MGOC Trip to Ireland – May 1998
| By 7:45pm, on Thursday 30th April, more than 20 MGs from old Midgets to an F had been waved through to the car park at Swansea ferry terminal, by a bemused attendant, ready to board the ferry together. Everyone drove straight through customs – except us – maybe because we were the youngest. You can’t really hide much in BGT but the officials still unpacked the boot for us!
Once on board we all drifted – shopping, eating, drinking and finally sleeping until being awakened by a very load tannoy at 6am announcing our imminent arrival in Ireland, causing various people to rush out on deck to capture it on film. Still sleepy, we drove from the ferry terminal to Kinsale for breakfast – “just follow the signs” we were told. Those drivers with sleepy navigators inevitably ended up missing the turning and did the rest of us a favour by waving us in the right direction. An excellent breakfast over, we all went our separate ways until late afternoon when the holiday cottages would be available at Trabolgan – our home for the next few days. We chose to explore Kinsale, a very pretty town with painted shopfronts, but very touristy indeed. Later we ventured into Cork, second largest city in Ireland, whose busy shopping streets reminded me of Manchester. Saturday dawned bright and many felt the need to remove the grime collected on Friday’s journey. They washed and waxed their cars early in the morning, ready for the new coat of dirt. Some MGs admittedly needed a wash, having been parked under trees full of crows! We chose to have an extra hour’s sleep, so ours wasn’t the shiniest car on the road run. This took us down many country lanes and through tiny villages where the appearance of so many MGs won cheers and waves from the locals. The MGFs – not so obviously a part of our run of “old cars” as people saw it missed out on some of these greetings! The bumpy roads apparently took their toll on a couple of MGs – the jolts causing bits to fall off, but we were fine. The road run was well organised with clear directions, but some navigators appeared to be asleep as you needed your wits about you, Irish road signs being intermittent or just plain wrong at times. Saturday evening was time to dress up as we went to Blackrock Castle in Cork for a meal and we were entertained by an Irish harpist and later an Irish duo with two young Irish dancers. This event was all the better as there was no need to drive, coaches being laid on for the journey. Sunday saw a visit to the Jameson Whisky Heritage Centre, up the road from us in Middleton. We were joined for this by many Irish MGs, and visitors to the centre that morning were treated to a free MG show, as around 60 MGs took up the rear car park. One of the Irish MGBs had had an accident with a truck and had a badly damaged rear to show for it, everyone was interested in his car! We were then invited on a road run afterwards with the instruction, “follow the car in front.” I don’t think all 60 of us were actually meant to take up the offer, as when we reached our destination of Ballycotton, there were more cars than road space in the village! This gave great amusement to two old men sitting on a wall outside the pub watching MGs galore going down to the harbour, to turn around and come back again, trying to find somewhere to park. Monday was a trip to the Waterford Crystal Factory, where our MGs again provided an extra attraction. Fortunately for many of our bank accounts, MGs do not hold much luggage, so we couldn’t buy everything we wanted (though there is an export service, so it is possible!). Some people returned home on Monday, but the majority of MG’ers stayed on for the rest of the week. Nothing was prearranged for the rest of the week, so we all chose our own itineraries. We visited Avoca, where “Ballykissangel” is filmed. Unfortunately, it is much prettier on TV, and appears much bigger! We also visited Blarney Castle – managing to turn up at the same time as a few other MGs. The castle is very impressive, but we chose not to kiss the Blarney stone – having an Irish grandmother, I already have “the gift of the gab”. We visited the Gunpowder mills at Ballincollig, and revisited Cork and Waterford, along with several small towns and villages. Everywhere we went we were greeted with cheery waves, especially along country lanes. On Friday morning, bright and early, 21 MGs set off to catch the ferry from Cork. Everyone was on time, but the ferry was held up for an hour. A car was towed off, and the ferry searched by the police for the owner. The rumour was that he’d jumped over board. We don’t know what really happened as the official announcement stated, “an incident which involved the ferry being searched.” We spent our wait discussing what had failed or fallen off each others cars over the week on the Irish roads. We foolishly said our car had been fine, and then it promptly refused to start when we wanted to get off the ferry! Luckily it did eventually start, to our relief (probably a case of sea sickness.) We arrived back in Swansea at 8pm, and all drove home, passing each other for some time down the M4 as just about everyone lived east of Swansea, be it close or in our case up to 5 hours drive away. Thanks to everyone involved in arranging such an excellent trip at a very reasonable cost. A great time was had by one and all. |
by Dorothy Edwards. |
Preparing to board at Swansea 
Breakfast stop at Kinsale 
First car away on the ‘Road Run’ 
Last minute prepatations by Ken Umber 
Line up of Bs at Jamesons 
Irish dancing, nearly ‘Riverdance’ 
Fitzgeralds at ballykissangel 
