Making a difference

Having started work young, in the family removals business in Ireland, Aubrey McCarthy’s career has grown into something far bigger. Drawing on the connections he made through moving, and his passion and energy for helping people, he has built a network of charitable initiatives tackling homelessness and addiction – and has now entered politics. FIDI Focus Editor Dominic Weaver meets the busy mover, social entrepreneur and recently elected Irish Senator

You might have thought being the Managing Director of AMC Removals – a mover, based in the Republic of Ireland, that carries out everything from small domestic moves to high-end and diplomatic relocations – would be enough to occupy even the most ambitious of businesspeople. However, Aubrey McCarthy has a mission that expands far beyond running the Dublin- and Kildare-based firm – but it is a mission that has certainly been inspired by the moving industry.

Motivated by the people he met as a mover over the past two decades, McCarthy has established a still-expanding charity empire across Ireland, supporting people affected by homelessness, addiction and abuse. The work has earned him recognition and awards, including Irish Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year last year, and began a journey that, at the start of 2025, led to him being elected to the Irish Senate.

McCarthy describes his early family life as ‘fairly chaotic’, with him and his siblings the subject of parental custody battles for some time. ‘It was a crazy set-up,’ he says. His father, Denis, was a cattle farmer in Cork and Kildare in the 1950s, but started to use the business’s trucks to transport antiques. He eventually switched entirely to this side of the business, shipping precious items for high-value clients and laying the foundations for what, today, is Dublin- and Kildare-based AMC Removals.

Theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was an early client of the business – but the job hit a snag when dry rot was discovered in the large property that Lloyd Webber was buying. McCarthy, however, took the opportunity to expand the firm’s services beyond moving. ‘We had to take all the furniture out after we’d put it in,’ he says. ‘It needed to be stored, but my father didn’t do any of that, so I hired a warehouse and I started from there.’

While he was still at college, McCarthy began renting trucks – including, initially, a coal truck – and hiring staff at the weekend to carry out domestic moves of his own. ‘I put an ad in the Leinster Leader (the local paper) and the first person to call was a lottery winner,’ he says. ‘I was 16 and still at school, so my mum took the message.’

He started working antiques fairs, and advertised the truck going to the UK and back. Eventually, he bought his first truck – a three-and-a-half tonne Mercedes Luton – and began operating as efficiently as possible.

‘To save money, rather than going from Dublin port (in Ireland) to Holyhead (Wales), I used to drive to Belfast and [after crossing on the ferry] drive down to London. I’d leave at six o’clock in Kildare and the next day be in London at one o’clock lunchtime,’ he says. ‘I started to earn decent money from the moves, so I said “well, I’ll keep this up”.’

McCarthy continued with his education, however, earning a business degree and Master’s qualifications in strategic international finance, strategic international marketing and French, and then theology – all while building up his company.

Word of mouth meant it wasn’t long before McCarthy’s fledgling business was moving some of Ireland’s wealthiest customers – with clients including billionaires Denis O’Brien, Tony O’Reilly and John Malone. ‘If you look at the most expensive house in Ireland each year, we’ve usually moved it,’ he says.

‘This isn’t about us targeting wealthy people as customers – it’s just that the moves we offer are high-quality moves.’ This goes for all AMC Removals’ moves, he adds, and the company carries out many private relocations, as well as providing storage and self-storage services.

Amazing people

In addition to a solid client base, the business fosters long-term relationships and loyalty with its staff. ‘I always invest in the guys I have,’ says McCarthy. ‘From day one, I’ve sponsored loans for people who want a car, or mortgages, and I had a pension system for them way before they were popular. Because I’ve been loyal to them, I think a lot of the guys would take a bullet for me, which is phenomenal – I wouldn’t get that by going to a recruitment agency.’

A keen sense for who will make a great staff member has helped, too. ‘My main logistics person, Kayleigh, came on a trainee scheme – and, wow, she is fantastic; she’s like James Bond,’ he says. ‘I find that if I meet someone and look them in the eye, you can see who is a good fit and who isn’t – I see that in every one of the different areas I am involved in today.’

The removals business flourished and, crucially, says McCarthy, it meant he worked for people who went on to become repeat clients – and friends. One Aston Martin-driving client was so impressed by his move that he donated €100,000 for McCarthy to organise a roof repair at one of his charity’s premises.

‘Where else would I have met that man?’ he asks. ‘This industry has allowed me to meet the most amazing people – it’s happened to me a hundredfold in so many different ways.’

Through recommendation, McCarthy has also worked for many ambassadors coming to, and leaving, Ireland. ‘I’d meet them here and there, and they’d introduce me to the Mexican ambassador, for example, or the Spanish, German, or Croatian ambassador,’ he says. ‘I can say that all these marvellous connections all stemmed from the removals industry; it’s amazing.’ Recent diplomatic jobs include moving the Brazilian ambassador to Kazakhstan, and the secretary of the Brazilian embassy to Suriname.

For all the prestige of working for diplomats and high-net-worth clients, however, McCarthy’s passion has increasingly guided him to those at the opposite end of the social scale – people struggling with ‘life-controlling problems’.

Over time, relocation jobs brought him into contact with people in crisis and he felt compelled to help them; on an informal basis at first, but then with the foundation – in the early 2000s – of a charity, Tiglin (a Gaelic word meaning ‘our house’), that helps people tackle poverty, addiction, homelessness, and other issues. ‘I was making a good few quid from moving and I wanted to see if we could do a bit more from a society point of view,’ McCarthy says.

Different opportunities

‘I had started to meet people on the street who were in big trouble, with big addictions,’ says McCarthy. Realising the dire need for housing, he now partners with the Irish government’s Land Development Agency to provide homes for more than 400 previously homeless people, with more in the pipeline.

The charitable work also includes a mobile café – nicknamed the ‘No Bucks Café’ – which feeds people in need from a bus McCarthy bought and initially ran with his friend Phil Thompson, who is now Tiglin’s CEO. Both men have witnessed first-hand, in their own families, the devastation addiction can cause.

McCarthy also has the Lighthouse Café, which is open seven days a week from 8am to 10pm for homeless clients, and feeds up to 500 people a day.

This project brought opportunities to make a direct impact on people’s lives. ‘One of the first people I met was just an ordinary lad, Ger, who had come undone and was on heroin for 14 years,’ says McCarthy. ‘He’s now one of my key managers on the charity and housing side.

‘This was a sign that you can get people, give them a different opportunity, and change their lives. So that’s what I did, and I’ve done that for many years now.’

There are many, many other stories, including helping a young, addicted man kick his habit, start studying and, eventually, become a vehicle test inspector for Renault; or helping Ivan, and Allen and Jay Bobinac – three Croatian men who were living in a local park – get critical medical care, accommodation, and then an education. ‘Two of them now have two Master’s degrees,’ says McCarthy.

‘One of them is managing my homeless café, one is managing the charity’s communications, and the other is managing a centre of Ukrainians in Coolnagreina. I have always loved the quote by C S Lewis, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”.’

In May, Allen and Jay were given a Lord Mayor’s Award – alongside award-winning actor Brendan Gleeson, and others – to recognise ‘their outstanding voluntary service to the people of Dublin and their dedication to helping the homeless in our city’.

Under the auspices of the charity, McCarthy – along with the government doctor who deals with addiction – also bought the National Mountaineering Centre. Together, with Judge Gillian Hussey as patron, they formed a trust that now has nine rehabilitation centres around Ireland. Supported by Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, McCarthy secured €830,000 of funding for an educational pilot scheme that has helped 114 homeless, addicted people enter third-level college. Tiglin now has nine centres with overall running costs of more than €7m per year.

High-net-worth help

Relocation jobs with major businesses and individuals have very often helped McCarthy turbocharge the establishment of his charitable projects.

‘The moving industry is unique – it has allowed me to set up all these centres,’ he says. ‘I was moving the Intercontinental Hotels, for example, and they were renewing all their beds. They do this every four years, but the beds are Rolls-Royce quality and will last 50 years. So, I got all the beds for our centres from these moves.’

Other discarded, but beautiful furniture – from desks to wacky sofas – were acquired for the charity’s centres through moves for Twitter, Microsoft, the Central Bank, and other organisations. ‘When you come into the centres, you’re going to think that some designer has been in. Not at all; it’s from the moves. These clients worked with me to furnish them – which would have cost a fortune otherwise,’ says McCarthy.

‘Moving has meant I’ve been introduced to people in spheres of society that perhaps the average person would never be introduced to. These high-net-worth clientele have then realised what I do outside of work and ended up supporting it.’

This includes one wealthy individual who volunteered for Tiglin, but then located, bought and rented a property for the charity’s women’s refuge work – before signing it over to the charity entirely three years later.

In addition to setting up another personal venture – a furniture destination store and restaurant on the former family farm in Punchestown – McCarthy has launched numerous initiatives under the charity (his personal website shows the impressive array), including a bakery and coffee shop that is now self-sufficient.

The projects give employment, community and purpose to countless people in need, but McCarthy says: ‘The people I went to help, my God, they’ve helped me more than I ever helped them. That’s always been the trajectory of what I’ve done.’

Although not overtly religious, McCarthy is propelled forward by a deep kind of faith. ‘To me it’s very simple,’ he says. ‘I’ll step onto that stage if you then do the rest, knowing that there “is a captain on the bridge”. I often think of the example that we learned at school of Jesus, which is timeless and universal. It is to enter the world of those who suffer, to make a difference to their lives and so bring hope where there is despair.’

Passion and energy

With such verve and tangible impacts on people’s lives, McCarthy was a natural candidate for politics. In January this year, he was elected – as an independent candidate, representing the Dublin University constituency – to the upper house of the Irish parliament, the Seanad (Senate), a role that boosts his capability to help disadvantaged people significantly.

‘I was asked would I run for senator, and I thought what the heck, let’s see what that involves,’ he says. ‘I sort of did it blindly and was up against all the political parties, with just my team of lads I’d met on the street canvassing for me – and I won.’

In addition to passion and energy, McCarthy says working with great leaders across his varied business, charitable, and now political projects is essential. ‘I have four key people at AMC, and every Monday morning at eight o’clock, we have a meeting and discuss every inch of the past week,’ he says. ‘I then tail it off with the manager on Friday. So, I’m still involved – but good management helps it work.’

Now, at the age of 53 – and with some press articles even tipping him as a future Irish president – McCarthy remains as driven as ever in everything he does. Whether in moving, charity or politics, he is committed to making a difference and changing lives.