
partners include: (after the most basic examination)
the boss of UTV, a boss of radio and television in the
south, and a former boss of KPMG - who have done work
for RTE and the Leinster Leader newspaper group in the
recent past. Not to mention Londis - who you quite
possibly buy your newspapers from. 

Direct action

In the days after war starts there will be a reaction,
thousands will be on the streets. There already is a
genuinely national anti-war movement, the likes of
which quite possibly has never been seen before in
this country, on this issue. As it grows, it can light
candles, it can wave placards, or it can take action.
Imagine the impact if that reaction spent its energies
targeting the many interests of the  Reihill family
and their associates. If we want to build a movement
which empowers people through direct action and has a
direct impact on the war machine, what better target?.
As it stands only a tiny segment of the anti-war
movement are ever going to take ?autonomous actions?
at Shannon. A larger, but nonetheless small number,
will participate in the mass direct actions at
Shannon. That is not to say that such actions are not
necessary, nor is it to say that potentially more and
more people will become involved in them. However to
reach out to include in direct action many people new
to activism; to develop the skills and confidence
*ourselves* for further actions at Shannon; what
better way than to make local actions, picketing,
occupations, boycott posters, whatever, against Top
Oil (for starters). Furthermore the local level
anti-war reaction will take place, but with what
shape, with what form?  The movement grows in
Tullamore, Manorhamilton,  Newry, the question is -
will it be a movement of protest or resistance?    

******************************************************

>From the pages of Resistance #21, regular monthly
bulletin of the Anarchist Federation.

To subscribe, send a blank email to:
ResistanceIreland-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To distribute in your area, contact us at:

contact@afireland.cjb.net

http://www.afireland.cjb.net

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