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IVVCC Club News – March / April
2012
Recent Events:
Members of the club took part in parades over the length and breath
of the country for Saint Patrick’s Day and we even helped the Dublin
parade organisers out of a very awkward situation. A call was
received from the organisers on the Tuesday before the parade to ask
if we could help as the vehicle which was to carry the
Grand Marshal John Giles on the
day was out of service. On receiving the request, an email went out
to all our members to see if we could find a replacement vehicle –
we received a number of offers and these were forwarded to the
organisers who chose Anselm Aherne’s pristine 1926 Citroen 12/24.
Anselm has been a great supporter and ambassador for the club over
the years and it was wonderful to see his car leading the parade
complete with
www.ivvcc.ie number plates and pictures appeared in several
publications with him at the wheel sporting his IVVCC cap with John
Giles in the back – Anselm could give the TV stations a few tips on
product placement!
Not a place you would normally expect to see our cars
but we received an offer which was too good to be refused from
Patrick O’Sullivan of a stand at the Irish International Art and
Antiques Fair in March. Colm O’Neill took on the task of stand
co-ordinator and he certainly did a great job of getting a
collection of cars to represent a cross section of our earlier
motoring heritage. Vehicles in attendance included Andrew Bailey’s
little 1904 Bebe Peugeot, a 1918 Ford Model T, 1929 DeSoto and two
cars of differing areas of interest – Willie Bryans 1929 air cooled
Franklin and Paul Barrett’s 1948 Wolseley 18 Police car which has
been requested by the Metropolitan Police museum in Hendon for use
at the Lord Mayors parade in London to celebrate the Queens Diamond
Jubilee. The stand was manned over the weekend by a large number of
members and the club’s thanks goes to all these people for helping
to promote our hobby in such a positive manner.
Members cars also took part in several other events
including the ‘Dublin: One City, One Book’ launch in the
Mansion house which encourages everyone to read the same book during
April of each year – this year the book chosen was Dubliners by
James Joyce.
There was a large turnout at the club’s AGM on April
1st with members such as Frank
McKee travelling from Belfast and
Lawrie Smith coming all the way
from the U.K. During his President’s address,
Tom Farrell made reference to the many wonderful
events during the last year and the many great events planned for
the coming months and in particular mentioned the fact that this
years Gordon Bennett would be attended by a dozen Rolls Royce Silver
Ghosts which are to travel from Australia. Tom thanked all the
members who have attended events held by both our club and our
affiliated clubs. He also mentioned the level of assistance being
given to the club by Irish Vintage Scene and thanked
Myles O’Reilly of AXA for
providing our special affiliated clubs insurance scheme.
Future Events:
Plans are well advanced for
the club’s contribution to Ireland’s Historic Motoring Day on
Monday 7th of May which we will
be celebrating with an event in Russborough House, Blessington.
A number of speakers will talk about their cars on the day including
Eric Byrne on his Bewley
Bentley, Denis Dowdall on
Mercedes and Jim Boland on his
collection. This promises to be a great day out and we would ask for
the support of enthusiasts throughout the country to attend with
their cars.
Entries for the IVVCC Opel Spring Rally
have exceeded expectations with over eighty received so far and at
the April members meeting we held the raffle for 18 fuel vouchers
which varied in value from €20 to €30. This is just one of the
initiatives that the club has introduced to help reduce the cost of
attending events and we would also like to thank our affiliates for
their assistance in the running of this event. We still have a very
limited number of places for the Dungarvan start available on the
event with the final closing date being 30th April.
Don’t forget that the famous Sliabh Na mBan
Rolls Royce armoured car will be making a rare appearance at the
Clonmel Vintage & Classic Car Club's show in Powerstown Park in
Clonmel on Sunday 6th May
– We wish them every success with this very well organised event.
Consultation on Selected Vehicle
Components: The
vehicle standards section of the Road Safety Authority recently
requested submissions on behalf of interested parties in relation to
reviewing the regulations on the supply, sale and fitment of certain
safety and environmentally critical components. The IVVCC has made a
comprehensive submission prepared by John Larkin containing twenty
two recommendations and would like to thank the RSA for the
opportunity of putting the old cars movement’s views forward.
IVVCC & Irish Vintage Scene:
We were
delighted to read about Thomas Heavey's
sterling work in relation to making Minister Hogan aware
of the difficulties facing our hobby in the last issue and it’s only
by being active in this way that we can have an effect on
legislation. The IVVCC have had previous contact with a number of
ministers including John Gormley on upcoming legislation and have a
meeting scheduled with minister Varadkar in the near future. We look
forward to working with Thomas in these matters and request that as
much support as possible be given by enthusiasts to these efforts.
Congratulations!:
It’s great to report when a
member secures a new addition and we would like to congratulate long
time Gordon Bennett supporter Clive Mew on his acquisition of a 1929
Vauxhall 20/60. This maroon and black Richmond six light saloon is
in a beautiful condition and is indeed a true addition to the
Vintage treasury of Ireland. May he have many miles of happy
motoring and we look forward to seeing it on its maiden voyage under
Clive’s captaincy.
Members Help:
A lot of work takes place behind
the scenes when it comes to organising an event and the board would
like to ask any member who might be able to offer some of their time
and become a member of our team to let Bernadette know at
secretary@ivvcc.ie.
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