Teenager drives tractor from Toomevara to Killarney

A teenager from Toomevara has driven a vintage tractor from his home parish to Killarney to raise funds for research to prevent cancer and support and help those who have contracted the disease.

Colin Kennedy (19) had planned to take on a similar challenge last year but was forced to abandon his plans due to the pandemic and after being hospitalised when he badly injured his foot in an accident.

Over the past year his father Roy, a self-described ‘Jack of all trades’, spent a lot of his spare time restoring a John Deere 3130 for his son to drive to Killarney.

“I sourced the old tractor, a 1971 model, in Kilbarron and brought it home to do it up,” Roy told The Guardian. “It was parked up for a number of years seemingly, and it was in a very rough state when I got it.”

To undertake the journey to Kerry, Colin’s plan was to join members of the Nobber Vintage Club in County Meath who had set out days earlier for their annual charity vintage rally to Killarney and finish off by driving around the Ring of Kerry.

There was great excitement when the rally stopped off to pick up Colin at his home on the Golden Mile (on the old N7) in Toomevara on Thursday last, where they spent over an hour being treated to refreshments of all sorts by the Kennedy family before resuming their journey.

This year the group is raising funds for the Marie Keating Foundation and Colin has been helping with their fundraising venture and will gladly accept donations. The rally to Kerry has so far raised €10,000 for the foundation, which was set up by former Boyzone star Ronan Keating and other members of the Keating family following their mother Marie’s death from breast cancer in 1998. The foundation provides people with vital information, advice and support on the signs and symptoms of cancer and help to prevent cancer or detect it at its earliest stages.

The big worry for the Kennedy family, and Roy particularly, was that the tractor, being such an old vehicle, might not make it all the way from Toomevara to Killarney. But it did.

“You would be worried about a leak of oil or something I might have missed in the restoration job, but I’m delighted to say that the engine never missed a beat,” said Roy, who admitted it that it had been very difficult to find some of the spare parts he required to carry out the restoration.

OTHER TRACTOR

Last year, after scouring the country for spare parts, the father and son restored a 1961 Massy Ferguson 35 tractor that had been destroyed in a fire years earlier.

The plan had been for Colin to join members of Nobber Vintage Club for their 2020 rally to Kerry to raise funds for prostate cancer research. But then Colin injured his foot and was forced to abandon his plans, and the entire event had to be cancelled anyway do to the pandemic.

Colin finished his studies at Borrisokane Community College last year and such is the interest he got from working with his father on vintage machinery that he is now contemplating doing a third level course in mechanical engineering.

Dad Roy loves restoring old machinery and his pride and joy is the 1985 white Ford Lincoln he restored and which is parked and adorns the driveway of his home.

Roy is a committed member of the the Nenagh Classic Car Club and he drives and shows his coveted Ford in all their events.