1945 Irish army military tattoo on motorcycles.

Bradidup

I came across this old interesting post card of the Irish Army preforming stunts on old BSA M20 motorcycles back in 1945 in the RDS. Is there any one here old enough that could remember them using those bikes? I can only remember them having the Triumph TRWs, Sandglasses, and the XJ Yamahas.

PanhardPL

Bradidup wrote:

I came across this old interesting post card of the Irish Army preforming stunts on old BSA M20 motorcycles back in 1945 in the RDS. Is there any one here old enough that could remember them using those bikes? I can only remember them having the Triumph TRWs, Sandglasses, and the XJ Yamahas.

Check "Irish Army Vehicles" by Karl Martin and you will see details of the motorcycles that were still in service in 1947, 600 in all and the main bike was the BSA M20. They even had one with a side car.

iamthest1g

hi all

i can identify one of the chaps as my great grandda william "rusty" leonard it was one of two that we know of ,the other being more of the same only they were drinking a glass of porter

ranmac

iamthest1g wrote: »

hi all

i can identify one of the chaps as my great grandda william "rusty" leonard it was one of two that we know of ,the other being more of the same only they were drinking a glass of porter

I remember being there as a child at the Tattoo and actually firing a Bren gun after having had it explained to me by a soldier - I was 5 years of age

Uncle Fester

Don't exactly know what sort of Motorcycles these are , but old photos.

Pat Dunne

Uncle Fester wrote: »

Don't exactly know what sort of Motorcycles these are , but old photos.

Great photos Uncle Fester, where did you come across them?

All the photos are of BSA M20's, which sport a 500cc side valve motor.

I especially like the last photo (cav 15) which shows Ireland's greatest ever motorcyclist Stanley Woods, lying underneath the bike with a big grin on his face.

In the 1930's he would have been one of the best know Grand Prix motorcyclists in the world. Winner of 10 Isle of Man TT races, on top of numerous Grand Prix victories throughout Europe.

I'd imagine it took the two of them to lift the M20 as they are a "ton weight" and even by the standards of the 1930/40's, they were considered heavy.

audidiesel

Uncle Fester wrote: »

Don't exactly know what sort of Motorcycles these are , but old photos.

I hope you don't mind but I took a quick go at fixing up two of the damaged pictures. the one with the big chunk out of it didn't come out great, but on a laptop rather than my pc so cant do a proper job of it.


but here they are anyways

enfield

The original photograph was taken at the Curragh Racecourse. Its hasn't changed a bit.