The Shamrock was a car produced in Ireland for a brief period during the 1950's.
The business was established by an American businessman in Tralee, Co. Kerry, but was moved to Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, before production began. The aim was to produce a large luxury car model for export to the US market.
Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. Another problem was the fact since the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels, a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle. The car used fibreglass body panels.
Eventually, only ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local Lough Muckno.
The car is now very rare, and only three are believed to be still in existence, two in Ireland (Killarney and Drogheda), and one in the USA (Reno, Nevada). The Drogheda car is believed to be the only one still occasionally used on the road.