From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE O'RAHILLY - PIONEER MOTORIST: Mention has been made in this column before of the De Dion of The O'Rahilly which was destroyed outside the GPO during the 1916 Rising. The O'Rahilly was, of course, a prominent figure in the Gaelic League, and despite having deep reservations about the Rising, when he was unable to prevent it, he joined his comrades in the GPO and was unfortunately killed during the fighting there.
Prior to the Rising The O'Rahilly had undertaken an epic drive through several counties in an effort to halt the outbreak of conflict. That he should do so was not surprising, for The O'Rahilly had maintained a keen interest in motoring from its earliest days and could justifiably claim to have been amongst Ireland's first 100 or so motorists. As early as the beginning of 1905, he wrote a piece which appeared in the Motor News which described some of his early experiences with motor cars in Ireland.
The greatest difficulty he experienced when he purchased his first motor car was the lack of suitable instruction in its use. Like many others his car arrived in the hands of an "expert instructor" who was available to give one or two days instruction to the tyro motorist. However, the workings of a car were so foreign to most new motorists that this instructor might as well have been instructing him on the vehicles intricacies in Russian or Chinese for all the comprehension that was delivered. In the end, The O'Rahilly admitted, all he learned from his instructor was how to start the car! Like so many others it was left to The O'Rahilly to "learn the ropes" for himself by a simple process of trial and error. He described his first unattended venture thus: "It was in fear and trembling that I proceeded next morning to the coach house . . . however, I succeeded in getting her started, and gingerly proceeded a couple of miles in second speed, when, just as I was gaining confidence, she gradually slowed down, and I had my first road stoppage. This was, of course, in a village, and as was equally inevitable, the entire population surrounded the machine - with the best intentions, it is true, but with an absorbing interest that was positively embarrassing. Here I spent half an hour going over the car, not having really the faintest notion what to examine, and more with a view to impressing the expectant audience than with any hope of being able to put matters right. Finally, to my delight, I found a terminal screw had shaken off the accumulator, and on replacing it I started again."
The following week saw a further 17 stoppages during which The O'Rahilly mostly blamed himself for buying the car. His experiences included "frail women pushing a 15 cwt. car over canal bridges" as well as "one long night (or nightmare) when, with an average of one explosion for every five revolutions, the car would only crawl on the level and had to be pushed up every hill with the result that we left Saggart at six o'clock and got to Dalkey at midnight."
The O'Rahilly was fortunate to escape this period of learning with only one collision. He chanced upon an unattended farm cart and the horse backed across the road into his path. It was on a downhill stretch of road and his brakes would not hold the weight of the car with the three extra passengers he was carrying. The result was a crumpled radiator and petrol tank.
The O'Rahilly, a man of considerable culture and personality, learnt quickly and became an expert motorist in a few months. Thereafter, his only problem was confined to the stoppages which resulted from forgetting to turn on the petrol supply when starting - something which was common amongst his fellow pioneer motorists.