From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE LITERATURE OF IRISH MOTORING: Several readers have asked me about Irish motoring publications which are worth collecting.
If one leaves aside more recent books and magazines, then one undoubtedly has to start with the publications of RJ Mecredy, that colossus of Irish motoring.
Mecredy started Motor News magazine as a fortnightly in 1900. It went weekly in 1903 and was published until 1939. It was a fascinating publication, filled with accurate comment and well illustrated for the time. If you're lucky enough to come across copies of it or its sister publication, The Irish Cyclist, they will undoubtedly become the most prized items.
Mecredy was also a prolific author - his books turn up quite regularly at book fairs. The best, The Motor Book, was first published in 1903 and reprinted as a facsimile edition in 1970. It's a delight, Mecredy at his best.
Harder to come by is his De Dion-Bouton Motor Carriages - Their Mechanism and How To Drive Them. The De Dion company was so impressed by Mecredy's down-to earth approach that it made this the official De Dion-Bouton handbook.
The other Mecredy book worth having is his Encyclopedia of Motoring. Reprinted many times after its first edition in 1901, this book is a fascinating insight into motoring in the first decade of the last century.
The early story of the pneumatic tyre is told in John Boyd Dunlop's History of the Pneumatic Tyre, completed by his daughter Jean after his death, and Arthur Du Cros's Wheels of Fortune. Although both accounts differ significantly, they are worth seeking out.
Motoring Life was founded in 1949 by Austin Channing who remained its editor until the mid-1960s. Channing was very much the spiritual successor of Mecredy and the Motoring Life issues of the period contain much of historical importance.
Among the regular contributors were Maxwell Boyd (then a student at Trinity College), L J K Setright, the inimitable Ted Bonner and the talented artist, T Y Ballance.
That doyen of Northern Ireland motoring writers, W A McMaster, was probably the first person to attempt the history of Irish motorsport which he did in his 1969 publication, A History of Motorsport in Ireland 1903-1969. Basil Brindley's series of books, On Two Wheels and Four, covered the sport for the years 1956-58 in very readable fashion.
Wheel Patter by the irrepressible Dudley Colley was published by the Talbot Press in 1951. This charming account of Irish motorsport has become a classic, beloved particularly by Frazer-Nash enthusiasts the world over.
A significant number of books devote large passages to Irish motorsport. Chief among them is Charles Jarrott's marvellous Ten Years of Motoring and Motor Sport 1896-1906 which contains an account of his eventful participation in the 1903 Irish Gordon Bennett Race.
Noteworthy also are the accounts of the Irish Grand Prix contained in George Roesch and the Invincible Talbot, Anthony Blight's masterwork.
Finally, Bits and Pieces by 'B Bira' is a wonderful snapshot of a long-disappeared way of life. First published in 1942, it contains several Irish motor racing adventures.