Supercar fundraiser to set off through Edenderry on Friday

On Friday morning, Edenderry will be greeted with a traffic jam of a different calibre.

A total of 200 supercars will make their way through the Offaly town as part of the fundraiser Cannonball Ireland 2024, with the convoy set to arrive from 11am.

The types of car brands on view will include Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Aston Martin, and Maserati. Apart from the cars, there will also be music and other entertainment.

Edenderry schoolchildren will be doubly excited, as their schools have promised to let them out for the event. The route the cars will take through the town will pass by three of the schools, so they will be able to line the streets.

Fine Gael Councillor Noel Cribbin says there is a great buzz in the town about the event. For the schoolchildren, “it will be something they will never have seen before and may never see again.”

As there will be an extra 200 cars moving through the town, people also trying to pass through can expect some traffic delays.Cllr Cribbin says the plan is to set the cars off in four batches of 50, to avoid other traffic building up too much.

“Our new relief road will mean the impact will not be as bad as it would have been a couple of years ago. We can now divert cars around the town, Those coming from the Tullamore end and the Dublin end can go around.”

“People will not be sitting in their car for an hour. They may be sitting there for something more like ten minutes.”

Cllr Cribbin said he was helped in bringing Cannonball back to Edenderry by Helen O'Dwyer, who works with the Cannonball Ireland team, They had a meeting with the council and the gardai, and came up with a plan and a route.

Each town along the route also had to get sponsorship, and Cllr Cribbin thanked Offaly Tourism and the council for providing this sponsorship for the Edenderry stop.

After making the cars make their way through Edenderry on Friday, they will then blaze a trail to Kilkenny for a lunch stop at the Lyrath Estate Hotel.

After finishing the day in Wexford, the cars will travel west on Saturday, September 7, before returning to Leinster on Sunday, September 8, where they fuel up at Circle K M6 Athlone at noon. The finish line for Cannonball 2024 is in Trim, Meath, at 5pm on Sunday.

This year the official charity of Cannonball is The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation. This is an Irish children’s charity that funds and provides up to 100 hours per month of in-home nursing care, respite support and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age with severe learning disability often associated with complex medical needs,

Cannonball was founded by Kildare businessman Alan Bannon and the benefit to the host towns for this event has been estimated at €2,567,000 per year.

More details are available at Cannonball.ie.