Brian McDaid and 'Betsy' complete Drive of Ireland for Donegal Hospice

It felt almost perverse for Brian McDaid that he had a nervousness pulling into the NCT Centre on Wednesday morning.

Before Christmas, as he readied to embark on his Drive of Ireland - a fundraising voyage for the Donegal Hospice - he booked his trusted 06 Toyota Passo, nicknamed ‘Betsy’, in for the test.

At around 9.15am, the Letterkenny photographer described himself as ‘like someone in a labour ward’ as he watched the testers get to work.

With almost 200,000km on the clock, the Passo’s three-cylinder engine gave a confident rev. Sure enough, it passed with flying colours.

“She flew through,” Brian, whose trek took him around 1,800km around Ireland. An iDonate page has lifted almost €12,000 but the true amount, when taking into account a deluge of personal donations, is upwards on €19,000.

“I really wanted her to pass the test and there wasn’t one thing up. That was the cream for me, the car passing the test and I wasn’t sure before I left if I would be bothered about it. She flew through without even a yellow mark.”

Brian McDaid with staff at the Donegal Hospice.

He returned to the Donegal Hospice on Tuesday afternoon, met by Hospice staff and some well-wishers. They included the Letterkenny-Milford MD Mayor Councillor Kevin Bradley, who waved him off on January 2.

Letterkenny navigator Rory Kennedy, who won multiple Circuits of Ireland alongside the late Bertie Fisher, was there too. Indeed, Kennedy provided constant encouragement and gave McDaid the map of his Circuit of Ireland victory with Fisher in 1999.

Letterkenny rallying legend James Cullen won Group N at the 1993 Circuit of Ireland Rally and in Mac’s Mace on Tuesday presented McDaid with the award he was given 31 years ago.

“Sometimes you don’t put value on the local man,” McDaid says. “James followed me down to Mac’s and that meant so much.

“The Circuit was a huge thing for us. We always went on Good Friday and we’d follow it around Ulster, but every so often we would go the whole weekend.”

'Betsy' on the Drive of Ireland

He attended his first Circuit of Ireland in 1980 alongside his brother Nelius and the late Andy Hegarty when Ari Vatican and Jimmy McRae went head-to-head, Vatican in an RS1800 and McRea winning a Chevette 2300.

Along the way, he visited the gravestone of Fisher and caught up with members of the extended Fisher family. He met Garry Jennings in Kesh and it was a week packed with nostalgia.

“It was just a continuous flow of meeting people - people I didn’t even know who remembered that I had taken their photograph for the paper,” he says. “One girl remembered me having gone to take a photo of tickets she won to see Blur and actually delivering the tickets to her.”

McDaid, who completed a Mini to Monte Carlo fundraiser in 2005 in memory of his friend Eamonn Harvey, bought the Passo from a family who lived not far from him in Glencar having spotted an ad on Facebook.

He passed some iconic locations on his journey, going through Molls Gap and Healy Pass, each revered stages on the Circuit of Ireland, and the memories and miles - not to mention the money from donations - rose in unison. He is indebted to the almost countless people who have given support by whatever means or forum in recent weeks.

His start day, January 2, was the anniversary of the death of his mother, Mary Ellen, when he was just five years old and Thursday represents his own 60th birthday.

“I just want a quiet birthday now,” he says.