From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE GENTLEMEN OF THE IRISH AUTOMOBILE CLUB: When the gentlemen of the Irish Automobile Club had their picture taken with their cars at the opening of their new clubhouse in Dawson Street, Dublin, in May 1904, it was truly an historic occasion.
The club was formed at a meeting on January 22nd 1901, the night Queen Victoria died and the Victorian age came to an end. It attracted as members virtually all the hardy motoring pioneers in Ireland.
The late Queen had not been a fan of the automobile. "I hope that you will never allow any of those horrible machines to be used in my stables," she told her Master of the Horse. "I am told that they smell exceedingly nasty, and are very shaky and disagreeable conveyances altogether."
Despite her disquiet, the club went from strength to strength as the number of cars increased in Ireland. By the end of 1903 when compulsory registration and driving licences were introduced, there were almost 500 cars in the country and the Irish Automobile Club had become a powerful lobby group.
The club's first president was Sir Horace Plunkett, founder of the Irish Agricultural Society and an enthusiastic motorist. Its official patron was the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Dudley.
The club's first chairman was Sir William Goff, a prominent Waterford businessman and one of Ireland's first motorists. It was he who, at the behest of R J Mecredy, editor of the Motor News magazine, had called the initial meeting to form the club. His first motor vehicle had been a Beeston tricycle in 1897 but this proved relatively unsuccessful and it was soon replaced by a more reliable Daimler car.
In the summer of 1901 the club organised a motor tour which took the participants south from Dublin to Waterford and then on to Cork before journeying on into west Cork and Kerry where few cars had penetrated before. Media interest was immense and daily reports were carried in the major newspapers.
As the tour progressed many of the cars dropped out with mechanical torubles. The Irish Times reporter left the tour at Galway declaring it over - in fact it continued for another week after his departure.
The club acquired premises and a garage at Dawson Street in 1904. The garage had a turntable - still to be seen but no longer functioning - to facilitate the parking of members cars. The building contractor who carried out the original work on the clubhouse was the father of Samuel Beckett.
The building in Dawson Street today, which is still the club's headquarters, is little changed from those times. The major difference is a new entrance to the garage added a few years after the original premises came into use.
The accompanying photograph was taken in the club's "motorhouse".
Today the club organises the RIAC Pioneer Run each year for motor vehicles built before 1905. In a nice gesture to the past, on the eve of the event participating cars and motorcycles are garaged in the same location as the members cars were photographed, mimicking the historic occasion recorded by the cameraman in 1904.