A Model T Tour
I have been conducting Michael Collins Tours for 26 years, but the tour I led last Sunday had to be one of the more unusual ones.
The Irish Ford Model T Club asked me to take them around to the Michael Collins sites for the day, I got to travel in the front passenger seat of a Model T owned and driven by Bob Clarke and we led a convoy of 20 other Model T’s along the roads of West Cork.
We started off at Bandon Motors, drove through Bandon Town and past the Munster Arms Hotel, which was Michael Collins’ last port of call on the evening that he was shot.
The journey from Bandon to Beál na Blá in an open vintage car was special, it brought me a bit closer to appreciating what it must have been like for Michael Collins and his men traveling along on the faithful evening in 1922.
Our Convoy stopped off at Béal na Blá for the story of the events that happened there and then we headed to Enniskeane for coffee.
We then traveled along the Enniskeane / Clonakilty road to Sams Cross and a stop at Woodfield, birthplace of Michael Collins.
The Model T’s traveled next through Clonakilty town past the Collins statue and on to the Michael Collins Centre in Castleview for a live presentation, a tour of the collection and the outdoor exhibits.
