November 18th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
The Book is Called “Putting Ireland On Four Wheels” it is being launched thursday (18th November) night in Corcoran’s Pub in Irishtown, New Ross.
Special Prominence is given to the Story of Motor Dealers and Garages of 1900 – 1920 and 1950 – 1960 in the South East.
Order Forms are available from, Irish Agricultural Museum, Johnstown Castle, Wexford. Tel 053 9184671 or email
info@irishagrimuseum.iehttp://www.wexfordpeople.ie/lifestyle/wheeling-through-the-years-30716026.html
David Tucker takes a look at Austin O’Sullivan’s new book about the history of Irish transport and likes what he reads
In his highly articulate, informative and interesting new book, ‘Putting Ireland on Four Wheels, A History of Irish Transport’, Wexford’s Austin O’Sullivan, known for his good works at the Irish Agricultural Museum, has turned to his other love for inspiration, anything with wheels.
Not that the book is restricted to wheels because Austin includes in its 400-plus pages reports of all forms of two- and four-legged modes of conveyance and tells how the 1798 Rebellion spurred the British government to develop our roads system to facilitate the fast transport of troops. In fact Austin makes the point that the (unusually straight) Newline Road between Wexford and the fort at Duncannon had just such a military purpose.
Port and boats, steam power, the railways and bycycles and motorcycles, of which he is an avid collector, and life before the establishment of the motor car all come under his detailed scrutiny.
‘For as long as the routes of communication between human settlements were only narrow, windind animal tracks, the movement of people and goods had to be on a small, local scale.. the more fortunate might have a donkey or a pony,’ says the author.
The next transition was to carts that could carry significant loads, with a Clydesdale able to haul a 2,000 pound load for 20 miles.
‘It was the immediate predecessor to the steam traction engine and the motor lorry for hauling heavy, bulky goods like hay, straw, grain. building materials and coal. Without motorised vehicles and proper roads, the movement of people and goods remained slow and localised.’
Within a few short years all this had changed, with the Rosslare Strand speed tests showing the dizzying speed of change.
Austin tells us that the Motor Car Act of 1903 was the first many later acts which would be used to generate funds for county councils, not always successfully.
‘At this moment, up to 70 per cent of the price paid at the petrol pump goes into State coffers. Likewise, only about 25 per cent of the annual road road tax paid by motorists paid by motorists actually gets spent on road works,’ he says. Don’t we know it!
Back on Rosslare Strand in 1913, Austin says that the newness of the (motor) sport was much in evidence by the innocence of both the police and the public in crowding in on the track.
‘It did not go un-noticed either that the police were more forthright in ordering the casual local visitors back than the well-dressed motorists (i.e. gentry). One policeman was injured when he stepped off a moving car and another had to be dissuaded from using the bonnet of a car to strike a match for his tobacco pipe’.
A few years earlier, in 1904 and early 1905, there were only 29 cars and 61 motorcycles registered in the county. In a social commentary of the times, only one was registered to a woman, an Olive Maud Meadows, of Ballyrane, Killinick; by 1908 there were 62 cars and 79 motorcycles. This rises to 177 cars and 124 motorcycles by 1916 and to 464 cars and 298 motorcycles in 1924.
With the advent and increase in the numbers of cars and motorcycles, came the first accidents which became a regular feature of the newspapers of the day, then as now.
A report in the Enniscorthy Guardian of May 30, 1908, describes how a local cyclist Andre Carton was killed on the Gorey to Enniscorthy road when his bicycle was in collision with a Welsh tyre magnate’s car.
It was difficult from the report in the paper to find the cause of the accident, but a witness stated: ‘the car was driving at a terrible rate and it was hopping up and down the road’.
Passenger Herbert George Davis said he always carried a police whistle when motoring in case the horn became defective. He always blew it at every crossing and bend in the road.
The People newspaper of July 12, 1913, reported one of an increasing number of road accidents that were appearing.
It stated that a car belonging to Dr. Kehoe, Carrigbyrne, was wrecked. He was motoring near Cullenstown when he left the car standing on an incline on the road, but the brakes slackened and the car ran away down the incline gathering momentum every foot until it dashed out across the fence..
Road signs or rather the lack of them were the focus of a coroner’s comments in the People of August 28, 1919: ‘It is unfortunate there were not any signs put up to indicate dangerous turnings on the road’.
One anecdote Austin recounts is of a would-be motorist who found the transition from riding a bike to driving a car difficult and so to make it easier she had a pair of bike handlebars strapped to the steering wheel to assist her in her endeavours!
Austin’s book is meticulously researched and beautifully presented. It is available from Coolballow Specialist Publications, Coolballow, and the Irish Agricultural Museum, Johnstone Castle. Tel (053) 9184671 email: info@irishagrimuseum.ie
‘Putting Ireland on Four Wheels’ costs €25 plus postage of €8.25.
Wexford People..ie
November 17th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
IVVCC International Gordon Bennett Rally 2015 The IVVCC International Gordon Bennett Rally 2015 will take place from the 4th to the 7th of June. We are changing our base for the 2015 event to the Johnstown House Hotel, Enfield, Co. Meath. The route will take in roads never travelled before during a Gordon Bennett Rally and they have been chosen for their suitability for early motoring vehicles. The event is open to cars manufactured before 31st December 1930. This year is the 40th anniversary of the IVVCC commemorating the 1903 race and for the anniversary we are adding an additional day of casual driving on the Friday. We are very pleased to announce that in our anniversary year we have new sponsors for this great event. We would like to both welcome and thank Barrett Private Insurances and Chubb Insurance Company of Europe SC for their participation.
The IVVCC International Gordon Bennett Rally is an annual event held in June. This year we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the IVVCC commemorating the 1903 race which was the forerunner of modern Grand Prix racing. Our base for the event will be the Johnstown House Hotel, Enfield, Co. Meath.
The event is open to cars manufactured before 31st. December 1930. The eligible classes are as follows:
| Class A |
Antique Cars |
prior to 31/12/1904; |
| Class B |
Veteran Cars |
1/1/1905-31/12/1918; |
| Class C |
Vintage Cars |
1/1/1919-31/12/1926, |
| Class D |
Vintage Cars |
1/1/1927-31/12/1930. |
The rally attracts an entry of approx 175 cars, with competitors coming from the U.K., the Continent, Australia, America, South Africa and of course, Ireland. It is a marvellous spectacle of wonderful cars not often seen in public.
November 15th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
A FEW MORE FROM THE” KILKENNY DOWN MEMORY LANE” FACEBOOK PAGE
November 14th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
Tom Burnell and Kilkenny Great War Memorial committee have published a book “Kilkenny war dead” and is available to buy from John Joe Cullen’s shop in John st, all proceeds from book sales will go towards the building of a monument to all those from Kilkenny who died in the Great War.
November 9th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
For Dooley Motors Open Day
on
Saturday 22nd November 2014
Contact Dave on 086 3016860
Showcasing The ALL New Ford Mondeo
10am – 5pm – All Vintage Fords (and drivers) Welcome!
In conjunction with Tullow Vintage Club
Dooley Motors, Sleaty Roundabout, Carlow 059 9131665
November 6th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
Please find below and attached details of the consultation form for opposing the mandatory NCT testing of vehicles older than the 1st January 1980.
Please spend 2 hours doing this this weekend – this is all I ask – 2 hours of your time. I hour to download and read the consultation document, the attachments, other people’s responses and response form and 1 hour to write your reply. The attachments have similar names but make sure you’ve downloaded all 5.
You will find the consultation document here: (or just do a search on RSA NCT classic)
You will find the form you need to personally fill in and send back by next Friday – the 14th here:
Go onto the link, look halfway down the page and you will see a Your Comments heading. Under that is a link to click on to download the form. Your computer then asks if you want to open it or save it as something. Choose save as and save it to your computer before you start editing the form and completing it.
Alternatively you may find it easier to edit mine here which is attached.
Then save yours with your name or similar in the title and email it back to them as an attachment to the following email address :
Or post it to:
Vintage Vehicles Consultation,
RSA Vehicle Standards Division,
Moy Valley Business Park Primrose Hill Ballina Co. Mayo
KEY POINTS TO NOTE:
The Midland American Auto Club’s preference is:
That we should go for a rolling 30 year exemption. The 1st Jan 1980 date was introduced in 201 at the 30 year mark. 30 years is the general industry & government accepted view of a historic vehicle.
The 30 years should be applied to all vehicles, not just cars – trucks, large and small, used for pleasure purposes included. So for NCT read DoE as well.
Red indicators should be allowed in an ‘as built’ state of the vehicles; to change lights for aftermarket amber ones changes the character and visual appeal of a historic vintage vehicle detracting from the owners’ and the general public’s enjoyment of these wonderfully preserved classic vehicles.
US DOT should be allowed in place of E marks; the US DOT certification system is just as rigorous as the E mark system and is found on all lights, tyres, seat belts, and other safety devices on our American cars and trucks.
If wide whitewall tyres are no longer available with E marks we will have to use van tyres to get the correct tyre height to keep the proportions right (and the gearing and speedometer accurate). This negatively changes the character and visual appeal of a historic vintage vehicle detracting from the owners’ and the general public’s enjoyment of these wonderfully preserved classic vehicles. You just gotta have whitewalls on your Cadillac and white lettered tyres on your muscle car!
If we don’t watch it we will have to replace rear light lenses with E marked ones – try finding these for your sixties and seventies Cadillac, Lincoln, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Chevelle, Mustang or GMC pick up truck.
The use of 12 inch by 6 inch licence plates should continue to be permissible. The whole of the front and rear end of American cars are built round a recessed 12 x 6 inch number plate opening. To try and fit anything else in there negatively changes the character and visual appeal of a historic vintage vehicle detracting from the owners’ and the general public’s enjoyment of these wonderfully preserved classic vehicles. Have you seen some of the German American cars with long licence plates trying to fit in a 12 x 6 opening – all bent over at the ends – truly awful and dangerous for pedestrians too.
Please act now and fill out the form this weekend.
Please let’s all line up behind the same requirement – the 30 years. If we are united we stand a better chance of success because the industry and owners will respond back with a clear ‘leave it alone, focus on catching the 26% of cars out there without a valid NCT and if you have to do something make it a rolling 30 years age cut-off please’.
Please be nice and polite, don’t rant about Irish Water/ The Government in general/ injustice etc. The way to successfully get through consultants is to be formal and polite, state your case in well written English and back it up with facts. There are plenty of facts in the attachments. Please take the time to read them. The slides from Martin attached pretty much walk you through what best to say for each question.
Otherwise in 3 years’ time you will have to deal with the consequences of not stopping it now. Changing something is much harder than stopping an introduction of something new. I remember the campaign in the UK to get 12 x 6 inch number plates accepted for American vehicles – that was just a size issue (the colour and font had to remain) and that took 3 years from some very diligent people!
If you have a local club distribution list please send it to all your members – I have some old addresses in this list – please check all your guys have got it.
Finally (!!) if you know anyone who is not a classic car owner/ enthusiast but simply likes seeing them around, or goes to shows, or uses them for charity work, or promotional events as an off the road photographic prop, or has a business connected with vintage cars, please pass this on to them and ask them to fill out the consultation form.
Best regards, Nick Stratta
MAAC PRO
046 943 7273 / 085 828 9922
November 2nd, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
October 31st, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
AS YOU ARE AWARE THE ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY ARE IN THE PROCESS OF A CONSULTATION IN REGARDS TO THE TESTING OF VINTAGE VEHICLES,,,WE ARE HOLDING A SPECIAL MEETING NEXT FRIDAY THE 7th OF NOVEMBER IN DANESFORT HALL AT 8,30 TO DISCUSS SAME WE URGE ALL MEMBERS TO COME AS THIS WILL CONCERN US ALL AND WE NOW HAVE A CHANCE TO HAVE A SAY AND NOT WAIT TILL ITS LAW…..
BY CLICKING ON THE “””””” A VINTAGE TEST “””” ON TOP OF LINKS LIST YOU CAN SEE THE RSA CONSULTATION DOCUMENT
SO IF YOU GET A CHANCE HAVE A READ OF IT
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND COME TO THE MEETING IF AT ALL POSSIBLE
October 30th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
Dear all,
Please will as many of you as possible attend the PUBLIC consultation meeting set up by the IVVCC on the proposed NCT introduction for vintage/ classic vehicles. There were 300 people at the Cork meeting. It is This Thursday, 8pm (or slightly before) at the Spawell Hotel Templeogue Dublin 6W. (Darcy McGee’s). This is how to get there:
It is just off the N81/ M50 Tallaght junction. Go in the Templeogue direction (not the Tallaght direction), turn left and the roundabout shortly after the junction, left and left again into the hotel. The phone number is 01 490 7727. If you need more directions.
This meeting is really important if we are to prevent having to NCT our vehicles.
The Midland American Auto Club will not be meeting at Kilbeggan, this Thursday, our normal club meet. We will be at the Spawell Hotel. With our classic vehicles, proving they are in good order and very roadworthy. We will be in club jackets and hats to show ourselves as a concerned group.
Please bring your quality classic to show it is not a danger and wear your club colours with pride. Let’s fill that car park with roadworthy classics for the people carrying out this consultation to see for themselves how good they are!
Here are the facts;
It’s a public meeting, you do not have to be an IVVCC member, car club member to attend. You just have to be motivated to stop laws being introduced meaning we will have to NCT classic vehicles.
The IVVCC has been very active in fighting this. If we all line up together we will stand a much better chance of success than if we all do our own thing.
The IVVCC have appointed Pedar Ward, past IVVCC President to front this. Pedar is an ex-civil servant and has the ear of the government. The current Minister for Transport is understood to be sympathetic to our cause. We could be pushing against an open door. Let’s make sure that is the case!
The IVVCC’s has 3 preferred positions, in order of favour:
1. No NCT for vehicles over 30 years old. A rolling 30 years old. NCT as current for vehicles newer than 30 years old. This keep the maximum number of vehicles outside the NCT requirement and maximum number of potential classics on the road and potentially under a vintage road tax class..
2. No NCT for vehicles over 40 years old. A rolling 40 years old.
3. No NCT for vehicles built/ first registered before 1st January 1980. The current law.
We need to be clear what we are asking for. I would urge you to support no.1 – No NCT for vehicles on a rolling 30 year old basis.
Please also fill out your consultation form on the RSA website. Mine is below, feel free to read it and use it to help you with your own.
More facts for you worked out by the MAAC Club secretary:
Why is the government bothering? –
There are only 3500 classic vehicles on the road in Ireland. Compare that to the 4264 new cars were registered on the one day of the 2nd June 2014 when the 142 plate became available.
There are nearly 2 million vehicles registered in Ireland today
There are just over 1.5 million cars over 4 years old which need an NCT.
There are 500,000 (HALF A MILLION!) vehicles on the road which should have a valid NCT that actually don’t. This is 26% of vehicles on the road – 26%!! They are the dangerous ones; they are on the road without an NCT because their owner knows it won’t pass. They do ‘normal’ annual mileage. There are 2750 road miles done by cars with expired NCTs than all the road miles done by all the classic vehicles put together. They are the ones the government should be targeting.
5000 cars were towed out of an NCT centre because they had an NCT Fail/ Refusal and were deemed too unsafe to be driven out of the place. That’s 0.5% of cars in Ireland.
9% of vehicles failed on the NCT were never re-presented for re-test? Were they all scrapped?
In 2010 the Gardaí seized 29,000 vehicles for having no NCT, tax or insurance or a combination of all 3.
98,000 cars in Ireland (5%) have no insurance – if people are driving with no insurance do you think they have an NCT?
Most classic owner’s have 2 or more cars; that the equivalent of 1800 regular cars potentially on the road.
Most classic vehicles do one tenth of the mileage of ‘regular’ cars – that’s the equivalent of 180 regular cars potentially on the road.
If the same NCT fail percentages were applied to classic cars they would put only 17 classic cars a year off the road. Why bother?
Classic vehicles are already safe; most are very well looked after and driven safely. Usually by mechanically minded owners (you!) who look after them well and attend to anything mechanical that needs doing pretty promptly and often regardless of cost.
The insurance companies view them are one of the lowest risks on the road in Ireland today.
We should focus the government to enforce the current NCT laws – catch the 26% of cars on the road without a legal NCT – not make new ones for a very very small minority.
All this does is create an unnecessary burden on a hobby trying to preserve our National Heritage.
Please spread the word, be at the meeting if all practical for you & fill out and send back your consultation form.
Best regards & many thanks, Nick Stratta
MAAC PRO
October 30th, 2014
Filed Under: News with 0 Comments
If becoming a model farmer is on your wish list, you must attend Ireland’s premier scale model and diorama show held annually in Kilkenny City the venue is the Hub with 20,000 sq feet of exhibition space and 1000 car park spaces along with a restaurant and is only a few min walk from city shopping.
>>> Farm dioramas show the skills of many model farmers and are complemented by full collections of tractors, trucks and cars.a large area is set aside for remote control trucks and construction equipment.
>>> Perfect-32 will launch the much awaited 1/32 scale Armer Salmon single row beet harvester, to complement their existing detailed range of products.
>>> Local garages will have full size tractors and equipment on view outside. Ireland’s leading traders will be in attendance so get your Christmas list read
Previous Page ← Next Page »« Previous Page→ Next Page
