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The O'Rahilly - Cars

Think this may be The O'Rahilly's first car.
Poss. Nell and Anno.
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The De Dion Bouton

The O'Rahilly bought a De Dion Bouton automobile c.1911. He had the body made by coachbuilders in Dublin, may have been first (southern) Irish-made body. It was later painted green.
See Past Imperfect, Irish Times, 28 July 2004.

His nephew Dick Humphreys in [Dick, memoir] says: "Always a great supporter of Irish-made goods, and at the same time a keen motorist, when he decided to buy a car, he wished to buy an Irish-made one. This gave me a chance of a trip with him to Belfast where the Chambers Motor Co. were manufacturing the only home-built model in Ireland." [Chambers was the most successful Irish motor manufacturer, started making cars 1904, went out of business 1929]. "Unfortunately there was a long waiting list so he had regretfully to transfer his affection to a Dublin-built body on a "De Dion Bouton" chassis. O'Grady's of Dawson St were the actual makers. This car was owned jointly by our two families." (i.e. The O'Rahilly and his sister Nell). Nell and her family lived nearby at 54 Northumberland Rd. The car was normally kept at The O'Rahilly's house at 40 Herbert Park [Dick,1964].

Liam Cosgrave recalls: "My father drove with The O'Rahilly to a meeting in Balbriggan about 1915 in O'Rahilly's car. He was the only Sinn Feiner with a car. W.T. had to get out and wipe the rain off the windscreen. No wipers then."

In the 1916 Rising, the De Dion Bouton was used as part of a makeshift barricade on Prince's St (the lane running down the side of the GPO), where it was burnt out, and it is probably now buried with the rest of the 1916 rubble under Hill 16 in Croke Park [O'Rahilly, 1991].
See Past Imperfect, Irish Times, 16 Apr 2003.

Dick Humphreys later (in 1929) had an all-Irish car built for himself, the Thomond.

Nancy Brown and her boys?
Car is not the De Dion Bouton if the car below is.
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Unknown car, c.1910s.
Apparently NOT a De Dion Bouton.
Unknown boy, poss. Dick.
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The burnt-out remains of The O'Rahilly's De Dion Bouton, used as part of a makeshift barricade in Prince's St, Dublin, 1916.
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