The 1903 story
In 1903, the Gordon Bennett Cup — the era’s great international motor race — needed a home in the British Isles. Racing on public roads was illegal in England, so the race went to Ireland, run on closed roads around Athy. As a gesture of thanks to their hosts, the British team painted their cars a deep shamrock green.
The colour stuck. Over the following decades it evolved into what the world now calls British racing green — but its first duty was Irish courtesy, worn on Irish roads, for an Irish crowd.
Why green endures
Deep green does something almost no other colour manages on a car: it reads as heritage and restraint at once. Where reds shout and silvers disappear, a dark green suggests a car built by people who did not need to raise their voices.
Éire Emerald
For Éire Motor Company, green is not a livery choice but a birthright reclaimed. The marque’s signature finish — a deep emerald worn by the Eden GT and the Forge alike — returns the racing colour to the island it originally honoured, paired with Éire’s brushed-copper detailing rather than the chrome of the past.
One colour, over a century of history, finally driving home.
