Calling ALL Rallying fans, motoring enthusiasts & residents of Donegal...

De Hipster

Killian Doyle's article in the Motors section of yesterday's (08.07.09) Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/0708/1224250223633.html

Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Is Donegal Ireland's Never Never Land for boy racers?
KILIAN DOYLE

EMISSIONS: Doughnuts, Honda Civics and John Travolta – sure what else is there to do?

THEY’RE MAD for cars in Donegal. Unfortunately, not always in a good way.

For, as I recently witnessed first-hand, the whole joint is riddled with that most contemptible of creatures – the boy racer. Their footprints are everywhere. There are so many doughnut marks between Creeslough and Kilmacrennan that they can be seen from space; Downings is so swathed in black streaks it looks like it has been attacked by Jackson Pollock wielding a tar brush; and every second ditch in Inishowen contains the rotting corpse of a 1994 Honda Civic.

Maybe it’s my age, or the fact that my IQ is above 14, but I fail to see the attraction in doing handbrake turns and doughnuts on a public road. Why not simply scrawl some male genitalia on your forehead with an indelible marker and go at your tyres with a belt sander? Same effect – far less effort.

All this raises the question: Why is it that Donegal is such a hotbed of these idiots?

Is it because road racing has become a teenage rite of passage in Donegal like passing out drunk at the local disco has in the rest of the country? Or do Donegal’s youths drive everywhere like they are being chased by the Taliban because their employment and entertainment prospects are so bleak that it’s the only release from the existentialist dread that haunts them? Or maybe, living as they do in a land of twisting boreens, the mere sight of 20 yards of straight road gives them temporary psychosis and they put the boot down involuntarily?

Possibly a mixture of all of the above. But more likely, as a friend of mind from that direction suspects, they do it because they know they’ll probably get away with it.

I’m inclined to believe him. One suspects the average Donegal garda has given up trying to stem the seemingly endless supply of adrenalised numpties willing to risk everything for teenage kicks.

I can understand why. If you were a cop in Donegal, would you bother your voluptuous backside chasing some gouger in your clapped-out Mondeo if you saw him tearing past you sideways on a mountain pass at 100mph? Or would you pretend you hadn’t seen him, pray for him to crash into a wall instead of a schoolbus and go home to your family, another day closer to your well-deserved pension?

Of course, the Garda top brass deny having thrown in the towel, even claiming to have had great success in tackling boyracers after last month’s Donegal International Rally, which sees rabid flocks of these amoeba-brained morons crawl out from under every slimy rock for miles around.

They proudly announced that they’d made several arrests for dangerous driving, particularly on the N13 out of Letterkenny, where what the county’s senior traffic cop described as “a bit of nonsense” left the road surface covered with more rubber than a blue whale at an S&M party.

To give them credit, the cops do occasionally score the odd victory against the doughnuteers. A mechanic was recently dragged before a judge after being observed doing three doughnuts in downtown Dunfanaghy before tearing through a stop sign while a crowd of fellow halfwits cheered him on.

The sad thing is that, not only was he driving a 1987 Vauxhall Carlton, which was a rubbish car then and is a laughable shed now, but he was a grizzled old fool of 24. That’s like turning up to a rave in Ibiza dressed as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and busting some moves. Pathetic.

Judge Kevin Kilraine was equally unimpressed, noting that the defendant was “a bit long in the tooth for this sort of nonsense” before fining him €400 for dangerous driving.

Personally, I’d have used the opportunity to send a warning to the rest of Donegal’s speed-addled galoots and given him a lobotomy. But that’s just me.

I have responded to the author via the website to this ill-researched, lazy and sensationalist article.

I am particularly incensed by his lack of facts and substantiation of claims in relation to the local economy, the education of the ‘youth’, his depiction of Irish society (not just Donegal), the gardaí...etc, etc.

I am particularly outraged by his tenuous link between the prestigious, successful and respected Donegal International Rally and association with the ‘amoeba-brained morons’ as he delightfully puts it.

I am not defending the behaviour of those who's 'footprints' in the doughnut marks depict the aftermath of boy-racering for the author, which obviously prompted this arrogant opinionated rant but mainly the style of journalism and sweeping unsubstantiated claims...

I don't understand what the value of the article is and how it could possibly attempt to address any issue, if you can actually manage to decipher what or who it is he's finally ranting about by the end of the piece.

Killian Doyle it seems is the Jeremy Clarkson of Irish 'motoring journalism' (...and I use the term 'journalism' very loosely!).


I'm not a boy/racer/from Donegal...just a motoring & motorsport enthusiast.

vincenzolorenzo

Don't kill me, but i agree with a lot of what he says! I know the area he's talking about fairly well and its rife with boy racers. I was up there the day after the new bridge was opened linking fanad head and carrigart and the road was absolutely black with rubber laid down by these gobsh!tes. I know they're a problem all over the country but there does seem to be a particularly large amount of them there. Of course it is written in a fairly arrogant tone but he is a journalist after all and thats just what they're like.

I reckon he's hit the nail on the head with the cops too, and not just in donegal either. I've never once seen them do anything about the problem. They're a fairly bad boy racing problem where i'm from (kildare) and as far as i can tell they'll do nothing about it. There's an added problem in donegal with people in general having less respect for the guards since the mcbrearty case. I know thats a huge generalisation but its something i've definitely noticed. Don't like seeing the link with the rally either but he has a point. While people competing in the rally and the vast majority of the fans don't cause any hassle you do get a lot of people acting the tool in cars over the course of the weekend. They had the exact same problem at the rally of the lakes in killarney earlier in the year.

De Hipster

Far from killing you VL, I personally agree (in part) with the sentiment towards 'boy racers'. However I feel the piece is a personal venting which would be better suited to a pub smoking area after a fair few beers...

The article makes no direct call to either side of this argument to debate, correct behaviour or proactively combat the dangers posed. It is easy to stand on the sidelines vehemently thrashing and making sweeping generalisations to supposed groups of society or communities who do not have a common voice with which to retort.

At no point does the author qualify his remarks ‘as a friend of mine from that direction suspects...’, or ‘one suspects...’ nor at any point within the article did he allude to actually witnessing any dangerous behaviour.

It particularly annoys me that the International Rally was mentioned at all in the piece. There is no association between dangerously driven doughnuting and diffing carltons or civics and the event organisers, spectators, competitors, sponsors and enthusiasts unless the examples occurred on the stages themselves.

I will admit that motorsport and rallying in particular lends itself as a pseudo cover for these types but certainly not intentionally and certainly less than football provides a cover for its hooligans.

IMO the article only functions as a space filler and neither suggests nor achieves anything in the long run to combat to even educate the perpetrators but acts as a release of frustration for the author himself.

It also seem that it is an ongoing rant for him; from 2004 http://www.driver.ie/forum/archive/index.php/t-16569.html

vincenzolorenzo

De Hipster wrote: »

Far from killing you VL, I personally agree (in part) with the sentiment towards 'boy racers'. However I feel the piece is a personal venting which would be better suited to a pub smoking area after a fair few beers...

The article makes no direct call to either side of this argument to debate, correct behaviour or proactively combat the dangers posed. It is easy to stand on the sidelines vehemently thrashing and making sweeping generalisations to supposed groups of society or communities who do not have a common voice with which to retort.

At no point does the author qualify his remarks ‘as a friend of mine from that direction suspects...’, or ‘one suspects...’ nor at any point within the article did he allude to actually witnessing any dangerous behaviour.

It particularly annoys me that the International Rally was mentioned at all in the piece. There is no association between dangerously driven doughnuting and diffing carltons or civics and the event organisers, spectators, competitors, sponsors and enthusiasts unless the examples occurred on the stages themselves.

I will admit that motorsport and rallying in particular lends itself as a pseudo cover for these types but certainly not intentionally and certainly less than football provides a cover for its hooligans.

IMO the article only functions as a space filler and neither suggests nor achieves anything in the long run to combat to even educate the perpetrators but acts as a release of frustration for the author himself.

It also seem that it is an ongoing rant for him; from 2004 http://www.driver.ie/forum/archive/index.php/t-16569.html

Feckin hell that other article really is a rant! You're right about this one being a bit of a rant as well without any real facts to back it up, but unfortunately thats journos for you. Shame the rally had to be drawn into it alright.

smooch71

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Feckin hell that other article really is a rant! You're right about this one being a bit of a rant as well without any real facts to back it up, but unfortunately thats journos for you. Shame the rally had to be drawn into it alright.

What's unfortunate is that the higher profile rallies always draws in these scumbags but funnily enough you rarely see them out spectating at the stages.

The fact that Donegal and the other major rallies also attract a large number of good natured well behaved motor car enthusiasts and rally fans is sadly overlooked in the eyes of these so called journalists.

De Hipster

smooch71 wrote: »

What's unfortunate is that the higher profile rallies always draws in these scumbags but funnily enough you rarely see them out spectating at the stages.

The fact that Donegal and the other major rallies also attract a large number of good natured well behaved motor car enthusiasts and rally fans is sadly overlooked in the eyes of these so called journalists.

I think it is the fact that the International events generally occur over a 2-3 day period & therefore provide 'a lads weekend of craic & mischief', bizarrely enough they are less prevalent at the Ulster rally perhaps because the PSNI (formerly RUC) were less blasé when dealing with this kind of behaviour...who knows?

I have yet to see any avid rally fan behave in this manner & am loathed to even discuss the two together for fear of association. Lets hope the drifting series can entice them into the circuits again...

De Hipster

LIGHTNING wrote: »

You should come along to the drift events at mondello, if you think the rallies are bad you wouldnt believe the level of boy racers that turns up at drift events. Its a who`s who of tacky car addons and peaked caps.

Hmmm...I think I'll pass based on that, but thanks forthe invite

'Skanger me banger' alive & well in the recessionary times?!

De Hipster

I find (in my very limited experience of them) that class, finesse & education are sometimes severely lacking. Sounds like they at least keep you entertained!

smooch71

De Hipster wrote: »

I think it is the fact that the International events generally occur over a 2-3 day period & therefore provide 'a lads weekend of craic & mischief', bizarrely enough they are less prevalent at the Ulster rally perhaps because the PSNI (formerly RUC) were less blasé when dealing with this kind of behaviour...who knows?

I have yet to see any avid rally fan behave in this manner & am loathed to even discuss the two together for fear of association. Lets hope the drifting series can entice them into the circuits again...

Well you've hit the nail on the head there.

The PSNI boys (& girls, sorry sisters) don't take no crap from them bowsies.

That's why they so many of them pour over the border in their twin cam corollas.

smooch71

LIGHTNING wrote: »

The last one I was working at a lad pulls up in his Civic (naturally) and gets out only wearing shorts and a cap. All I could do was laugh pretty much in his face it was priceless.

Jaysus, how the mighty have fallen.

In 1988 when the 3 door Honda Civic was launched in Ireland it was one of the most desirable cars on the road and there was a waiting list to buy one!

Now look at what it's become. Do you still need a Burberry cap to drive one?

Sorry, totally off subject.

De Hipster

smooch71 wrote: »

Jaysus, how the mighty have fallen.

In 1988 when the 3 door Honda Civic was launched in Ireland it was one of the most desirable cars on the road and there was a waiting list to buy one!

Now look at what it's become. Do you still need a Burberry cap to drive one?

Sorry, totally off subject.

Not at all...the 1994 model gets a right dig in the Times article!

hi_sir

right get with the programe here these antics have nothing to do with rallying these activites having going on for years,staging and diffing have been happening all year round,this is an article wrote cheaply by a bit of a sap.
when we talk of boyracers this clem shoud go to the lakes the boyracer scum element is worse down there than up here

De Hipster

hi_sir wrote: »

right get with the programe here these antics have nothing to do with rallying these activites having going on for years,staging and diffing have been happening all year round,this is an article wrote cheaply by a bit of a sap.
when we talk of boyracers this clem shoud go to the lakes the boyracer scum element is worse down there than up here

Exactly my point (aside for the lack of actual journalism) rallying has more than enough internal issues & politics without this 'fan' adding petrol to the flames...