History of the Fingal motor club

The Early Days

The land of Fingal covers a huge area in North Dublin from Swords to Malahide up towards Skerries. While its heritage is more associated with the traditional ways of living throughout the ages in this area, the name Fingal is used for many clubs and associations of the modern era.

It was in this area following the war years of the 1940s that the Dublin & District Motor Club introduced the famous Skerries ’100’ road races. On the southern side of Dublin in North Wicklow, the Leinster Motor Club ran the Leinster ‘100’ meeting. They also ran the circuit style racing at the Triangle, Donnelly’s Hollow in the Curragh. However, the stalwarts of these prestigious clubs were mostly well-heeled Dublin gents who enjoyed the best of machinery and had the ‘works’ teams of the day to their meetings.

As the 1950s and 1960s evolved, the motorcycle became the workingman’s means of transport to work and going for Sunday spins with their wives & girlfriends. A number of them also had the sporting interest and were keen to get involved in organising events. But there efforts seemed thwarted by the established clubs and so they got themselves together to run their own meetings.

The first names associated with establishing the Fingal Motor Club all came from this area of Fingal i.e. Swords, Malahide and elsewhere in North Dublin. They were Nat Higgins, Jimmy & his wife Patsy McGill, Jack Ryan, Pat McIvor, Sean & Owen O’Reilly and Owen Sheridan to name but a few.

These young men of Fingal MC were still that bit away though as to establishing themselves in strength amongst the gentry of the D&D and Leinster MC clubs. During 1962, the idea was borne that they could merge with the Motorcycle Road Racing Club of Ireland in Ulster to form a strong road racing club in the south, but this was firmly defeated by the ruling Southern Centre at the time.

And so it was in 1963 that Fingal Motor Club was established to run motorcycle race meetings. Their first efforts at running races were Grasstracks which were similar to the Speedway events run at Shelbourne Park, Ringsend except these were in the open fields in north County Dublin

As more experience developed, their primary intention was of course to run a Road Race. In 1965, the Athboy Road Races were run in Dunboyne under the insurance and official permits through the established Irish Motor Racing Club which ran motor car race meetings. Unfortunately, this was a financial disaster for Fingal MC and the fear was that its committee members could be sued for the outstanding debts. During the following winter months, efforts had to be made to legalise the club and its officers so as to indemnify themselves, and so the route to registering the club with Articles of Association & Memorandum developed into establishing Fingal Motor Club Ltd.