Driven: Rosemary Smith's fast life had many speed bumps

To those of a certain vintage, Rosemary Smith represented all that was glamorous in the 1960s and 1970s – a model of Twiggy proportions, who doubled as a rally driver living the high life in the fast lane.

But despite the image, all was not well. Behind the photo shoots with top cars, and being courted by singers and actors, Rosemary Smith's domestic life was very insecure, with a domineering mother and a shockingly unhappy marriage, followed by a period surviving on social welfare in the late 1990s.
Once she got behind the wheel of a car she escaped from all of this, and her determination to succeed led to her becoming one of the country's most recognised motorsport stars on the international stage.
Her father, a Methodist, and her Roman Catholic mother were married at the side altar of the church in Dunboyne in 1920, and Rosemary was the youngest of the three children of this mixed marriage. Her father, John Metcalf Smith had a successful garage in Rathmines, but her parents marriage was not a happy one as Jane was having an affair with her husband's best friend, a builder from Terenure.
Rosemary's father took the shy girl from Beaufort High School in Rathfarnham after the nuns described her as stupid, and her mother sent her to Grafton Academy of Fashion Design, where she became overall student of the year in her first year.
It was through designing and modelling that she became involved in motorsport. Having set up a boutique in South Anne Street with her mother, one of her clients was Delphine Bigger, wife of Frank Bigger, who with Ronnie Adams and Derek Johnston, won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1956.
Rosemary went along to a rally in Kilkenny as a navigator with Delphine one weekend – but found herself in the driving seat, and the rest is history. She found herself competing – and winning - in a male dominated world, and took no prisoners as she achieved success across the world, motor companies eager to have her driving their products and fronting their publicity campaigns.
She drove in the Monte Carol rally eight times, winning the Coupe des Dames on several occasions, as well as competing in famous rallies all over the world, including the London to Sydney Marathon Rally in 1968, the World Cup London to Mexico Rally in 1970, and the East African Safari Rally in the 1970s. These rallies took her through dangerous Middle Eastern countries, and over treacherous terrains, and in one instance, she had to drive 33 miles around steep, winding roads over the Khyber Pass, in reverse!
In a Hillman Imp, Rosemary famously won the Tulip Rally outright, beating all the male drivers to the finish.
Early suitors were Adam Faith and Oliver Reed, and she was engaged several times to various men "but the motor car always won out". When she did marry and settle at Macetown, Clonee, it wasn't a happy union and her husband was a cruel, bullying man, jealous of her success. 
She miscarried four times, and the final time, her husband flew to London to be with a previous girlfriend while she was in hospital.
Close friends saw her through difficult times in her life, with family all deceased, and when she saw a need for teaching young people how to drive, she opened a driving school at Fairyhouse Racecourse, later moving it to Naas. Rosemary celebrated her 80th birthday a year ago, and tells her extraordinary life story with frank honesty in 'Driven', just published by Harper Collins.
Eddie Jordan writes in an introduction: "She was a rare Irish driver on the world stage and it is great that in motorsports she is still treated like royalty – in fact better than royalty – and she deserves it!"