The Shamrock - an Irish made American car

At next month’s RIAC National Classic Car Show at the RDS in Dublin, a running 17-foot Shamrock car will be on display. Only a handful of the now vintage cars were ever made.

Event manager Bob Montgomery said, "Originally it was planned to produce about 10,000 cars a year from their Irish manufacturing plant. Unfortunately, the project never got that far.”

The Shamrock car was originally designed for the American market by visiting American industrialist William Curtis who wanted to start a car manufacturing business in Ireland.

The Irish-made cars were only manufactured for a short time at a factory in Castleblaney in Co Monaghan. Before the project was shut down in the early 1960s for financial difficulties, the car model was lauded for its beauty, styling and elegance.