From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE RUN TO KILLALOE: On July 10th 1900, 10 cars started out from Dublin to Killaloe on the first ever organised motor run in Ireland. The distance of 110 miles may not seem far by modern standards, but to the cars and motorcycles of 1900 it was the equivalent of a trip across Africa.
For a start, there was unlikely to be any petrol available on the route. Motor repair shops were unknown and in the event of a breakdown - which was quite likely - then no help would be available. All in all, the chances of the 10 vehicles getting to Killaloe without trouble seemed very remote.
Yet, get to Killaloe they did. Dr Pryce Peacock, one of the participants on that historic day, writing in 1921, related: "The great day arrived. Some of the cars went off at fearsome hours; and my friend and I started somewhere about 10 o'clock. All went well until we were near Maryborough (Portlaoise), when the car (a Marshall) sat down with signs of overheating, and on investigation we found all the water boiled away. The car had no radiator to speak of, and the water was carried in two tanks shut in close to the engine, under the driver's and passenger's seat, where no air could possibly get in to keep them cool. They made quite an excellent mileometre, as we found out."
Pryce Peacock managed 50 miles before his car overheated. While stopped for water JW Stocks went by "like a whirlwind" on his Ariel tricycle. With several stops for water, Pryce Peacock arrived at Killaloe, where he found the survivors already at dinner, "very full of the performances of their own cars and very skeptical of anyone else who said they got there without the help of the train."
There were several notable performances: Fleming, driving a little De Dion car, had run non-stop from Dublin to Killaloe, a most impressive performance in 1900. Others who made Killaloe successfully included Dr JF Colohan driving a Daimler and R J Mecredy - also driving a Daimler - as well as the flying JW Stocks on his Ariel tricycle.
In addition to the 10 who had started out from Dublin that morning, WD Goff, a prominent Waterford businessman and chairman of the Irish Automobile Club who had first proposed the run to Killaloe, had accompanied the run for part of the way on his tricycle. This tricycle had been specially built for him by the firm of WF Peare in Waterford, and was almost certainly the first motor vehicle built in Ireland.
Next day, most of the party set out on the return journey to Dublin. But Dr Colohan led a small group westwards through Limerick and into Kerry. This was the first time motor vehicles were recorded as having travelled into Kerry, and the adventures of the intrepid Colohan and Mecredy and their passengers in some of the more remote mountain passes of Kerry were graphically recounted in The Illustrated Mail a few months later.
One of the passengers on Dr Colohan's Daimler was TW Murphy who would later succeed RJ Mecredy as editor of The Motor News and become the first motoring correspondent of The Irish Times. Murphy was to write of his part in this pioneering journey in The Autocar.
Pryce Peacock, whom we left heading off on the return journey to Dublin with the other survivors of the outward journey, ran into trouble after about 70 miles.
A set of ball bearings had failed, and was red hot. In desperation and with no prospect of obtaining a replacement, they waited for it to go cold, packed it with grease and set out again until the inevitable recurred. The final 40 miles were covered in four-mile sections, this being as far as they could go before repeating the process. But finish they did, true pioneers and survivors of the first motor tour ever run in Ireland.