Offaly rugby star's 32 Songs in 32 counties over two days

TWO former professional rugby players, Peter Bracken (Tullamore RFC, Connacht, Wasps, Ireland A) and Mikey Smyth (Terenure RFC, Connacht) are on for a bit of fun, song, and craic this weekend Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd May as they drive around the 32 counties of Ireland in a fully electric VW ID4 car.

Cloneygowan man Peter Bracken won a Heineken Cup medal with London Wasps in 2007 and also toured with the Irish senior rugby side but unfortunately didn't win a cap. A former Offaly minor footballer, he has been championing the benefits of electric cars in his social media outlets in recent years.

The lads aim is to have the craic, sing some songs, raise some funds for the MAC autism charity which Peter is involved with and highlight that a fully electric car can do the job.

They will be on Facebook live from their respective Facebook pages throughout the weekend singing a county song as they enter each county. Mickey, now a professional musician, will be doing the singing (Mikey Smyth Music) and Peter Bracken will be doing most of the driving. “Nobody wants to hear me sing so I’ll spare people that torture” joked Peter.

The men will be joined by a special guest singer from Offaly as they pass through the county. “Ah, he’d be well known to be fair,” remarked Bracken, who now lives in Castlebar, Mayo.

“We’re starting from Mikey’s house in the big smoke and heading straight towards the Faithful County. We should be there by 10/11am ish. It depends how excited Mikey gets in his singing. He’s known to keep playing passed a schedule! The whole intention is to have some craic without over planning it. It’s a bit like waiting for a delivery and they give you a 4-hour window of when the delivery driver will arrive. We’ll head from Uibh Fhaili towards The Deise across then to the Rebel county up past the Kingdom, on towards the Banner county and eventually an over night stay in Mayo. On Sunday morning we’ll set off inwards towards Cavan, then up to Donegal, around the 6 counties and then back down towards a finish in the Pale,” Bracken revealed.

The former prop forward added:

“We’ll be charging the car and our bellies as we go. It’s not a race, we’ll go with the flow, see where things take us. We’ll give people a few hours’ notice of an estimated time of arrival to different counties, exactly where we’ll be etc as we’re travelling. If anyone wants to meet us, sing a song with us, you’re more than welcome. All social distance protocols will be adhered to.

“Thanks to Connolly Motors in Ballina, Co. Mayo for giving us the lend of the car to do the trip. It’s a brand new all-electric SUV so I can’t wait to get behind the wheel. I haven’t driven it before so I can’t wait. Paul McGuinness in Connolly’s is a sound man and knows all about electric cars and vans, he’s helped me out before with electric car stuff like this which is mighty”.

Donations can be made on THIS LINK.

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