Paddy Hopkirk won at Monte Carlo, a race that caught the world’s imagination

On pages 14 to 17 and in sport we remember the Ulster rally driver Paddy Hopkirk.

Hopkirk won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964.

It is hard perhaps for younger readers to understand that exotic nature of that victory.

The Monte Carlo Rally, from its inception in 1911, reflected the promise of the car in the early days of motoring.

The end destination was the glamorous, wealthy enclave of Monaco, on the French Riviera, near Italy.

The racers set off from across Europe.

When Hopkirk won in the early 1960s, the continent had been ravaged by war less than 20 years previously.

But the horror of conflict had given way to the excitement and optimism of pop music and mass TV and travel.

And it was an Ulsterman, in a mini, the car that epitomised the era, who won that race, which had such a hold on the imagination of people around the world.

Hopkirk was an early Northern Ireland sporting great, like the golfer Fred Daly, and just ahead of the soccer star George Best. He was followed by Mary Peters, who spread such joy in that dark year of 1972, the Formula One winner John Watson, and later the snooker stars Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, on to the more recent NI sporting greats including Joey Dunlop an Rory McIlroy.

Hopkirk was not just a victor but a big personality, fitting for a rally driver. NI is a small community and we bask in the success of our stars like Hopkirk, a man who will be much missed.

Sporting icon Paddy Hopkirk ‘put Northern Ireland on the world stage’