Killarney's transport museun to be sold off!!

junkyard

The contents of the Killarney's transport museum is to be sold by Bonham's at auction tomorrow in Hendon, London, according to an article in todays Irish Independent. It's a very sad day for Ireland when you see this kind of thing happening when you consider there's so much money around. It never ceases to amaze me how little interest we have in our heritage in Ireland. Once these cars leave the country they're gone for good. What a terrible shame. I think the state should have purchased it and kept it here for future generations to enjoy. That said it seems it wasn't even breaking even to keep the place open.:(

Owen

I heard this too today Junkyard while out on a Mini run, and am gutted to say the least. Especially as the stuff is being sold in the UK ... it's another step away from having the cars here.

V8Man

it's because most people here want 07 cars... it's sad but true...

chevyv8

heard that today also. its way too late when its gone, its part of irish motoring history and as such our goverment or the lottery crowd should step in here and help out, sorry i forgot it aint a golf course or a big piece of metal standing in the middle of o connell street.:mad: v8 man has a lot of truth in what he says, most people nowadays want 07 motors or as near to as possible. most modern motors are nearly identical , take the badges off them and see what i mean. just go to any car show and look at the joy and pleasure people get out of looking at old cars.put say ten cars in a line , 7 modern and 3 old , what gets more attention. need i say more..

coolcon

The words I want to use aren't allowed on Boards!! :mad: Like chevyv8 said, what the hell are we doing with a giant syringe in dublin when things like this are disappearing. GRRR!

mike65

Killarney never was the best place for such an undertaking unfortunatly.

Mike.

camarobill

fat cats with only money on there minds,:mad: :mad: i wouldent expect anything better from the heads off state,,thell leave it up to the private sector to purchase some off the stuff and bring it back,fat slugs:(

mike65

What, like theres no rich people in the country - so the goverment must spend public money on old cars and assorted vehicles?

Mike.

junkyard

The government were quick enough to spend a small fortune of public money on the monstrosity they call the spire and the little matter of 85 million euros of taxpayers money on out of state childminding. It seems to me our government will fork out money to every lame duck that comes their way but when it comes to spending money on our heritage they're nowhere to be found. Its an awful pity really.:(

cxcully

Such a shame.....I wonder will the cars be reregistered in their new countries and their ancient Irish plates be thrown away.....

PanhardPL

Its worth looking up Bonhams website, which shows photos and historical details of each car on offer tomorrow afternoon.
Lets wait and see how many will return back home to where they should have stayed.

junkyard

PanhardPL wrote:

Its worth looking up Bonhams website, which shows photos and historical details of each car on offer tomorrow afternoon.
Lets wait and see how many will return back home to where they should have stayed.

I was looking it up earlier and it was very interesting. I doubt many, if any at all, will make it back here. Some of the very rare ones are already getting a lot of attention from the U.S. At least the new buyers will appreciate them.:(

Silvera

I too was shocked and angry when I read the article!!

In most other countries in the western world they have national transport museums where such vehicles would be put on permanent display. If we had such a museum here I'm sure most of these car would have been on permanent loan to it years ago!

And the doubly-sad thing about this is that Killarney had the largest collection of Wolseley cars on display in the world!

I suspect (and sincerely hope!) that the unique Irish-built 1907 Silver Strem car (which also had Co Kildare's first registration IO 1) is not included in this auction??!!
If ever there was a car that should take pride-of-place in an Irish museum this is it!!!

Silvera

Guys, I cannot believe it ?????????

I have just looked at the Bonhams site and......

THE SILVER STREAM IS INCLUDED IN THE AUCTION!!!!!!!!!

How could they sell this car??? I thought of all cars that it would remain here in Ireland???!!!

I feel so strongly about this that I am going to look for Berties email address right now and express concern!!!

If this car does not return to Ireland, both it and it's registration number will be lost to the country forever!!!

Unique Irish-built Silver Stream......

ds20prefecture

In fairness, it might be auctioned in the UK but that doesn't mean it will stay there. the Silver Stream has little real significance outside of these shores, likewise Countess Markiewicz's bullet ridden rolls. So the seller(s) will raise a better price with an Irish buyer.

The problem is that an Taoiseach can do little to stop the private owners of these cars selling them. Few (if any) belong to the museum themselves, but rather are stored there by the owners and taken out a couple of times per year.

Also, the museum was a private venture that received (afaik) zero funding from the government. Its a shame that the museum couldn't survive as it was fairly unique in this country.

Kevin_Herron

I would be quietly confident that the Silver Stream will be returning to Ireland along with a few others.

ds20prefecture

Another thought: I imagine it is a commercial necessity to sell a collection of this quality in a UK auction house. You are not going to attract the same volume or level of customer here at some private/obscure auction.

green-blood

it shouldnt be going to auction, this is a national resou;rce, I assuem all teh literature etc is gone too.... shocking

I hope Kevin Heron is right and some items stay here - but will they be accessible to the public??

ds20prefecture

green-blood wrote:

it shouldnt be going to auction, this is a national resou;rce, I assuem all teh literature etc is gone too.... shocking

Assuming you mean it's literally a national resource, it's not. This is the private collection of the founder of the Killarney transport museum. There are many many rare cars sitting in private collections around the country that no one ever sees. This man put his collection on display and gave a place where like-minded collectors could do the same and have their cars cared for. As a result the general public got to view historically significant and beautiful cars. Apart from token mentions in local tourism guides all promotion and funding of the museum was done by its patrons and founders.

My 2c: his family should not be villified for selling on the collection to other collectors who will preserve the cars when they (for whatever reasons) are unable to. We the public have no claim or stake in these cars and instead should be thankful for the many years that they were accessible to us and perhaps rueful of not taking the time to see them more.

coolcon

the silver stream sold for £130k which is about €190k.

Spit62500

According to the Irish Times last Wednesday (motoring supplement) the Lucey family had a number of approaches from Irish buyers but decided that the collection should be sold in a specialist auction house. Its always hard to know the real story behind these things but its a shame that the imminent sale of the collection wasn't properly advertised here first. No-one thought that Lissadell house was worth any effort either (most notably the State) but a private, Irish individual saved a bit of heritage and then shared it.

G Luxel

I have only once been to the museum about 5 years ago and I was very impressed with it. I am now very sad to hear that it has been disposed of.

Eric318

May be the preservation of motor heritage is better left to private people like all of us who, in aggregate, might take much better care of the whole stock than if the cars were idle in a dusty museum with only a trickle of visitors to pay for its keep.

We can only hope that with the increase of wealth in this country (and the maturing SSIAs) the number of classic car enthusiasts will grow and private money will go to acquiring beautiful cars.

The best we can do is keep our own cars in top notch condition AND DRIVE THEM to publicise the fact that driving a classic is NOT an anorak hobby but a valuable and valued perspective on life.

At the time when cars are all about owners making statements, lets make sure we make the right statements, the best statements and generate more recruits, particularly in the wealthier stratas of society: those folks can afford the beautiful cars, we should convince them to sell those idle boats and buy nice classics!!

There you go, next time you drive your classic, think about recruiting

ds20prefecture

Kevin_Herron wrote:

I would be quietly confident that the Silver Stream will be returning to Ireland along with a few others.

Any word on this? i.e. Will the Silver Stream be returning?

Silvera

I'm delighted to report that the Silver Stream sold for £144k to a "private Irish buyer" !!:D (info from www.bonhams.com)

Apparently there were a lot of Irish bidders for the other ex-Killarney cars too!

Kevin_Herron

As I said 'quietly confident'!

green-blood

yeah but will we ever get to see it again

CJhaughey

The Kilgarvan motor museum is worth a visit if you are down that way.