From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
DR JOHN F COLOHAN:
The date is June 1899, and a motorist is about to set out from Blackrock in Dublin to Kilbeggan and back in an attempt to win a wager for the then not inconsiderable sum of £50.
To win the wager, he must accomplish the journey, a distance of 130 miles, in less than 12 hours.
But this is just the latest episode in the action-packed life of John Sidney Fallon Colohan, one of the first to import a motor car into Ireland and one of, if not most likely the first Irishman to actually drive a car.
Born in Dublin in 1862, John Colohan was the son of a manager in the Hibernian Bank. He studied medicine first at the Royal College of Surgeons and later at Edinburgh Medical School. Having practiced in London and Long Ditton, Surrey, Colohan returned to Ireland in 1896 to take up an appointment as Medical Officer in Athenry. By 1898 he was attached to St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.
Colohan himself did not enjoy good health and it was while recuperating from illness in the South of France that he first became interested in the new hobby of 'automobilism' as it was then known.
He visited the new car factories in France and Germany and made himself thoroughly familiar with all aspects of this new form of locomotion. Needless to say, he soon decided to acquire a car but because of the restrictions then existing in Britain and Ireland on the operation of cars, he waited until the passing of the Light Locomotives Act in November 1896 before acquiring and importing a 41/2 hp Benz into Ireland. As such, Colohan was one of the first three motorists to import a car into Ireland and either the first or second to import a petrol-engined car. (The first car had been steam powered and the jury remains out on whether Colohan or a certain Mr Gillies, editor of the Freeman's Journal, were the first to import a petrol-engined car).
As with all his interests - engineering, photography, and shooting - Colohan was full of infectious enthusism for his new hobby. He became a powerful advocate for automobilism and was made a director of the long-established Dublin coachbuilders, John Hutton & Son.
Famous for their coachbuilding, they had decided to embrace the automobile and used Colohan's knowledge and influence to guide them to a number of lucrative agencies.
Within a short period, Huttons added a Dawson Street showrooms to their existing Summerhill coachworks and were selling a wide range of steam and petrol cars as well as motorcycles. Colohan wasted no opportunity to promote their products, and particularly their flagship brand, Daimler, and within a short time became probably the best known motorist in Ireland through a series of spectacular demonstrations and stunts, which brings us back to his wager with Henry Vernon for the sum of £50.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the good doctor rarely did anything the outcome of which he was not assured and so it was that he duly collected his winnings having completed the journey inside 11 hours despite losing over thirty minutes when he took a wrong turning on the return road.
Colohan was a founder member of the Irish Automobile Club and was one of those influential in bringing the 1903 Gordon Bennett Race to Ireland. In 1908 he retired from the motor business citing ill health as the reason. However, Colohan's restless energy needed an outlet and in 1910 he bought the Grand Hotel, Malahide, and ran it very successfully until 1922. Colohan then retired to live in Cookham Dean, a small village on the Thames, and spent his remaining years travelling between there and the South of France. John Fallon Colohan, pioneer Irish motor enthusiast, died in 1932.