From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
IRISH GP ANNIVERSARY: As early as 1924, plans were afoot to stage an international motor race in Ireland. Some 21 years earlier, Ireland had been the scene of Camille Jenatzy's great victory in the Gordon Bennett Race of 1903, the race which was the true ancestor of all modern international motor racing.
Various schemes were put forward and the foremost Irish drivers of the day, Kenelm Lee Guinness and Major H O D Segrave, inspected proposed courses at Ards, near Belfast, and in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
Despite the best intentions of the supporters of both venues, it was not until the Tourist Trophy Races were organised at the Ards course in 1927 that either of these venues came into use. After the success of the Ards TT Races, the Royal Irish Automobile Club redoubled its efforts to bring motor racing to the Park.
There were many problems. The first was financial and so a guarantee fund was set up which was eventually over-subscribed.
The next hurdle was physical - slap-bang in the middle of what would be the main straight of the proposed circuit sat the Phoenix Monument. In 1903 the sides of this had been temporarily removed to facilitate speed trials held as part of "Automobile Fortnight in Ireland". With the enthusiastic support of the government of the Irish Free State, the monument was removed altogether to a new location just outside the gates to the Vice Regal Lodge.
Then in January 1929 an official announcement was made that racing would go ahead but curiously, although a course had been agreed, it had not yet been decided whether it should be run clockwise or anti-clockwise. This was eventually settled in favour of a clockwise flow by Kenelm Lee Guinness when he inspected the course in February 1929.
Meanwhile, it had been decided that the event would be titled the Irish International Grand Prix and would be run over a 'D' shaped circuit of 4 miles 460 yards. It was also decided that the two races in the event would be for "standard, catalogued sports and super sports cars" - precisely the same as for the Ards TT.
Both races would be on a handicap basis, with the Friday race for the Saorstát Cup for cars up to 1500 cc and the Saturday Éireann Cup race for cars over 1500cc. Both races would have the not-inconsiderable attraction of a cash prize of £1,000, while the winner of the Grand Prix would be the fastest finisher in either race.
The races took place on July 12th and 13th and attracted an enormous crowd to the Phoenix Park. A spectacular Le Mans style start got things going and some excellent racing ensued. The Russian émigré Boris Ivanowski emerged a worthy winner of the Saorstát Cup, a feat which he repeated in Saturday's Éireann Cup. Ivanowski drove an Alfa Romeo in both races and achieved the unusual distinction of placing first and third in the overall results of the Irish International Grand Prix by virtue of having achieved both the fastest and third fastest times when winning the two races.
Both of Ivanowski's winning Alfa Romeos have survived - the larger engined car is in Scotland and the 1500cc in New Zealand.
The races were acclaimed as a tremendous success by the international motoring press and were held up as examples of superb and forward-thinking organisation to other organisers elsewhere. In Ireland, it was felt that they had gone a long way to counter some of the almost entirely negative news emanating at the time from this troubled country. The government of W T Cosgrave confirmed its support for the races to be held again in 1930.
In fact, they were repeated in both 1930 and 1931 before a change of government ended government support.
2004 marks the 75th anniversary of the first of the series and will be recalled in the form of a unique cavalcade of cars of that era on July 18th next during the running of this year's Phoenix Park motor races.