A whif of nostalgia, leather, and the odd plume of petrol were in the air when Jane McNamara attended the inaugural Cork International Car Show in the first weekend of April.

For anyone whizzing by Ballinascarthy on the N71, it’s hard to miss the gleaming stainless steel statue of an iconic Model T Ford.

Launched in 1992, the Ford Mondeo chalks up its 25th anniversary this year.

When Ford launched the new Fiesta in 1976, it signalled the company’s entry into the burgeoning ‘baby car’ or ‘supermini’ market.

The first half of the 1940s saw the Marina plant virtually shut down due to wartime problems. The workers there survived on scraps, while others moved to blitz-hit Dagenham to find jobs.

When John Dolan attended an outing with Muskerry Vintage Car Club, he was struck by the number of members driving classic Fords.

When Ford opened a UK plant in Dagenham in 1931, so many men from Leeside got work in the Essex town that it became known as ’Little Cork’. Cork balladeer Jimmy Crowley remembers his family links to it.

Ford Cork workers Noreen O’Mahony and Michael Ring went on an unusual first date — a spinning fitness class.

What was life on the Ford production line in Cork like? Here, John Brennan, who worked in the factory from 1948 to 1952, gives a vivid insight into his job.

Ford collector Michael Rigney tells Jessica Casey about his passion for the brand and the one ultra-rare motor that is missing from his remarkable line-up of classics.

Dan McCarthy speaks to the people taking over at the new An Oige hostel as it moves to Wellington Road.

Ford was once a pillar of employment in Cork but their plant in Dagenham was also huge employer for generations of Irish in England. With our economic relationship facing the threat of Brexit, Robert Mulhern spoke to retired workers about an industrial link that uprooted Irish villages and planted them in what was then Europe’s biggest factory

Pashcal Fenton with his Ford Cortina. The car originally belonged to his father-in-law.

 

Adrian Kelleher shows us around his 1975 Chevrolet El Camino pick up

LAST week, Ford had motoring hacks from all over Europe in Barcelona to test its new-generation ST models — including a diesel that is definitely not as exciting as the petrol, but which may account for 45% of sales. This week, in Cologne, they unveiled the new RS, which should shake up the high-performance hatch market.

It requires serious renovation but this West Cork building comes with motoring history.

In 1982, the country was stunned by a series of scandals. Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey inspired the sobriquet “GUBU” in describing one but a truly grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented event went essentially unnoticed in Kerry.

Wheels within wheels — an appropriate new use has been found for part of the giant, old Cork Ford factory — it’s to host whizzing karts, on a brand new indoors track.

Three businessmen give their views on Budget 2015.

Ford Ireland has launched a ‘Motorcraft 5+ Service’ offer which is targeted at owners of Fords which are five years or older.

TO this day the legend persists that if only the parish priests hadn’t got involved, Ballinscarthy in West Cork would have its own Ford factory.

Glowing tributes were paid last night to the only public representative to have served 40 consecutive years in Cork’s City Hall.

An archive exhibition celebrates the work of Cork theatrical legend James N Healy, writes Colette Sheridan

Despite a tough economic environment, the Everyman has a rich and varied summer programme, says Colette Sheridan

They didn’t call Paddy Martin The Champ for nothing.

A North Korean colonel who went on European shopping sprees for his country’s rulers has told how the late dictator Kim Il Sung lived in luxury while ordinary people struggled to survive in the impoverished communist nation.

The number of new cars licensed in Ireland last month was almost half the figure for the same month last year.

The total number of new cars licensed in Ireland last month was more than 73% lower than the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the CSO.

IT’S rare to find a site as large as that at number two, Bishopscourt Avenue. This detached corner house has a large back garden, but it also includes a sweep of extra ground on its right-hand side, maybe enough to build another house.

Sebastien Loeb’s immaculate start to the World Rally Championship continued with victory on the Rally of Portugal, his fourth win out of four events in 2009.

THE Government must deliver a range of tax breaks in the budget to kickstart the multi-billion regeneration of Cork’s docklands, business leaders demanded last night.

NEW car sales are slowing to a halt after a 41% drop in models sold last month.

Reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb won the Acropolis Rally in Greece today to reclaim the lead in the drivers’ championship.

Car sales appear to be the latest area to suffer as a result of the economic slowdown.

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb edged closer to the top of the World Rally drivers' standings after holding off a valiant fightback by BP Ford duo Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala to win the Rally of Italy.

A sequence of unlikely events conspired to keep Citroen’s Dani Sordo at the head of the Jordan Rally standings at the end of day two.

Reigning four-time world champion Sebastien Loeb recovered from a difficult start to the Jordan Rally today to sit ominously just one second off the lead at the end of the first leg.

DEAR MINISTER, I know this is the busiest and most difficult time of year for you. Every Minister for Finance faces an enormous range of choices in the run-up to the budget, and this year will be no exception.

WELFARE payments have increased dramatically, despite the economic boom of recent years, with more than one million people now in receipt of State supports.

Reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb produced a masterful second half of the day to lead the standings after leg one of the rally of Corsica.

They have cut thousands of jobs, closed plants and tried to shift their products away from trucks and sport utility vehicles, but the three US-based carmakers still are not making money in North America, the place that made them industrial powerhouses.