BIKE WEEK 2019 – Irish Country Roads & Culture Trails Bike Week 2019: On Monday June 24th we held our “Roots And Shoots Cycle Trail” and our thanks goes out to Naomi and Alice for their help at Castle Durrow, Tanguy and Isabelle for their welcome and enlightening talk at Dunmore Country School, Martin and Oliver at Lawlor’s florists for their generosity and wonderful floral demonstration skills, Michael Sheppard for accommodating us at his beautiful garden and to Donal Robinson, Phillip Sheppard, Michael Creagh, David Finnegan, Bea Alley, Liam Wright and Andy O Connell; their talks, poetry and musical renditions all contributed to a wonderfully novel event of cycling, learning and entertainment.
The Bulfin Heritage Cycle Rally 2019: On Wednesday June 26th it was off to the grounds of Aghaboe Abbey where we held a very successful launch of the “Bulfin Heritage Cycle Rally 2019” with RTE presenter, Helen Carroll from “Ear to the Ground” fame. This is our fifth year organising this event which will be held on the weekend of August 24th and 25th next. Anyone wishing to partake in this event will find details at bulfinheritagecycle.com online. Event brochure available shortly. We were back on the road on Wednesday evening for our “Museum Triangle Tour” visiting the Irish Fly Fishing and Game Shooting Museum in Attanagh and Aylwards Rural Heritage Museum, before finishing off at Bobs Museum Pub with music, song and storytelling. Our genuine thanks goes out to Walter Phelan – an amazing tour guide, to PJ and Marian Aylward whose hospitality and cooperation knows no bounds, to Adrian Sheppard for his delicious home-made scones and to Bobby Campion for his continued support for our cycle events.
Pedal Vintage Durrow Community Bike Hire Scheme: Friday June 28th will go down as a day when our “community stock” was embellished with the launch of Pedal Vintage – our brand-new Community Bike Hire Scheme. With ten new city-type bikes and matching vintage helmets; available to locals and visitors alike, this bike hire scheme will undoubtedly contribute to the already successful – “Durrow Brand Image”. On hand to officiate at the launch was newly elected Councillor Oliver Clooney – Oliver’s first official engagement in Durrow. Also present were our bike hire initiative sponsors, Jim Kells – Midland Environmental Services, Ciarán Kells – Eco Horizon- residential and commercial solar power, representatives from Castle Durrow and Tom McWey representing St Canice’s Credit Union. We owe a great deal of gratitude to all these sponsors and indeed to Laois Partnership Ltd, without whom this bike hire initiative would not have been possible. A comprehensive brochure will be available shortly setting out the various tours, trails and bike hire packages.
We concluded our very successful series of bike week events with a “Foodie Cycle Trail” and here again, we must extend our thanks and appreciation to the following for their cooperation and support; To Seosamh Murphy and staff at the Castle Arms Hotel for their genuine welcome and delicious morning tea and scones, Francine and Mairead at Heritage House, Abbeyleix for the lovely brunch, the interesting presentation about the history of women in cycling and the browse through their Heritage House museum. One of the gems of our bike week visits was the well-appointed Castlewood Organic Farm and Tea Room. Here we were treated like royalty by Alison and Dominic, with tea, coffee and delicious cream buns, in addition to sampling Alison’s very tasty home-made jams and fruit drinks; all contributing to a “we will be back” declaration by all of our cyclists. To all contributing businesses, PJ Aylward for supplying the bike transport, to anyone who helped in any way, and of course to all participating cyclists, we say well done and a sincere thank you to all. You helped make Bike Week 2019 truly memorable.