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Motor club members join 50th celebration
Kerry Motor Club (KMC) celebrated its 50th anniversary on Monday night last as club members, past and present, met to celebrate this significant milestone.
Locally, Killarney and District Motor Club (KDMC) stemmed from the Tralee-based Kerry Motor Club.
As the original club grew there became an apparent need for an additional club to serve the south and east of the county.
KDMC was founded in 1978 but several founders of the local club were also members of the original club in the very early 1970s.
Several of them made the trip to Tralee on Monday night to celebrate with their neighbouring club.
These included Mike Marshall who has the distinct honour of being the first Clerk of the Course for both the Circuit of Kerry (1975) and the Rally of the Lakes (1979) and his wife Noreen who has held official roles with both clubs.
Mike Buckley from Rockfield was another early member of KMC in the early 1970s and remains an active member of KDMC these days. He attended Monday’s function to catch up with old friends from both clubs.
The O’Neill brothers, Dessie and Ken from Miltown, were founding members of KDMC but were active with the Tralee club too before the second club was founded.
Both attended Monday’s gathering in Tralee to recall some of the mischief they got up to over the last 50 years.
One of the founding members of the Tralee club was the late Jimmy Moloney from Listowel. His son, also Jimmy, is the current Mayor of Kerry.
“It is great for me to be here to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kerry Motor Club and also for my [late] father, Jimmy who was a founding member some 50 years ago, so there is a great continuation here down the years,” he said. “I know he would have enjoyed coming here and meeting up with old friends and catching up with some of the stories. They were great days and he had long memories [of the club].”
Other KDMC members at the celebration included current chairman Dan Keane, former chairman Diarmuid Cronin, PRO Ivan Hurley, treasurer Orla Galvin-Griffin and officials Dermot Healy and Diarmuid Lynch.
