The late Hugh Doyle

Ballivor Vintage Car Festival remembers Hugh Doyle

The late Hugh Doyle will be remembered at the Ballivor Vintage Car Festival which takes place this Sunday 1st May in Ballivor village. 
The COVOC Norman Pratt Vintage Run will arrive to Ballivor at 12.15pm when there will be family fun and entertainment with a monster raffle. Based in Kells, Celtic Old Vehicles Owners Club (COVOC) has just entered its 24th year and is rated the second most dynamic club in Ireland. Annual hosts of the Norman Pratt Vintage Run, membership of the COVOC has reached over the 150 mark and owners and enthusiasts are attracted countrywide as well as local members from Co Meath.
The run was named after the club’s founder, Norman Pratt, who regrettably passed away on the occasion of the premier club run in 1991.
Owners and enthusiasts of classic, vintage and veteran vehicles, including cars, vans, tractors, motor bikes and even fire engines, enter this car rally annually. Local charities, including Meath Hospice and the Heart & Stroke Foundation, have benefited greatly from the annual event.
Ballivor Community Council, first formed in 1977, has been involved since 1991 with the Norman Pratt Run and it has become a tradition since the very beginning of the run to stop over in Ballivor for a few hours.
This year, Ballivor Community Council elected to acknowledge the late Hugh Doyle. Hugh died at the end of May last year in a road collision returning from a vintage rally. It was through being chairman of COVOC that Ballivor Community Council encountered Hugh and he became the link, in that capacity, for all arrangements made to ensure the smooth running of the Norman Pratt Vintage Run held in the village annually.
A true gentleman, Hugh showed outstanding energy and inspiration in his love of vintage and veteran vehicles and it is in this capacity Ballivor Community Council is proud to award the Hugh Doyle Most Original Irish Car at this year’s festival.