PastImperfect: The Old Crocks Run:Today, it seems, everybody has an interest in classic cars. Living in rural Meath I can count eight 'classic' vehicles within a two mile radius and this seems to be pretty much the norm for the rest of the country. But where did this fascination with the cars of yesteryear begin?
We in Ireland seem slow to acquire a desire to preserve early cars. In Britain old car enthusiasts formed the Veteran Car Club in 1930 but in Ireland it was not until 1963 that the Irish Veteran & Vintage Car Club came into being and the hobby took off.
At first, in the 1910s and '20s there was a tendency to convert early cars into commercial vehicles or to use their engines for running farm machinery and it was not until the late 1930s that a few motoring enthusiasts began to restore to road-worthiness a handful of early cars. But having restored them the next question was what to do with them. In Britain there was the annual London to Brighton Run which started in 1927 and gave a focus for the restoration and preservation of the earliest surviving cars.
It wasn't until 1938 that any sort of similar event was held here when the Leinster Motor Club - founded in 1921 - organised the first Veteran Car Run in the Republic. Like the London to Brighton Run, the Irish event was referred to in the media as the 'Old Crocks Run' and took place in June, starting at the Donnybrook Tram Depot and travelling to Dún Laoghaire via Enniskerry and Bray. A total of 45 cars - all built before 1914 - entered and all but one completed the route.
The event was repeated in 1939 before the 'Emergency' intervened and it was not until 1953 that there was another major old car event here, when the Leinster Club marked the 50th anniversary of the 1903 Irish Gordon Bennett race with a Jubilee Run. Some 43 cars were entered. But at the same time the Customs and Excise regulations imposed by successive Irish Governments made it virtually impossible for enthusiasts to import early cars and it was not until 1985 that these barriers were removed.
The Munster Motor Cycle and Car Club had its own successful Run in 1958, and was established as an annual event. In March 1963, the Irish Veteran & Vintage Car Club came into being as an umbrella group to look after old car interests.
Now interest in all sorts of cars is widespread here and many people are owners of a vehicle which perhaps first caught their fancy in their teenage years. It's a far cry from 'The Old Crocks Run' but the reward is just the same - the enjoyment of maintaining and running a part of our motoring heritage.