Clodagh Finn: We are made of stories. It’s time to tell yours

Letitia and Naomi Overend with Letitia's Rolls Royce. Picture: Courtesy of the Airfield, Dundrum and the OPW-Maynooth University Archive and Research Centre

It might not be the time to extol the virtues of a fuel-inefficient luxury car, but Letitia Overend, philanthropist, farmer, and amateur mechanic, couldn’t say enough for the Rolls Royce she bought in 1927 for £1,700. It never gave her a day’s bother in 50 years, she said.

Her sister Naomi drove a 1936 Austin Tickford and was an equally keen motoring enthusiast. Their respective cars gave them both a freedom unusual in the 1930s and ’40s and they used it to travel to vintage car rallies, visit family, and explore the country from their base at Airfield Estate in the centre of Dublin.