IRELAND ISN’T A country people associate with car manufacturing. We’re better known for exporting writers, musicians and tech workers than new cars. But for a few decades, Ireland really did build cars. Some were assembled from kits, some were designed from scratch, and some were so ill-fated they’ve since become collectors’ items for all the wrong reasons.

It was never a large industry, and it certainly wasn’t stable, but it was far more interesting than most people realise.

The best-known Irish-built car is the DeLorean DMC-12, produced in Dunmurry, outside Belfast, in the early 1980s. Backed by major UK government incentives, John DeLorean set out to create a futuristic stainless-steel sports car with gull-wing doors and global impact. If you haven’t watched the Netflix documentary Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean, do.

The looks were spectacular. The reality was less so. The PRV V6 engine wasn’t quick, the price was high, and early build-quality issues didn’t help. Production lasted a little over a year, from early 1981 to early 1982, before the company collapsed. Around 8,500 were built. I remember driving one as a young journalist about 22 years ago and being bitterly disappointed.

Ironically, it only became a global icon after the factory closed, thanks to Back to the Future. Dunmurry’s short-lived experiment is now one of the most recognisable cars on earth.

If the DeLorean was Northern Ireland’s moonshot, the Shamrock was Monaghan’s cautionary tale.

As documented by Damian Corless in From Clery’s Clock To Wanderly Wagon (Collins Press), the Shamrock was the creation of two American businessmen, William K. Curtis and James Conway, who believed Ireland could build a luxury cruiser for the US market.

The........

© TheJournal