After three-quarters of the rally, the Subaru-driving Wexfordian has opened up an almost unassailable lead on Dorset's finest Steve Hendy, with Bob Fowden a further 23 seconds back.

After Boland, the next Irishman is another pugnacious Wexford driver, Fethard Rally champion David James.

The Gorey man lies sixth in his Escort BDX, breathing down the neck of fifth-placed John Price, lying nineteen seconds up the road.

It's a case of like father, like son in seventh, with Aaron McHale providing the possibility of supplying Rathcoole with yet another sporting hero.

Carlow's Kieran Molloy lies ninth, with Meath's Tom Holton tenth, ahead of Wexford trio Tomás O'Rourke in twelfth, Noel Redmond in 13th and David Cullen 14th.

But there's been some performance down in 15th by Willie Fannin in his Mitsubishi Lancer. Alongside him in the Class Four car is Brian Duggan, the brains behind irish-rallying.com. They're currently fifth in their class.

The top men are due to return to Rosslare between 5:15 and 5:30 - they're running about quarter of an hour ahead of schedule.

Here's the North East Rally Services leaderboard -

Position		Number	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Class	Total	Difference
O/A	Class							from prev	from 1st
1	1	1	Eamonn Boland	Damien Morrisey	Subaru WRC S7	8	1:08:31
2	2	4	Steve Hendy	Aled Davies	Ford Escort Coswor	8	1:10:54	0:02:23	0:02:23
3	1	6	Bob Fowden	Jerry Hynes	Mitsubishi Lancer	4	1:11:17	0:00:23	0:02:46
4	1	8	Tim Ball	Rob Watson	Darrian T90	13	1:13:05	0:01:48	0:04:34
5	1	2	John Price	Caroline Price	Metro 6R4	15	1:13:16	0:00:11	0:04:45
6	2	14	David James	Jim Crowe	Ford Escort BDX	13	1:13:35	0:00:19	0:05:04
7	2	7	Aaron MacHale	Damien Connolly	Mitsubishi Lancer	4	1:14:00	0:00:25	0:05:29
8	1	15	Derek Smith	Paddy Flanigan	Ford Escort	14	1:14:22	0:00:22	0:05:51
9	3	9	Kieran Molloy	Brian Boland	Mitsubishi Lancer	4	1:14:24	0:00:02	0:05:53
10	3	5	Tom Holton	Ron Guha	Toyota Celicia	8	1:14:32	0:00:08	0:06:01
11	4	11	Tim Wilson	Laurie Walker	Subaru Impreza WRC	8	1:16:36	0:02:04	0:08:05
12	1	23	Tomas O'Rourke	John O'Rourke	Vauxhall Astra Gsi	3	1:16:44	0:00:08	0:08:13
13	4	39	Noel Redmond	David Doyle	Mitsubishi Lancer	4	1:16:59	0:00:15	0:08:28
14	3	51	David Cullen	Gordon Watchorn	Peugeot 306	13	1:17:20	0:00:21	0:08:49
15	5	50	Willie Fannin	Brian Duggan	Mitsubishi Lancer	4	1:17:23	0:00:03	0:08:52
16	1	29	Enda O'Brien	John Butler	Ford Escort	11	1:17:38	0:00:15	0:09:07
17	4	92	Padraig Price	Richard Price	Ford Escort	13	1:18:05	0:00:27	0:09:34
18	2	65	Billy Collins	Denis Foley	Ford Escort	11	1:19:34	0:01:29	0:11:03
19	5	61	Eugene Fitzpatrick	Mary Fitzpatrick	Ford Escort G	13	1:19:35	0:00:01	0:11:04
20	3	44	Mark Nangle	Brendan Stears	Toyota Corolla	11	1:19:37	0:00:02	0:11:06