Vintage Irish Cycling Photos

Bunnyhopper

I've been doing some research in the National Library and was looking at their photographic archives. They have some nice shots of people with bikes so I thought I'd share them. Feel free to add more vintage Irish shots to the thread if you have them.



Race, 1901


Race, starting, 1901


Waterpark Sports, bicycle race, [Waterford] May 30th, 1910



Waterpark College, group of boys with bicycles, [Waterford] 16 June 1910




Aonach Tailteann Athletics, somewhere between 1912 and 1936



Cyclists group.per Mr Humphrey. [Waterford] 1 June 1914




Bicycle Club members at Courthouse, Waterford. Somewhere between 1890 and 1910.

Bunnyhopper

Part Two:




Nurse standing with cyclist, somewhere between 1897 and 1904



Two ladies with bicycles at Kingstown, somewhere between 1890 and 1910



Woman with bicycle, somewhere between 1890 and 1910



Two women walking past Rudge-Whitworth Cycles, 1 Stephen's Green North, somewhere between 1890 and 1910



Man in uniform with bike, somewhere between 1890 and 1910



Man wearing hat, cycling bike on cobbled street, somewhere between 1890 and 1910



Woman wheeling bicycle at roadside, somewhere between 1890 and 1910







Phoenix Park, Dublin, somewhere between 1880 and 1914



Mr Keane, City, group with bicycles & prizes, [Henrietta Street, Waterford] 4 July 1909



Mr Keane, on bicycles, (south eastern wheelers), [Henrietta Street, Waterford] 4 July 1909

steinone

More at: http://bicyclepoloireland.com/history/

bcmf

my father in law was a distuinguished racer in his day and may have some foto's lying around. certainly there are some medals and stuff.If I dig them I will let you know.

Convict

Thanks very much for those - all that time and so little change. The Phoenix Park is still much the same. There's a poem that says 'after two thousand years of mass we've got as far as poisoined gas'. I think it was written around the time of those photos or after 1914 certainly. Imagine - imagining carbon back then?
Try www.kennellyarchive.com/ - as a search put in Ras. His photographs are stunning.
Oh yes and what are you researching?

emty

Great photo's all round,thanks a lot .

@Bunnyhopper,how do you go about getting a copy of these,wouldn't mind trying to frame one of them to see what it would look like.

Bunnyhopper

@emty There's a section ("Photographic Prints") on ordering prints or digital files on this page:

http://www.nli.ie/en/copying-services.aspx

Some of the original images are quite small so you might want to check with them how big an enlargement could go. The prices aren't outrageous though.

@Convict Thanks for the Kennelly link, there's some good stuff there. I'm (supposed to be) looking for images of Joycean Dublin, but I keep getting distracted by pictures of bikes

@bcmf It'd be great to see those if you can find them. There's probably a lot of material out there so it would be good to have somewhere to gather it all together. The bicycle polo page that @steinone links to (thanks) has lots more images.

showry

There's quite a few old cycling photos on http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org/exhibit/web
You can search for cycling under the Sports and Transport subjects

Bunnyhopper

A few from the Waterford County Museum site


Waterford Cycling Club At Curraghmore House, ca 1910


The Dungarvan Ramblers Cycling Club, ca 1900


Four Mile Bicycle Race Cup, 1900


Four Mile Bicycle Race Cup, ca 1900


Unidentified Boy With Bicycle, ca 1900


Cycling Post Card, ca 1910


Meehan Girls Going On Picnic, ca 1955


Pony And Trap At Duckspool House, Abbeyside, June 1943


Donal Moloney, Grattan Square, Dungarvan, 1945


Chavasse Children With Bicycles At Whitfield Court, Kilmeaden, ca 1900


Chavasse Boys With Bicycles At Whitfield Court, Kilmeaden, ca 1900


Edmond Keohan And Daughters, ca 1915

Bunnyhopper

Part Two


Employees Of Dungarvan Post Office, 1930


Willie Duggan, Dungarvan Postman, ca 1940


Michael & Pat Tobin, Shandon Street, Dungarvan, ca 1950


Mary Tobin & Molly Mulcahy, Shandon, Dungarvan, ca 1950


A Man & Woman With A Bicycle At Comeragh House, ca 1900


Main Street Ardmore Village, 1910


Bicycle Race At The Gaelic Field [Shandon, Dungarvan], ca 1902


Garda Sergeant Dan Begley [Tramore Strand], ca 1950


Eddie Dee & John Moore Outside Coolnagour Dairy, ca 1950


Ballinacourty Coast Guard Station, ca 1902


Dungarvan Court House, ca 1902


Drohan’s Forge Abbeyside, ca 1902

rflynnr

Fascinating stuff. The photos nicely illustrate the changing of the guard (bicycle design-wise) that took place over the course of the 1880s and 1890s. When the safety bike (i.e. a bike with front and rear wheels of identical dimensions) was introduced c. 1885, boy-racers of the "ordinary" (penny- farthing) variety dismissed them as for women and old men. Only when it became clear that safety bikes equipped with pneumatic tyres were routinely recording faster times than the "ordinaries" did a mass transition to the safety occur. The aptly named Dutch academic Weibe Bijker has a fascinating chapter on this in "Of Bicycles, Bakelite and Light Bulbs".

mmclo

259843.jpg

Captain Havoc

mmclo wrote: »

259843.jpg

Is that the big fella?

CheGuedara

There's a load of old cycling (Ras Tailteann, Lacey & Drumm Cup mostly) and cycling related photos on the Kennelly Archive website also. Way too many to put photos up

mmclo

jerseyeire wrote: »

Is that the big fella?

tis to be shure

Ghost Rider

These are great. What are you researching, Bunnyhopper?

Doctor Bob

Got this for christmas last year:


Robert L. Chapman's Ireland, compiled by Christiaan Corlett.

Plenty of cycling photos in there. Pretty sure it was only published last year, so it should still be in print.

The Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street (in Dublin) holds the Chapman Archive. I'd imagine they have more photos than are included in the book.

Great thread, btw!

coolbeans

Really wonderful, and again thank you for the post. Just to reiterate the utterings of another poster, what indeed, are you researching?

Bunnyhopper

I'm working on a cataloguing project and I started out looking for images of Joycean Dublin, so basically Dublin street scenes and the like from roughly 1900-1910, but once I got going through the online photo archives I kept getting distracted by the cycling pictures. Sporting and social history is really not my area but I might have to try and figure out some way to justify looking for more bike pictures

@rflynnr That's a good point - I wish some of the images had more specific dates on them. I might have to get the Bijker book now. Is it a good read beyond just the bicycles chapter? (I just looked and that Brian Griffin book cites Bijker.)

A few more:


Young girl riding a tricycle along a seafront, 1890-1910



Group of cyclists, Killarney, Co. Kerry, 1930-1950



Mr. T. Doyle, Yoletown Roller Mills, New Ross with penny farthing cycle, 1880-1900

CheGuedara

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

Group of cyclists, Killarney, Co. Kerry, 1930-1950

Entirely possible one of my grandfathers is in that photo!

(amazed road is still essentially identical today too!)

Piercemeear

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

Group of cyclists, Killarney, Co. Kerry, 1930-1950

CheGuedara wrote: »

Entirely possible one of my grandfathers is in that photo!

(amazed road is still essentially identical today too!)

The closest two I could find on Flickr.

mmclo

One thing noticeable about photos from that era is the sheer volume of cyclists in urban areas, I've seen one of the five lamps with about 10 cyclists in it and it was just a normal day, also any of those famous O'Connell (Sackville) St ones show similar as does old films

Bunnyhopper

mmclo wrote: »

One thing noticeable about photos from that era is the sheer volume of cyclists in urban areas, I've seen one of the five lamps with about 10 cyclists in it and it was just a normal day, also any of those famous O'Connell (Sackville) St ones show similar as does old films

Bunnyhopper

I don't think there are any reposts here. This may has become this week's minor obsession... :rolleyes:


Amalgamation group of bicycle club, 1890-1910


Royal Irish Constabulary group in uniform, Courthouse, Co. Waterford , 1890-1900


Waterford Bicycle Club members & ladies, 1890-1910


Royal Irish Constabulary group & Mr. W. Gamble, 1890-1900


Royal Irish Constabulary group & Mr. W. Gamble, 1890-1900


Royal Irish Constabulary group, Waterford, 1890-1910


Royal Irish Constabulary committee, Waterford, 1890-1900


Royal Irish Constabulary group in uniform, Courthouse, Waterford, 1890-1900


Waterford Bicycle club, 1900-1910


[House of Mrs Bridget Kelly, Lisvalley Vesey, near Tuam, Co.Galway ], 1906-1914


Waterford Bicycle Club was one of the earliest, which may explain why there are so many old photos of them. It was founded in January 1880, according to Brian Griffin.

Captain Havoc

It looks like all those photos were taken in Movember

Bunnyhopper

Sir James Talot Power's velocipede
(I think this is in the Jameson's Museum. The photo is by Dissonancefalling on Flickr)

Also on Flickr, Chris531 has lots of interesting pictures of old bikes. He has 1930s and 1950s bikes, but also some more recent ones. He also has some very nice Mercians.

This one catches the eye - good way to deter aggressive bus drivers on the N11 maybe...


Irish Army issue BSA

zzzzzzzz

Doctor Bob wrote: »

Got this for christmas last year:


Robert L. Chapman's Ireland, compiled by Christiaan Corlett.

Plenty of cycling photos in there. Pretty sure it was only published last year, so it should still be in print.

The Royal Irish Academy on Dawson Street (in Dublin) holds the Chapman Archive. I'd imagine they have more photos than are included in the book.

Great thread, btw!

Just got a copy of this book. Some great photos in there alright and his diary entries are really interesting.



"cycling in snow at glencree"

Greenman

Don't you just love those trikes!!!.

Greetings from a trike mad cyclist.:):):)

velopeloton

Not sure this is vintage.
It is me on my first bike in 1971. I was a pioneer of cycling in sandals.

Greenman

velopeloton wrote: »

Not sure this is vintage.
It is me on my first bike trike in 1971. I was a pioneer of cycling in sandals.

Not sure this is vintage.
It is me on my first bike trike in 1971. I was a pioneer of cycling in sandals.

Raam

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

Mr. T. Doyle, Yoletown Roller Mills, New Ross with penny farthing cycle, 1880-1900

Hmm, that could possibly be a relation of mine.

Doctor Bob

Bunnyhopper wrote: »

This one catches the eye - good way to deter aggressive bus drivers on the N11 maybe...


Irish Army issue BSA

I was in Square Wheel in Temple Bar last week, and Kieran has an old Irish Army bike in for repair at the moment. It's a total rust heap (theatre prop, afaik) but a fascinating specimen in the flesh. That one has a holster for the rifle butt down by the bottom bracket, and the rifle lies along the down tube.

flickerx

There was a thread in this forum in the last six months or so with some photos from the 1960's of cycling commuters in Dublin, can anyone please link it? I've search under photo, photos, photography, but cant find it.

Thanks

monument

Doctor Bob wrote: »

I was in Square Wheel in Temple Bar last week, and Kieran has an old Irish Army bike in for repair at the moment. It's a total rust heap (theatre prop, afaik) but a fascinating specimen in the flesh. That one has a holster for the rifle butt down by the bottom bracket, and the rifle lies along the down tube.

It's not in too bad of shape at all, given its age.

The bike: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/4169336439/

Detail of riffle storage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/4170099708/

And quite a nice bell mechanism: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cianginty/4170101092/in/photostream/

Bunnyhopper

Dame Street (with thanks to @Al Wright for posting it here)

Bunnyhopper

A couple more from @Al Wright (thanks).

Dame Street


O'Connell Bridge

SleepDoc

Wonderful photos. Thanks very much.

Doctor Bob

If anyone's curious about the source of the photos posted by Al Wright, see here.

Qualitymark

It's forgotten now, but in the 1890s and 1900s there were fleets of teachers cycling across the country teaching Irish and poultrykeeping and horticulture and all kinds of subjects. The bicycle, then, opened up the country - people whose parents had scarcely left their home parish were now able to cross the country from end to end.

Are the two lads in the newsprint photo by any chance Michael and John Walker, who won medals for Britain in the 1912 Olympics (but then climbed the flagpole at the medal ceremony, took down the Union Jack and put up an Irish flag), and who fought in the 1916 Rising?

By the way, if anyone comes across an Elswick Ludlow "uppy", tell me; a friend who bought it in the 1940s had it stolen a while back. (He's now 92, but his son was riding it still.)

Icyseanfitz

the sheer number of cyclists back then was amazing

QueensGael

From the Limerick City Museum - "Pedal Power by Shannonside"
http://museum.limerick.ie/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/56024

Bit blurry, must try to get my hands on a paper copy

Planet X

The back of the photo says, "around 1963"





Riding shotgun with the stick.
The girl and the big lad were neighbours from Czechoslovakia, the Lanchas. The guy in the dark jacket was also a neighbour but I cannot recall his name right now.