Today is the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day which falls during International Women’s History Month, plus it’s been two weeks since my last post. Also, I’m a quarter Irish-American myself. All together, those are as good a reason as any to blog. But when it comes to bicycling and Ireland, I don’t know much. Sure, I’ve heard of famous Irish pro cyclists Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, and Dan Martin (born in England but a dual national, given his mother is Irish and related to Roche). I enjoyed watching the latter back when I tuned into the Tour de France. Martin was a cheeky breakaway and mountain climbing specialist. Professional sports isn’t for 99.9% of people who bike, though. There’s also that Idlecyclist chap, the fellow blogger who’s doing more hiking these days. (No judgement, and it still rhymes). But it was fascinating to learn that the bicycle has an important role in Irish history.

But first, some personal history. Being that one of my grandparents was of Irish descent, you’d think that in the course of eight years of blogging I would have already had something to say on cycling and Ireland. But I haven’t, probably owing a lot to the fact that I’ve never been to the fatherland. Pop was a large man from whom I got more than my fair share of my fathlete genes. He may have biked as a kid, I have no clue, but what he really enjoyed was his golf. Granted, that is a Scottish invention, as was his wife, my grandmother. He certainly shared his ancestors’ love of beer, although as a Texan, it was not Guinness–he was a Budweiser man. I’m not a fan of either the game or the beverage, though I’ve tried both. Cycling and chocolate are my similar jams. Also, I like jam.

My father once traveled to Scotland to golf (and surely hoisted plenty of brewskis), but I don’t think he made it to Ireland. Aside from a memorable moment from when he taught me to bike, along with my mother, there’s not much of a connection to be made between today’s holiday, cycling, or my Irish heritage. I seldom consider that history for no clear or good reason, sometimes to my chagrin. Were I not perpetually broke, aka poor, I’d love to visit and rent a bike. The idea of a tour these days even sounds too exhausting. I am just getting over enduring an illness for a month while still walking for work. Garmin says–including my normal 6,000 or so steps per day–that I walked about 280 miles in two months. I shit you not.

I digress. Back to biking in Ireland: My friend and sometimes cyclist Rhodney and his wife escaped Austin’s hottest summer heat ever last year. They went to a relative’s cottage outside Galway for a month last summer. (Speaking of jam, I was pretty jelly of that aka jealous.) According to Ireland.com, there’s plenty of bicycle-friendly paths and routes, tour groups with guides, mountain biking, and urban cycling, too. Though with the frequent rains on the island nation, one wonders how practical it is for commuting to work. But it’s a pair of articles I stumbled upon that I want to share with you today, dear reader.

In a 2016 article in the Irish Examiner, “Freedom machines: How Ireland embraced cycling,” sports writer Paul Rouse explored the history of the bike on the Emerald Isle. Bikes were popularized across the country beginning in the 1860’s. First amongst the middle class, and in sporting circles, but later bikes alloweed urbanites to escape the cities and farmers to do the reverse and go into town. And, after much pushback from men about wearing of trousers, loose morals, and other such sexist claptrap and nonsense, the bicycle served as a tool of liberation for women.

In a 2019 piece on The Irish Story, Recycling history — the bicycle and protest in Ireland, author Barry Shephard quotes another article from We Love Cycling:

In Britain, the rising popularity of the bicycle has been seen as a catalyst for many social reforms, including women’s suffrage. It is argued that suffragists ‘were able to start the process of personal independence through travel thanks to the two-wheeled invention’.…

It was a practical means of campaigning, as women rode with ‘votes for women’ banners in the 1910s, and in the 1890s woman’s monthly Godey’s declared: “In possession of her bicycle, the daughter of the 19th century feels that the declaration of her independence has been proclaimed.”

-Bonnie Friend, “The Role of the Bicycle in the Suffragette Movement” on WeLoveCycling.com

From Shephard:

[The bicycle’s] importance during bloody revolution is something which is reflected in personal testimonies in Ireland’s Bureau of Military History entries.  Its impact upon cultural revival movements has been invaluable.  What is hugely important is that it has invariably been used by those who have felt disenfranchised by the status quo. This permits the researcher to look view them as important markers in what is termed ‘history from below’.

-Shephard, ibid.

There’s much more in these articles that is best read therein. What I took out of them was that from encouraging the spread of Gaelic language and culture, to fomenting dissent toward Irish liberation from the bloody English, even guerrilla warfare, and helping get the vote for women, the humble bicycle was involved in all of that. And that seems pretty cool.

I leave you with a pair of Irish blessings. Though I’m not a fan of the G-man, the sentiment of the first one is nice. The second maybe a little less so. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy it responsibly, and especially don’t drink and drive and hurt bicyclists!

May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

May those who love us love us, and those that don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limping.

-Irish blessings

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