Pelotome –
around Ireland on a bicycle.
“Ireland has reason to be proud of her cycling sons. Speaking as an Englishman — a Londoner — I can honestly affirm that a pleasanter holiday I have never spent, nor have I ever met with a set of heartier or more good humoured men than the Irish cyclists.
The peasant people and the tradespeople, too, pleased me greatly. Going amongst them, as I have done, a stranger and a Saxon, I have met nothing but kindness and hospitality ; and I carried back to London with me the liveliest impressions of Ireland and the Irish.”
~ Two Trips to The Emerald Isle – Faed (1886).
My Life and Times
by Jerome K. Jerome
From £4,75
1874
Bicycling; Its Rise and Development.
“A text book for riders” aimed to cater for the rapidly developing bicycle movement by filling the void, after early books about the wooden wheeled machine had become valueless. With numerous illustrations to assist the beginner, the book is packed with informative chapters on routes in England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, The Battlefields of 1870, Upper Rhine, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and France – each highlighting the points of interest, hotels, museums, mileage, gradients and road conditions along the way,
The four routes of Ireland take in all four corners of the country including the same tour “performed in the summer of 1872, by a Gentleman, riding by a no means a powerful machine” from Dublin to Enniskillen via Carrickmacross”.
- Published by Tinsley Bros., London.
April 1886 – Published August 1886.
Two Trips to The Emerald Isle.
“I. – A racing trip to Dublin. II. A touring trip to Killarney.” is a humorous account, released under the pseudonym “Faed”, of a London tricycle racer’s trip to Dublin for a competition “one April”, (24th-26th April 1886) in which he managed to also take in a ride to Dundrum, Enniskerry and Powerscourt.
Returning for an August trip to Killarney with members of the Finsbury Park Cycling Club, he made a warm-up ride “from Dublin, via Kilakee and Featherbeds, to Glencree, situated high up in the mountains,” Lough Bray, and Powerscourt Demesne, while a further day ride took him from Dublin to Poulaphouca,
His route to Killarney took in much of the country, retracing his earlier ride from Dublin to Enniskerry, before heading “over the mountains to Roundwood”, Glendalough, Avoca, Arklow, and “the pleasant road through Enniscorthy” to Wexford, New Ross, and Waterford.
“Frequent stops were therefore made for buttermilk, and bitter, and Guinness,” on the way to Dungarven and Cappoquin, where a Blackwater River boat was caught to Youghal before the ride recommenced to Midleton, Cork and Macroom.
“The road wound upwards through Inchageela, higher and higher yet, the long climb culminating at the ancient monastery of Gougane Barra,” before descending to Bantry and a “delightful episode” sailing across the bay to Glengarriff.
After climbing to Kenmare and Killarney, an excursion to the Gap of Dunloe was made by wagonette with a “walk across it , down the Black Valley, and on to Gearhameen”, before returning to Killarney by row-boats “through the Upper, and the Middle, and the Lower Lakes.”
After a hike up Mangerton, the cycle ride resumed to Torc Waterfall and “a flying visit to Ross Castle, by moonlight,” before the party caught the train to Adare – via a stop at the cycling race track at Tralee – cycled on to Pallaskenry, Limerick, Castleconnell. Nenagh, Roscrea. and Ballybrophy, returning by train to Dublin.
An “Edition De Luxe” was also released of the book, which included twenty photographs taken by the author on cabinet-sized cards.
A well known cycling journalist and editor of Bicycling Times and Touring Gazette, “Faed” – an anagram of “deaf” – was the nom de plume of Arthur James Wilson, who had lost his hearing at the age of 12, after contracting scarlet fever. He joined Dunlop tyres in 1890, relocating to Ireland to work at their Dublin offices.
- by “Faed” (Arthur J. Wilson).
- Illustrated by George Moore.
- Published by A.J. Wilson, London.
A TOURING TRIP TO KILLARNEY.
“We were loth to leave Woodenbridge on Tuesday morning. Indeed, so attractive was the feminine company into which we had been introduced before breakfast, that one susceptible youth suddenly discovered that his crank was bent so badly as to necessitate its being sent to Dublin for repairs, while he waited at Avoca for the afternoon train.
Gnashing our teeth with vexation to think that such a dodge had not occurred to us first, we took an affecting farewell of the beauteous damsels, whose images were destined to occupy our hearts for quite several minutes ; and with good roads under our tyres and fair skies overhead, we found the day very cool and refreshing!”
– Two Trips to The Emerald Isle, by Faed, 1886.