On St. Patrick’s Day, How the Bicycle Helped Bring Feminism, Freedom, and More to Ireland

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.

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