Stay where you are and stop wasting your time googling this! Maybe in years to come Joe Mahon from ‘Lesser Spotted Ulster’ will have an expert standing along a roadside somewhere in June in Donegal trying to explain this.
Rota Flora is from a far-off day in the 1970s. I was stuck in school daydreaming out the classroom window on the very last days of that school year. Half doing exams for the junior cert trying to get out the door and away to the Donegal Rally. I know my old history and Latin teacher the late Hugh Duffy might have a few choice words for this effort to rename a wildflower that blooms in a wash of white on the run-up to the Donegal International Rally every year but here goes.
I came up with the word Rota which is Latin for a few words like wheel or even chariot and the word Flora which can mean blossom or flower and putting them together got “Rotaflora” and thought it’s a good enough name for the flower that covers the roadside in Donegal when the days get a bit warmer and overnight they just pop up. It’s one of the most special times of the year not just because everything is in bloom but it is a great sign that the rally isn’t that very far away. It’s a time that people set their clock against like no other place in Ireland. That gable gets a wee coat of whitewash as early crops are saved and that few yards along “the long acre” get a run of the lawn mower done with that bit of pride before their weekend of the Donegal International Rally.
The Rotaflora nearly meet in the middle of the road. There is that much growth in them and just like that Donegal Rally they will be gone before July arrives.
Launch
Last night at the Mountain Top in Letterkenny the showroom was packed in Hegartys Ford Garage which was the location to launch the Donegal International Rally complete with its new Principal Sponsor Wilton Recycling.
Brand new whiter than white shirts were donned by the top men in the driving seats that will bring this iconic rally together in jets in a few weeks’ time.
Trainer doors were dropped and some of the latest in rallying technology was revealed as the mechanics fired up the hundreds of horsepower before making their way through the crowds into the showroom.
Jim Callaghan Clerk of the Course on many occasions having a chat with Charlie Collins at the rally press conference. Photo Brian McDaid.
The first of the Wilton Press Releases were handed out which confirmed that top names would be heading to the Hills to compete in Donegal.
Rodney Wilton was introduced as their new sponsor and as he addressed the packed showroom he talked with pride about Donegal and what it meant for him to have his company involved with Rally. He even went on to tell us that it was a Donegal man that was the vital link in setting his company up.
Seamus Neely the former County Manager for the Donegal Co. Council was mentioned and without him, Wilton Waste Recycling might not be what it is today. Seamus Neely and his son Ciaran were at the press conference and Rodney took pride in getting a photo taken with the boys from Manorcunningham.
Rodney Wilton from Wilton Recycling Principal Sponsor of the Donegal International Rally pictured with Ciaran and Seamus Neely. Photo Brian Mc Daid.
Running parallel to the rally press conference is an annual pilgrimage by rally folk who arrived on the evening of the rally.
Boys like Jim Callaghan who was there from the start were called up by MC for the evening Charlie Collins looking out through his glasses with tinted glasses over them he talked about far of days of the Donegal when he had many rolls including a few of Clerk of the Course on a few occasions.
The Mac Seamus Mc Gettigan and Vincent Bonnar first Donegal winners were there, now joint Presidents of the Donegal Motor Club, as the Burma boys Charlie Collin and Seamus Mc Gettigan exchanged pleasantries. (Or words to that effect!)
The evening sun was blinding the guests as it set in the west as eyes glazed over in memories of friends that we caught up with at the rally evening and the ones that we missed as we got lost in the moment when the Donegal Rally came to pass every year.
I know Manus Kelly would have been very proud of his wife Bernie and daughter Bella who were there in the crowd on Friday night to represent the triple winner of the rally. On a lighter note I got a telling off from former Clerk of the Course Matt Doherty (nothing new there ) for not calling in to see him when I was recently down in Knockalla and didn’t call in to see him for a cuppa and a yarn on that classic coast road.
Bernie Kelly at the 2023 Donegal Rally Press Conference. Photo Brian Mc Daid.
The one and only Matt Doherty former Clerk of the Course for many Donegal International Rally pictured at the Rally Press Conference for the 2023 Wilton Recycling Donegal Rally. Photo Brian Mc Daid
Stealing the show.
The press launch was a big night and everyone was looking their very best, cars looking great, T’s crossed and I’s dotted.
That man that really stole the show about the Donegal Motor Club and what it means to us was Micheal Chance.
Michael Chance in an original Donegal Castrol International Rally shirt for the 1980’s at the Rally Press Conference. Photo Brian Mc Daid.
The Drumbarnett farmer landed at the press conference decked out in an original Castrol Donegal International Rally T-shirt. Memories of days in the seventies and eighties were rekindled when Castrol was the principal sponsor along with the Ballyraine Hotel.
The days of the Ballyriane Bugle, Porsche Carreras and Lancia Stratos where rallying folklore was created on the weekend of the Donegal Rally. Chance was the man that had us travelling back to the days of Donegal all them years ago.
Thanks for the memories Micheal.
