Next weekend Kerry Motor Club will celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first closed road motorsport event in Kerry.
On July 15, 1903, Charles Rolls won the Kerry Hillclimb in Ballyfinnane.
He went on to become a founding father of the Rolls Royce Motor Company but it could have had a very different outcome in Killarney.
On his way to Killarney his Mors racing car broke its front suspension somewhere near Moll’s Gap.
Blacksmith Jimmy Shea of High St fixed the car and Rolls was so impressed with his work that he offered him a job managing the forge in the planned factory.
It is reputed that Jimmy said: “Herself has never been to Tralee, never mind up sticks and go to England.” And there ended the possibility that one of the world’s greatest car manufacturers could today be known as the Rolls-O’Shea Motor Company.
In the meantime, local machinery collector and historian Brendan Griffin was able to present one of the last items ever made in Jimmy’s forge to his direct descendant Tim O’Shea.
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