4 year old Ben O’Donovan from Kinsale at the Kinsale pitstop of Cannonball 2022 in aid of Cork charity The Hope Foundation on Friday.

Cannonball revs across Munster

Last weekend Cannonball Ireland returned to Cork for its first road trip since 2019, wowing thousands of spectators.

The largest organised road trip in Europe, this year’s event had the highest ever number of car entries, which included Ferraris, McLarens, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Maseratis, Lamoborghinis, Aston Martins and Porsches and travelled over 1,000km of Irish roads.

The Cannonball event has already raised €1.2million for many Irish charities, and has surpassed €250,000 for the HOPE Foundation, the official charity partner for this year’s event. Founded in 2009, this year’s event started from Malahide Castle and headed to Cork last Friday, taking in a stop in Fermoy, going around Cork city and heading down to Kinsale for another stop.

From there, it was on to Killarney via Innishannon, Crookstown, Macroom and Ballyvourney. Day 2 went from Killarney to Sligo while day 3 finished up in Trim.

Spectators turned out in their thousands to get up close and personal with over 200 supercars and to enjoy the incredible atmosphere that the Cannonball event is renowned for.

Some special guests taking part in the road trip included Alan Clarke, David Cuddy and Dave Moore from Today FM.

At the first finish line at The Brehon, over 500 entrants were treated to live music, food stations and dessert stands throughout the hotel.

“We were delighted to welcome back Cannonball, which provided over 265 bedrooms to hotels in Killarney on Friday. The Brehon is a venue renowned for incredible events, and we were honoured to have been chosen as the venue for this year’s event,” said Sinead McCarthy, General Manager at The Brehon.

“The event is for such amazing charities, and we were delighted to hear that this the event has surpassed their target of €250,000 for this year’s charity partners, the HOPE foundation.”

Executive Chef Chad Byrne said: “Our team pulled out all the stops for this year’s event with some incredible food. Specialty tacos, burger baskets, vegan bites and Irish style spice boxes were some of the menu offerings with some tasty sweet additions from our talented pastry team.”

Anyone who wishes to donate can still do so by visiting cannonball.ie. For more on events at The Brehon, contact Events Manager Caitriona Ashe by email, caitriona.ashe@thebrehon.com.