| Personal Stories (4) | | | | Eddie's Story | | | CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Meet rotary-mad Eddy Doyle - a man who has overcome his disability with an overwhelming passion for Mazda Wankel-engined cars. In fact, he's got way more cars than he can fit in his drive.
Eddy Doyle has some pretty good neighbours. No, scratch that, they are really brilliant. The reason? Because Eddy likes his Mazdas. He really likes them - and his passion for Mazdas in general, and rotaries in particular, means that his driveway and the road outside his house, just south of Dublin, are heavily populated. Some are his own cars, some are for sale, and some are being worked on for other people. But regardless of how they've got there, you can always find Eddy's house because of that is parked outside. And his neighbours don't mind, at all!
'Maybe the wheelchair helps,' he jokes. Yes, Eddy's story is all the more remarkable for the fact that he's wheelchair-bound. His life changed for ever in September 1999, when he was out on a Sunday motorbike ride with a group of his buddies. Eddy was leading the way through a small village when a myopic teenager drove a van into his path and caused Eddy to have his first crash on a road bike in 19 years of riding. It left Eddy paralysed from the chest down, effectively ending his two-wheeled career. 'After the accident, I said I would turn the bike into a trike, but rotary cars have been taking over my life.'
Eddy's first taste of rotary-powered machinery came way back in 1981, but it was two-wheeled rather than four. No, it wasn't an RX-7 front-clip, it was that rare and strange beast, a Suzuki RE5 rotary motorbike. Of 1975 vintage, the RE5 harked back to when Suzuki was a two-stroke builder and wasn't ready to follow Honda down the cam-and-valve route, and was looking for the next big thing. Unfortunately, the single-rotor RE5 wasn't it: it was too big, too complicated and Eddy is one of them. 'I bought it because it looked so good, it handled OK, had a top speed of 112mph, and revved to the redline with ease.' And Eddy knows his bikes - he raced them on track from the age of 17 to 35.
The first foray into four-wheeled rotaries came in 1999, when he bought a 1990 RX-7 Generation 2 convertible, just eight weeks before his accident. 'At the time, third-gen cars were way too expensive,' he remembers. 'I saw the convertible in my local paper for less than the going price.' Adapted for hand controls, it proved a very enjoyable car - but he never realised that buying that one RX-7 would lead to such an obsession in the following years.
Although there was plenty to recommend it, the convertible had a small problem: an unquenchable thirst for oil. While the engine seemed to run OK, the James Bond-style smoke screen that followed it around was a bit off-putting. Happily, a spare engine came as part of the deal, so all Eddy had to do was to do was to rebuild the motor and he could drive around smoke-free.
Obviously, the accident slowed things right down but, as soon as he was able to get back on the spanners, he started stripping the spare motor. A mate helped to remove one engine and refit the other, and the car has been running sweetly ever since. 'I've left it standard apart from the wheels. The convertible is a great car the way it is. And I will never sell it!'
Fettling this engine was something of a turning point for Eddy, as his obsession with rotaries began to take hold. He has since bought a plethora of cars with engines in need of attention. The fact that he can nav
igate his way around the weird, piston-less, valve-less motor has become known throughout the car community in his part of southern Ireland - and he's been rebuilding Rex engines for other mechanics, as well as for Mazda owners who have heard the word-of-mouth recommendations spreading throughout the rotary fraternity.
There are some good reasons why Eddy has a steady supply of rotaries to mend. RX-7s are popular and relatively inexpensive imports, so there are lots of used ones on Irish, often with heavily tweaked engines. They need the best fuel possible, but Ireland has absolutely no supply of super unleaded petrol. Even though you can drive into a petrol station that looks just like a Shell garage in the UK, Irish V-Power fuel isn't super unleaded, at all, it's just ordinary 95RON. So whereas a car in the UK can be fed V-Power - or any of the other super unleaded high-octane fuels - and it will have a fighting chance of being weaned off its preferred diet of Japanese 100RON, Irish owners don't have this option.
Then there's the problem of actually getting a new ECU fitted and mapped to suit the rotary engine's needs. 'I tell owners to fit an A 'PEXi Power FC and get it mapped for 95RON fuel,' Eddy states, 'and I impress on them that they have to get it mapped in the UK, because there is no one over here who can do it!'
Having enjoyed his RX-7 convertible so much, Eddy couldn't resist the bug and, two years later, bought another RX-7, a Generation 3 FD this time. He ran it for two years before he sold it on and moved up the rotary ladder with his next Mazda RX purchase in 2003.
Eddy’s enthuasiasm for rotary-powered cars has spread to his close family, too. His brother, Mark, helps out with the engine removals and reinstallations and Eddy’s wife runs an RX-8. “It looks great but is crap on petrol!, jokes Eddy. | | | | Frank's Story | | | I Thought My Life Was Over - These are the thoughts of one very lucky Sligo farmer.
On the 5th of September 2002 I went to my brother's yard in order to prepare a trailer for collecting grain. I placed a ladder on the trailer and climbed up to take the cribs off. The ladder slipped and I was thrown over the top of the trailer and on to the concrete yard. The height from which I fell was 12 feet.
I was seen by my G.P. as soon as possible at the scene of the accident (approximately 20 minutes). I was then transferred immediately to the Casualty Department of Sligo General Hospital where I had thirty four sutures inserted into my head.
My wife Margaret, who was a Public Health Nurse in Ballina, became aware of the accident on her return home from work that evening. She came to the hospital immediately to see me. She was very pleased when I could talk to her, thinking that I had only sustained a laceration to my head. I was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit for the night.
The following morning the surgeon from Sligo General Hospital telephoned Margaret to say that my injuries were very serious and that plans were underway to have me transferred to the Spinal Injuries Unit at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. I then thought that my life was over and that I may die.
I was eight weeks in the Mater Hospital and then transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. While in the NRH, I developed a complication arising from my immobility for the past eight weeks. I had a clot on my lung which was life threatening.
I was transferred to Loughlinstown Hospital for treatment for the clot on my lung. I recovered and went back to the NRH. I was still totally dependent on others for all my needs.
I was discharged home in January 2003 to continue with all the exercises I had been doing in the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Departments in the hospital.
I have returned several times to the Mater and the Rehabilitation hospitals for check ups where I had been cared for so well following my accident. I was one of the lucky ones to have survived this horrific accident and regained my full mobility. The reason that I am sending my story for publication in the 'Spinal News' magazine is that it may help in preventing farm accidents such as mine.
The following is what I would like to see being done on Irish farms:
1. That farmers, young and old, would become more aware of the dangers on the farm.
2. When a driver gets off his tractor that he makes sure to disengage his PTO.
3. Do not allow young children in and around machinery.
4. All modern tractors have computers. These can be very dangerous if the wrong button is pressed, with young children in the cabs.
I am now back on my farm, healthy and active and driving my tractor. Thanks to my G.P. and all the medical and nursing staff of the three hospitals, the Mater, the National Rehabilitation Hospital and Loughlinstown Hospital. Thanks also for the great support given to me by my family, many friends and neighbours. | | | | Paddy's Story | | | My name is Paddy Slattery, I'm 27 years old, born and raised in Ireland. 8 years ago I suffered a spinal cord injury in a RTA (Road Traffic Accident), and have remained a quadreplegic ever since. My life consists of many physical challanges and dependancies, which only serve to drive me forward in life, further testing my limitations and potiental. There’s many reasons I wanted to record an album, but two reasons in particular...
The main reason for 'Stand and Deliver' is that I wanted to do exactly what the album title suggested. I've had to spend the last few years of my life being dependant on others, and for once I want people to know they can depend on me. Diss-abled means cannot-do, yet I feel I CAN-do, far more than I ever dreamt possible. In fact, disability is a frame of mind, in every sense of the word, like a barrier surrounding your imagination, restricting dreams and freedom. Denying you the realisation of your true potiental. My life is like a blank canvas without that frame, so I feel free to express myself without fear of the restrictions we call disability, and hopefully by doing this you'll see the real me, that sees, feels, laughs and cries, just like everyone else. I look forward to a day when I shouldn’t feel it nessessary to always prove myself to the world. Perhaps I don’t, who knows... anyways... this is me, standing up and being counted..
This album is also my way of saying thanks to all my family and friends for the unconditional love and support. Their dedication is my salvation!! To them I owe my life... in some cases, literally!... and I'll be forever indepted to them.
Singing is responsible for restoring the muscle function in my partially paralysed lungs...so, thank god I love to sing.
Songwriting, storytelling and poetry are my main sourse of psychotherapy, through which I can vent all my pent up emotions and desires, be it agression, depression, obsessions. Whatever the case may be. I also get to indulge in my fantasies by bringing stories out of my imagination, into the reality of a song and when I sing it, I'm not only feeling a sense of achievment for creating something out of nothing. I'm also exercising my diaphragm!!. Happy days :)
Stand and Deliver
(The Reasons and the Goals)
Stand and Deliver is something I've conciously decided I'd have to do, in many aspects of my life, emotionally rather than physically, in an attempt to constantly prove to myself, and more importantly everyone else that although I may be severly physically disabled, I am, in fact, more abled than I could have ever imagined. It's kind of ironic that this slogan's acronym would spell SAD. Perhaps it is sad that I must feel I have to constantly better myself, but in a world where you are constantly seen as inferior to everyone else, it probablly seems like a natural thing to do. Nor will I rest until I've achieved this ridiculous goal.
It helps to have a certain level of self-confidence and ambition, probably two of the most vital ingredients in life when all you desire is to be a success rather than a failure, but it's also a touch of insecurity and anxiety that serve to push me harder in achieving my goals. Of course failure can never be an option, but one valuable lesson I've learned is that though I may never accomplish my dreams, the sometimes forgotten element of success exists within the trying!
Maybe when all is said and done I'll be able to accept that this quote below makes perfect sense...
‘The test of a mans courage is not measured by how he disguises his desire to cry when he is hurt... It’s the manner in which he stands as the tears roll down his face!’
If I achieve nothing else in life, I want to go to my maker knowing I've lived and learned. So, that's the manner in which I desire to live.
If you took the time to read this, then thank you for your time. I owe my life to my family and friends, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart for helping me live the dream!! |
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