| Monday 2 July 2001
12.00 Opening of Secretariat & Welcome Centre 12.00 Opening of the Flesk Campsite 21.00 Closure of Secretariat and Welcome Centre Tuesday 3 July 2001 Wednesday 4 July 2001 Thursday 5 July 2001 Friday 6 July 2001 Saturday 7 July 2001 Sunday 7 July 2001 Arrival Times at the Arrival Control, Parc Fermee & order of Parade of Nations
Final Results Classification
Challenge
Winning Federations & Clubs
|
"Celebrating
100 Years of Motorcycle Sport in Ireland" published by the
Motorcycle Union of Ireland to mark their centenary in 2002. Article
for the book
Bringing the FIM Rally to Ireland probably commenced for members of the Dublin Motorcycle Touring Club (DMTC) in 1979 when we first attended the 34th Rally in Holland. Everything that the Dutch did then could be repeated in Ireland, right down to the rain! From our first enquiries to MCUI and FIM-CTC (now FIM-CML) in the mid-80's, we were on a learning curve. In 1992 we organised the 13th FIM MotoCamp for 300 participants in Kerry and in 1996 organised the 2nd FIM TourRaid for 100 riders, riding from Glendalough (Overnight), Killaloe (Overnight) to Westport (Overnight), via Kilkenny, The Burren and Cong.  The FIM Rally is an annual summer-time 3-day meeting, with a strong tourism theme, for participants from FIM-affiliated federations. The only competitive element is that all participants must travel from their homes to the Rally venue by motorcycles and present themselves at a specific time at the Rally Parc Fermee riding their motorcycles. Results are then based on the combined distance-travelled of each participant for the club and federation awards. The numbers of participants expected on the Irish FIM Rally varied from a low of 1,500 (achieved in Norway '95 and Switzerland '00) to over 2,500 (achieved in Edinburgh, Scotland '92 and Epernay, France '99). The Service Crew provided by DMTC needed to be 10% of the participants. That meant we needed to find a host town in Ireland with a hall or serviced tent-space to seat 2,500 people at tables for meals and entertainment, a serviced campsite with space for upto 2,000 people and hotel and guesthouse accommodation for 500-800 people. Further if we could avoid using buses to transport participants between accommodation and rally-hall we would have greater control on costs and the programme.
To find a suitable venue, we looked at Dublin (venues too scattered); Westport (no big hotels); Gowran Park Equestrian Centre, near Kilkenny City (no local town and need for buses), Millstreet Equestrian Centre (town too small & no hotels) and Killarney. In 1992 we had used the Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney for the evening meals, and they were keen to host the FIM Rally for food, hotel accommodation and supply the Rally Hall. Adjacent to the Hotel was the Flesk Campsite who were prepared to accommodate the tents and allow access direct to the hotel carpark. Killarney UDC and their Tourist Officer, Cllr Michael Courtney, also offered their facilities for the Parc Fermee and the Nations Parade. Once we had the venue a suitable date and provisional programme quickly followed and in 1998 we applied, assisted by FIM delegate Michael Colohan, to MCUI and FIM-CTC for the 2001 Rally, and received the date in 1999. Allan Leckie of the Trial & Off Road Club (TORC), and ex-DMTC member, was appointed Rally Director with the mandate to organise a volunteer team (Paddy Murphy, Welcome Centre & Finance; Irene McClintock, Campsite; Liam Stapleton, Entertainments, Tours & Website; John Cass, Merchandise; John McClintock, Parades; Kay Dowling & Hazel Casey, Marshals; Vanessa Stapleton, Hotel Accommodation; David Gibson, Secretariat) to create the logistics necessary to turn the provisional programme into a successful rally. That the Irish FIM Rally was so successful is largely due to Allan's good nature and patience. At closing date for entries, almost 1,750 entries had been received from 29 countries. The greatest surprise was that 30 Russian motorcyclists from Moscow applied for entries, the largest number at a Rally since 1970. At 3,440 kilometres from Moscow to Killarney, this was one of the longest journeys in Europe the Muscovites could make and only the riders from Arctic Norway and Athens travelled further to the event. 1200 participants elected to camp on Flesk Camping, with prepaid breakfasts served in the Hotel Gleneagle from Monday morning. Allan organised 30 portaloos and 10 portable showers to supplement Flesk's own facilities. 350 participants stayed in Hotel Gleneagle, 200 entrants elected to find their own accommodation. Of the 180 volunteer marshals, 100 stayed in Victoria House Hotel, 60 in Hotel Gleneagle and 20 commuted from their homes daily. Truly, a mammoth undertaking for a small club. Participants and DMTC marshals began arriving in Killarney on Sunday 30th June. The volunteer construction crew, supervised by Neil Collen and Allan, created, plumbed, wired, fenced and paved paths through the site to built an all-weather site. The Welcome Centre opened at midday on Monday 2nd July and was manned by teams from 40 volunteers for 12 hours per day until 5pm on Thursday 5th, under the supervision of Linda Dalby, Teddy Larkin, Richard Appleyard, Freddy van der Wall, Darragh Sinnott and David Gibson. The campsite was taken over entirely by the Rally, and the gates and First Aid office were marshalled 24 hours per day by Irene McClintock, Denis Browne and a 30 strong crew until midday on Sunday 8th.
On Friday, traditionally the most difficult part of the Rally to organise was the Coach Tour. A team led by Liam Stapleton, Gerry Christie and Eamonn Meenan organised 30 JJ Kavanagh coaches to carry 1500 participants. The coaches were split into 3 groups of 10 coaches and each group visited 3 or 4 tourist locations according to a schedule in North Kerry, West Cork and on the Ring. Without exception comments were very favourable. Dinner and entertainment followed in the NEC, evening's highlight was 'Who's Eddie'. The
closing day of the Rally is always marked with a parade of participants'
motorcycles through the host town. The DMTC must thank Killarney
UDC, the Garda, Killarney Tourism and Killarney Chamber of Commerce
for allowing the town streets to be closed between 2.30pm and 4pm.
The atmosphere and the parade were unforgettable. The parade assembled
about 12 miles out of Killarney in a lay-by on the Cork road. Marshalled
by John McClintock, Gordon Annan and Frank Deasy, the 1200 motorcycles
rolled through Killarney town, lead by Rally Director Allan Leckie,
without a hitch. On the reviewing stand, among others, were John
O'Donoghue TD, Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform; Jackie Healy Rae TD; Michael Gleeson, Chairperson
Killarney UDC; Sean Bissett & Michael Colohan, MCUI; Dieter Sass
& Maggie Sutton FIM-CML; Dermot Callaghan, Chairman Killarney Tourism;
and Michael Courtney, Chairman Cork-Kerry Tourism. That evening participants
again assembled in the NEC for Dinner, Awards Ceremony, Closing Ceremony
and more music.
On Sunday morning everything was dissembled and everybody went home tired and happy. The DMTC & the Rally Organisers would like to thank everybody for coming and especially the volunteers without whose selfless commitment nothing would have been possible. We also thank our sponsors Hotel Gleneagle, Ericsson, Telco, Arai, Bridgestone, Eamonn Waldron and Kawasaki Distributors Ireland and AIB Bank. This is what Staffan Larsson wrote in his report to the board of SMC (Staffan is responsible for tourism on the board of SMC, the Swedish Street-bike Federation): "My personal opinion is that the organisers did a great job. I think most of the participants would agree to this. Rolling parades, nice bus tours, good campsite and hotel, good food served on china, high-class entertainment in several sites. "
Copyright © 2005 Dublin Motorcycle Touring Club Limited and respective authors and contributors. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of DMTC. For comments, queries and membership write to Dave Gibson at Webmaster@DMTConline.info |
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