QOTD: Celebrating The Irish Auto Industry on St. Pat’s?

Yeah, I am shoehorning in a QOTD to match the holiday. If you know much about the Irish auto industry, you know that it is/was small with a short, unremarkable history. So this one will be a little odd — just like the old Irishman at your corner pub.

That said, it is St. Patrick’s Day, I have Guinness-covered corned beef in the crock pot (and it’s making the place smell great), and there may be some whiskey consumed after quittin’ time.

So, I ask of you, what part of the admittedly small and mostly no-longer existing Irish automotive industry are you celebrating?

DeLorean is probably the most famous Irish car company — and if you’re shouting “Austin Healey” at me right now, well, that company was British — and of course it produced the car made famous in Back to the Future. Common knowledge, obviously.

Except can we really call DeLorean Irish? It was based in Northern Ireland, which makes it as British as Austin Healey, technically. Although, of course, culturally is a bit of a different story. I am going to back out now, because those politics are not something to mess with.

Ahem. It’s probably not as commonly known that Ireland produced a bunch of cars for European makes (and GM) in days gone by, nor is it known that the Circuit of Ireland Rally is the third-oldest in the world.

Yeah, I am struggling a bit. Ireland might be known for beer, whiskey, agriculture, and more recently, a tech boom, but autos were never really the Emerald Isle’s thing.

Still, I remember ducking into a small but interesting car museum in Killarney when my dad and I were there on vacation way back in 1999. A quick Google shows that the museum is probably gone — the only thing I could find was the Kilgarvan Motor Museum, which appears to be a half-hour drive from Killarney. The place’s Web site mentions a rally stage through Healy Pass, so I am definitely putting the museum and the surrounding area on the visit list.

There are other car museums in Ireland, including in Dublin, so you can add those to a sight-seeing list.