For the fourth year in a row, the Jackie Clarke Collection, always at the heart of heritage and history in Ballina is pleased to announce the return of the Irish Defence Forces team, who are stationed at the Curragh Camp, along with their Ford Mk VI Armoured Car.
This fantastic piece of history will be on display on Walsh Street on Heritage Day July 12th 2017, where the Defence Forces team will be on hand to share the history of this car.
Due to an unavailability of armoured vehicles for the Defence Forces from external sources during the Emergency, it was decided to produce vehicles designed by the Defence Forces in Ireland. One of these vehicles was the Ford Mk VI. Twenty-eight of these vehicles were produced by Thompson & Sons of Carlow, twenty-one on new chassis and the remaining seven on chassis’ withdrawn from military service. These vehicles would see service throughout the state during the Emergency and were mostly used for border patrols.
In 1961, a total of eleven Ford armoured cars were deployed with Irish Army personnel to Congo as part the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC). While these cars were quite old at this stage, it is a testament to their crews and maintenance staff that six of the eleven cars were handed over in running order to the Congolese forces for their peacekeeping mission when the Irish withdrew. The vehicles stayed in service until 1970.
This event at the Jackie Clarke Collection has been kindly sponsored by the Ballina Manor Hotel. For more information please call 096 73805 or email aforbes@mayococo.ie.
Other events in the Jackie Clarke Collection on National Heritage Day
- Falconry Display with Mount Falcon’s Birds of Prey at 2pm in the Community Garden
- Moy Fisheries Exhibition
- Children’s Heritage games in the Courtyard
- Curation of the Heritage Quarter featuring a number of local heritage tourist attractions
- Live music
