Poets & Writers

describes his first glimpse of Killarney. “I shall never throughout the whole of my life forget the first view I obtained of the Killarney Lakes,” he says. “Dismounting from the car, on the narrow winding road, we peered through a cleft in the rock and looked down on the fairest scene I can remember.” Today, mention Moll’s Gap to any motoring or motorsport enthusiast anywhere in the world and they will know immediately what, and more importantly where, is being spoken of. A tradition that started 120 years ago remains a central part of the motoring heritage of Killarney. The road is used every year in the International Rally of the Lakes and the Killarney Historic Rally. From 1936 until 1983 the famous stage was an essential part of the Circuit of Ireland Rally route too. However, back to 1901. The crews, upon arrival in Killarney on the evening of Saturday August 10, checked into several different hotels in the town. “The machines behaved remarkably well, and good speed was kept up. The party, who are distributed through the various hotels, expressed themselves well-pleased with the run, and were quite charmed with our Kerry scenery,” the Kerry Evening Post newspaper reported at the time. Sunday, a day of rest, was supposed to be reserved for sightseeing but poor weather delayed the restart by a further day. The motorists enjoyed an extra night of hospitality in Killarney before the next leg of the journey to Waterville. “The motor tourist had perforce to keep quiet on Sunday. Even Killarney never witnessed such a downright torrential day. There were a few brief spells of sunshine, but they only served to mock the visitors, and they did not leave their hotels. The iron steeds, therefore, got an extra day’s rest,” said the Kerry Evening Post. The story goes that Jarrott and his two racing friends, du Cros and Fuller, said Saturday’s descent of Moll’s Gap did not present enough of a challenge and went in search of something more exciting. During that extra night of revelry, Jarrott, du Cros and Fuller (their new found sense of bravado a mere coincidence!) decided to have a crack at the Gap of Dunloe. “The Irish members of the party scoffed at our suggestion of getting through but we were determined to make the attempt,” Jarrott said in his autobiography. So, instead of joining their colleagues on Tuesday morning for the sensible approach to Kenmare via Loo Bridge, they headed off in the opposite direction towards the Gap of Dunloe marking the first time such a journey was attempted. At the time, this now popular tourist route was no more than a dirt track suitable for little more than a horse and cart. Indeed, just 10 years prior, a County Clare doctor claimed to be the first person to steer a pony and trap through the Gap of Dunloe, albeit from the opposite direction of the three racing drivers. Another challenge faced the motorists: several of the much photographed bridges along the way were yet to be built. “Arrived at the foot of the Gap we were met by our first difficulty,” adds Jarrott. “The lake covered up the whole road – in fact there was no road.” But this did not stop the intrepid trio, and despite a number of incidents, they made it with a tale to tell. And what a story! Before they made their ascent into the unknown, they stopped at Kate Kearney’s Cottage for some liquid refreshments – most likely a few strong ones – to give themselves some false

courage ahead of their big adventure. The famous roadside tavern was founded in 1849 and was known for its potent poitín ‘Kate Kearney’s Mountain Dew’. It also marks the entrance to the Gap and the point of no return. “Here the cars are sent back, as the journey though the pass must be made afoot or on ponies,” warns a ‘A Little Tour in Ireland’, a guidebook published in 1892. The cars the writers refers to here are of course pony or jaunting cars, and not motors car like the three heroes were steering. The locals were not too impressed with the arrival of the horseless carriage to their locality and the horsemen of the Gap feared unemployment if the new technology was to be a success. One scoundrel went to the trouble of scrawling his name in the expensive paint work of Fuller’s De Dion while the three friends sampled Kate Kearney’s hospitality. “Had Billy Murphy been discovered, I hate to think of the vengeance which would have been wreaked upon him,” recalls Jarrott in his book. Fuller’s De Dion was in trouble again soon after. Its engine started to overheat on the journey and the men had to draw water from a nearby stream to cool it down and refill the radiator. “Fresh water had to be obtained somehow,” adds Jarrott. “We had no bucket and eventually solved the problem by taking a waterproof rug, climbing up the cliff to a little mountain stream, and by holding up the four corners of the rug we were able to obtain sufficient water to enable him to get going again.” Crossing lakes and rivers had to be taken at speed and the road was so narrow in places that once they got the cars through a water crossing there was insufficient space to turn around should they meet a dead-end. “There was no possibility of turning around,” says Jarrott. “And if the first car had not succeeded in climbing up the interminable path through the Gap, we should have to come down backwards – a fact we hardly dared to contemplate on such a narrow path with a cliff on one side and a precipice on the other.” A report in the Killarney Echo and South Kerry Chronicle and published on Saturday, August 17 1901 acknowledges their amazing feat. “The two racing Panhards and a De Dion car accomplished the journey after a most exciting time, and they climbed through the wild route leading through the Owenreagh Glen to Kenmare. The road through the Gap becomes a mere track in parts, and there were but inches to spare at each side. “At the deep culverts, the cars had to plunge axle high in the water.” Meanwhile, the tour’s other participants, after assembling outside the Railway Hotel (now the Great Southern Killarney), left Killarney the same morning, bound for Waterville via Loo Bridge. The three adventurers later re-joined their colleagues in Kenmare, marking the first time a racing car drove this section of the Moll’s Gap road and thus adding another notable first in national and local motoring history. A plaque sits on the gable wall of Kate Kearney’s Cottage to mark their epic drive through the Gap of Dunloe. It was a remarkable feat, not just for the time, but what happened on that Motor Tour of Ireland in August 1901 opened up motoring, tourism and motorsport to rural Kerry. The impact of what they achieved is being felt right up to modern times.

The Killarney Magazine thanks Irish motoring historian Bob Montgomery who provided additional detail for this article and who supplied the period photos that are published here with his kind permission.

An artist’s impression of the type of car Malcomson may have used in the late 1890s. Artist: Daniel Liegey Another motorised attempt at the Gap of Dunloe

In much the same way that historians dispute Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America it seems that

Jarrott, Du Cros and Fuller were not quite the pioneers they let on to be.

While there is no denying their adventure was of epic proportions, it seems they were not the first to drive a motor car through the Gap of Dunloe. Local author Mary Coghlan, in her excellent book ‘Echoes of Dunloe’ unearthed another piece of local motoring nostalgia. “It wasn’t long before the motor car discovered the Gap of Dunloe. The following comes from an undated source: ‘Mr Malcomson drove a (motorised) gig from Tralee to Beaufort, through the Gap of Dunloe, past Lord Brandon’s and Lough Brin to Kenmare. “This was the first vehicle ever seen in the glen. The gig got its name from the earlier horse-drawn one. Elsewhere it is recorded that the first motor car was driven over the pass in 1898,” says Mary in the book.

Killarney, haunt of Poets & Writers

The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

English poets of past centuries seem a universe away from Killarney when encountered in school text books. Imagine then the initial surprise of discovering that Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘The Splendour Falls’ was inspired by our own Ross Castle and Lough Léin. There would have been no astonishment back in the 1700s and 1800s when Killarney natives were literally ‘tripping over’ visiting Romantic poets of the stature of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1813), William Wordsworth (1829) and Tennyson (1848). Wordsworth found fault with ‘the heavy shape of the highest hill, Mangerton’ when he climbed the mountain at the age of 59. Shelley, writing from Italy in 1818, stated that Lake Como,‘exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty, with the exception of the arbutus islands of Killarney’. Local Mike O’Sullivan has written of the visiting Romantics in detail in the excellent reference book, ‘Killarney: History and Heritage’ (The Collins Press, 2005). The poets are part of a rich and varied

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Kay Caball’s The Kerry Girls: Emigration & the Earl Grey Scheme is the true story of 117 teenage girls sent out to Australia in 1849-1850 from workhouses in Kerry, under the auspices of the Earl Grey ‘Orphan’ scheme. It tells of their selection and transportation to New South Wales and Adelaide, and their subsequent attempts to rebuild a life far from home. Breda Joy’s Hidden Kerry takes the reader on the less-travelled paths of the Kingdom, and is peopled with a varied cast of characters with colourful stories. Nik Hall’s book of stunning photographs, Beautiful Killarney: A Walk Through the National Park, is a chronicle of a walk from Killarney town to Ladies View. It would make a wonderful memento for visitors to the town. The lavishly illustrated Killarney: History & Heritage traces Killarney’s history through a series of specially-commissioned essays. An enjoyable, informative read for the general and more serious reader alike.

Breda Joy, a native of Killarney, has been a journalist with Kerry’s Eye since 2000. Prior to that she worked with The Kerryman for thirteen years. She has been shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition (2011) and for the RTÉ/Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition (2012). In 2012 she was placed third in the Trócaire/Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition. 7

Years of Mercier Press

www.mercierpress.ie MERCIER HISTORY Irish Publisher - Irish Story body of luminaries from the world of literature and travel writing who spread the fame of the Killarney Valley through the written word. Arthur Young, Dorothea Herbert, Mr & Mrs Hall, WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Brendan Behan are but a sample. ‘The Four Kerry Poets’, Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, Seáfraidh Ó Donnchadha, Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin and Piaras Feirtéar, are commemorated by the Spéir Bhean sculpture opposite the Franciscan Friary. The ink is still coursing through the town today. The bookshelves feature Eileen Sheehan, Margaret O’Shea, Meg McCarthy, Mary O’Gorman, Donal Hickey, Colm Cooper, Weeshie Fogarty, Colin O’Sullivan and moi, while many Killarney journalists feature locally and nationally.

by Breda Joy

Hidden Kerry takes you on the lesstravelled paths of the Kingdom, peopled with a varied cast of characters with colourful stories you will not find in brochures or guidebooks.

The journey begins at Tarbert on the River Shannon and finishes close to the Cork border under the Paps Mountains. Lose yourself in the story of Lord Kenmare’s forgotten mansion, which hosted royal visits until it was consumed by fire; the daring plot hatched in Dingle to rescue Marie Antoinette; and the tale of the German U-boat that landed Greek sailors at Ventry in the Second World War. Meet vibrant characters such as Lily van Oost, the eccentric Flemish artist who made her home in the Black Valley; Mrs Elizabeth Herbert, who threw up her life in Muckross House to run away with her lover; and Fr Francis O’Sullivan, a gun-running friar who was beheaded on Scariff Island by Cromwellian soldiers.

A book that is as much for the locals as it is for the visitors, Hidden Kerry takes you off the beaten track and brings the Kingdom to life.