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All colours of the rainbow, including black and gold: making and selling bicycles in Ireland in the 1880s and 1890s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin*
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities, Bath Spa University
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Extract

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, cycling in Ireland progressed from being a relatively exclusive pursuit, confined mainly to young, middleclass men, to a popular sport and pastime which appealed alike to young, middleaged and elderly members of the middle class, including large numbers of women. At the beginning of the 1880s, most Irish cyclists were young men who rode the high-wheeled ‘Ordinary’ or ‘Penny-farthing’ machine. The introduction of the more cumbersome, but easily mountable, tricycle meant that in the early to mid-1880s cycling became accessible to older or more timid men than those who braved the Ordinary machine, and many women also took to the roads on the tricycle. The pastime also received a boost later in the decade, with the invention of the chain-driven ‘safety’ bicycle in the mid-1880s. The safety bicycle did not render the Ordinary obsolete until after the development of the pneumatic tyre, by John Boyd Dunlop, in 1888. Once it became apparent in a number of cycling races in Ireland and England in 1889 and 1890 that the chain-driven and pneumatic-tyred safety bicycle was both quicker and easier to ride than the Ordinary bicycle, the latter's days were numbered. From 1890 onwards, bicycle dealers in both countries were inundated with requests for pneumatic-tyred safety bicycles, and in the course of the 1890s cycling was transformed into a popular, albeit still mainly middle-class activity, that appealed to both sexes.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 152 , November 2013 , pp. 620 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2013 

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References

1 For these developments, see Griffin, Brian, Cycling in Victorian Ireland (Dublin, 2006), passim.Google Scholar

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87 Ibid., 15 Apr. 1893; Irish Wheelman, 6 Mar. 1900.

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101 Ibid.

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103 Irish Wheelman, 12 Jan. 1897.

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109 Ibid., 22 Feb., 13 Dec. 1893; Irish Wheelman, 5 Sept. 1899.

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138 Irish Times, 18, 21, 22, 25 Jan. 1897; Irish Cyclist, 20, 27 Jan. 1897; Irish Figaro, 23 Jan. 1897; Social Review, 30 Jan. 1897.

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142 Ibid., 18 Jan. 1897.

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146 Irish Times, 7, 18 Jan. 1897. This was a relatively early instance of the showing of moving pictures in Ireland. These were first introduced to Dublin in April 1896, but it was not until November and December of the same year that the new medium ‘came of age’, when several Belfast and Dublin music halls hosted cinematograph screenings: Rockett, Kevin and Rockett, Emer, Magic lantern, panorama and moving picture shows in Ireland, 1786–1909 (Dublin, 2011), pp 219–24.Google Scholar

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162 Irish Cyclist, 15 Nov. 1899.

163 Ibid.

164 Ibid., 20 Dec. 1899. These were the County Cavan Stores in Cavan, J. Power of Kilkenny and J. Rea of Dundalk.

165 These were Duthie and Large of Athy, M.M. Rutherford of Ballybay, John Alexander of Belfast, T.A. Wallace of Banbridge, Brady’s of Belfast, J.N. Carr of Ballinasloe, W. Slattery of Bandon, D.H. McDowell of Armagh, Foster’s of Newry, the North of Ireland Cycle Works in Belfast, J.P. Brehemy of Westport, R.H. Poole of Tullamore and H. Thompson of Wexford.

166 These were Walsh Brothers of Banbridge, G.A. Lee of Parsonstown and W. Hopkins of Wicklow.

167 Smith Brothers of Ballybay said that they would engage in the motor trade ‘when there is a prospect of its taking in that part of the country’, H. Hegan of Portadown stated that he would ‘take up the sale when business opens and motors become a little more reliable’, J. Lemon of Enniskillen intended selling motors ‘when the price is more within the reach of the public’, while T. McNeilly of Ballinahinch said he would sell motors ‘if the opportunity offers’.

168 This was R. Perdue of Killucan. Two dealers did not give a clear answer to the survey.