22/03/2026
A few words of Thanks from the COC.
What a weekend! Three serious days rallying, the best weather we could have hoped for and a great few days spent in the company of soo many wonderful people. Soo good, in fact, that its taken me a week to get my thoughts together on what was a brilliant 2026 event.
There are soo many of those people I want to thank, although I could thank every single person who makes the West Cork Rally such a great event every year, this year especially.
To my deputy's Greg McCarthy & Ger Hayes, along with Jim Healy, Donal and Martin Godfrey and Sean Hayes, the incredible team at Cork Motor Club and all those that assist in soo many roles, from Paula McCarthy on entries and sign-on with Jane Delaney, Niall O'Keeffe and team in the office, Brian & Phil O'Connell looking after the emergency services, Michael Coleman as Club Safety, Kevin O'Driscoll looking after Press & Media, Cian Donnellan on the Socials, Barry Duggan in the Tracking Room and my wonderful company for the weekend Darren McCarthy and Ciara Roberts who both put in huge effort in the run up to the event. Thank you all!
To John Harrington and his team of timekeepers working with Nial Murphy, Joe Eustace & Laurence Hartigan in the results room, a huge round of applause. CMC are the only club who run their own timing system, and the speed and accuracy of the results all weekend was an absolute credit and a sign of how impressive our club is at introducing innovation like this and improving it year-on-year.
Jerry Murphy, Robert Walsh & Ger Leahy, along with the help of many more, once more put together the 2026 Official Programme, and anyone that picked one up is sure to comment what an incredible publication it was once again! Thanks also to Martin Walsh of the Irish examiner and southern star for all his coverage.
To Connie Delaney and the Service team, the place was kept perfect right across the weekend, and I'd also like to thank the businesses of the Technology Park in Clonakilty who allow us to use their facility for the weekend. Special mention to Radu Groza who ran the Re-Fuel area soo brilliantly, and it was complimented by the President of MI.
To Noel Devlin and all his team in Parc Ferme who this year got to make use of the mythical Multi-Story Car Park and made it run soo smoothly, I thank you.
To Ronan Comerford & Ann-Marie O'Driscoll and the huge amount of Marshals you organised for the weekend, thank you all very much. Stages don't run without you, and the standard of setup as officials passed through the stages was a huge help as we delivered every stage to the competitors in a perfect condition.
We can't have events like the West Cork Rally without people giving up their day and marshal the huge amount of junctions on our stages, so thank you all very much. We had people travel from the other end of the country and from the other end of Clonakilty, but every single one of you were vital in making the event happen, allowing all the stages to run in full and ensuring our competitors had a safe and enjoyable event.
Special thanks aswell to Martin Godfrey who looked after the PR weekend which went great, and with his wife Mag they helped massivly with the Marshal Voucher draws, and massive well done to the winners.
To the competitors, what can I say. Thank you all soo much for choosing to spend your St. Patrick's weekend with us in Clonakilty. We hope you enjoyed the event we put on, and we would love to have you all back again in 2027. I'd especially like to congratulate Josh & Andy in joining a special group of three-time West Cork winners. Incredible driving all weekend!
To those competitors who's rallies ended abruptly with a visit to the scenery, I hope you are feeling better and on the mend, and that we'll see you back next year. I especially want to thanks the incredible Medical Teams & Emergency Personel who attended a number of incidents over the weekend but showcased their incredible professionalism by ensuring those involved were cared for perfectly and I knew they were in the safest hands possible.
To my stage commanders, ye all worked like trojans alongside your teams to deliver some of the finest stages I think West Cork has ever seen!
To Ed Twomey and the Clonakilty Committee, hats off once again. The work that the team do in the community is often unseen, but soo much of the rallyies success is as a result of the hard work of this group who engage year round with local business who welcome our event back with open arms year on year. The Committee were the team behind the wonderful Thursday Night Welcome Party, the Friday Night Town Centre Stage Start and the Sunday Finish Ramp, each a huge part of the event.
To David Henry & his team in the Clonakilty Park Hotel I thank you for the wonderful reception we received once again, and a huge thanks to all the sponsors who come on board year on year to support the event.
Special word of thanks goes to Sgt Donal Daly and all the the Gardaí on the ground who helped with the smooth running of the rally.
Finally, I must thank my wife Claire and son Nathan, as they allow me to give my all to this wonderful event year on year, and they support me through the good and bad days. Thank you soo much.
There are hundreds more lines that could be written about hundreds of great people that help out on an event like the West Cork, but to everyone that played a part, I wanna say Thank You!
After five incredible events delivered (including a few early false starts), every kind of issue thrown my way but each overcome by the brilliant team around me and some lifelong memories made, it's time to hand back the badge and leave a new Sheriff take the reigns. 2027 is a big year as the West Cork Rally celebrates 50 years, and there is only one man for the job, eh Greg!
Irish Tarmac Rally Championship
Southern 4 Rally Championship
Irish Examiner
The Southern Star
