Fermoy-Cloughjordan greenway

Rechuchote

I finally got around to doing the one-day cycle my grandfather did in 1903 from Fermoy to Cloughjordan, just to see what it was like and how much it had changed (https://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/home/318293/trip-to-tipp-lucille-retraces-epic-cycle-of-her-grandfather-thomas-macdonagh.html)

The whole way - apart perhaps from the last few kilometres to Cloughjordan - the road is bounded by a two-metre-wide grass border inside the hard shoulder, which would be an ideal greenway if it were just kerbed off. Are there Munstermen and Munsterwomen out there who'd like to take the Thomas MacDonagh Greenway project on and give the councils involved a nudge to do it?

selwyn froggitt

Rechuchote wrote: »

I finally got around to doing the one-day cycle my grandfather did in 1901 from Fermoy to Cloughjordan, just to see what it was like and how much it had changed (https://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/home/318293/trip-to-tipp-lucille-retraces-epic-cycle-of-her-grandfather-thomas-macdonagh.html)

The whole way - apart perhaps from the last few kilometres to Cloughjordan - the road is bounded by a two-metre-wide grass border inside the hard shoulder, which would be an ideal greenway if it were just kerbed off. Are there Munstermen and Munsterwomen out there who'd like to take the Thomas MacDonagh Greenway project on and give the councils involved a nudge to do it?

Can you post up the route please?
Cheers
SF

Rechuchote

It's in the piece (which you can read if you're fast enough with your select-and-copy buttons), but it's a semi-circular route: actually, I didn't start from Fermoy, but cycled from Mitchelstown through Cahir to Cashel, Thurles, Templemore and Cloughjordan.

ford2600

https://cycle.travel/map?from=Fermoy&to=Cloughjordan&fromLL=52.1381665,-8.275223&toLL=52.9429227,-8.0392342

One way

and another through Raparee country and a visit to Christ the King
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28569253

I was recently talking to my octogenarian neighbour, a rather hardy lady, about her 8 day clock. Another neighbour had sourced someone capable of repairing it and I asked of its origins. In about 1907 her grandfather had walked from the western slopes of the Comeragh to Waterford City and back to buy it. About a 70 mile roundtrip.

Rechuchote

My grandfather had been at a job interview in Fermoy. He wrote a letter to a friend in New York when he arrived:

…at noon I left Fermoy, cycled from Mitchelstown (where there are no cars - they are nearer to Cahir) through Cahir to Rockwell: dined: thence through Cashel, Thurles, Templemore hither: 60 miles; untired, unpunctured. I went to bed, and, dreaming composed a wonderful mystic poem which I did not understand quite and of which I remember only the first line: ‘I built a wall of brass around my heart’.

I don't know how he got from Fermoy to Mitchelstown - he may have taken one of the 'cars' he mentions (probably an 'outside car', the horse-drawn sidecars then used as taxi cabs), or there might have been a train line.

He would certainly not have had gears on his bicycle; he might have had a freewheel, which were fairly normal by then, but he quite probably rode a fixie. And the roads (which astonished me in 2018 by their perfect surface, being used to Dublin's potholed horrors) were then seldom tarred, more usually rocky white cow tracks.

ford2600

Rechuchote wrote: »

My grandfather had been at a job interview in Fermoy. He wrote a letter to a friend in New York when he arrived:



I don't know how he got from Fermoy to Mitchelstown - he may have taken one of the 'cars' he mentions (probably an 'outside car', the horse-drawn sidecars then used as taxi cabs), or there might have been a train line.

He would certainly not have had gears on his bicycle; he might have had a freewheel, which were fairly normal by then, but he quite probably rode a fixie. And the roads (which astonished me in 2018 by their perfect surface, being used to Dublin's potholed horrors) were then seldom tarred, more usually rocky white cow tracks.

Your route sounds like the old N7 from Fermoy to Cashel(at least or maybe even Twomileborris) and then Thurles/Templemore.

There are lots of nice existing, and very quite ways of completing that journey, without any need for a greenway. The main navigation question is east or west of Galtees.

Tipperary/north Cork is a labyrinth of smaller roads with which one could complete that route. Cahir-Thurles has lovely options both sides of motorway which has one on lovely quite roads.

120km cycles on unpaved road on a fixed gear isn't trivial but nothing unusual for its time. For example off the top of my head from what I've heard direct
*my father used to in the 50/60's regularly cycle the 120km return journey to Thurles for GAA matches on a single speed bike on primarily unsealed roads
*my BIL's uncles after a day's labouring used to cycle the 20 miles to base of Croagh Patrick for the night climb on Reek Sunday

*The great Pat O'Callaghan used to cycle to Athletics meeting all around central Munster, compete in a lot of events and cycle home


We have become soft. People with an active interest in walking/cycling/running are adding in activity to get a primal pleasure which was previously inbuilt in people's lives.

EDIT:
"During his year in the Patrician Academy he cycled the 32-mile round trip from Derrygalun every day and he never missed a class. O'Callaghan subsequently studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_O%27Callaghan

A complete rogue of a man, but immensely popular in Clonmel and its environs

Grassey

ford2600 wrote: »

120km cycles on unpaved road on a fixed gear isn't trivial but nothing unusual for its time.

My grandad was a huge GAA man, would cycle Mallow to Croke Park with his brother whenever Cork were playing there. 2 days up, 2 days back. Sleep in a field/hedgerow. this was back in the 40s. The cycle was part of the big event!

Rechuchote

Wouldn't it be gorgeous to have a safe greenway - and the space is there along this road, it would be simple for the councils to do it.

schemingbohemia

Rechuchote wrote: »

I finally got around to doing the one-day cycle my grandfather did in 1903 from Fermoy to Cloughjordan, just to see what it was like and how much it had changed (https://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/home/318293/trip-to-tipp-lucille-retraces-epic-cycle-of-her-grandfather-thomas-macdonagh.html)

The whole way - apart perhaps from the last few kilometres to Cloughjordan - the road is bounded by a two-metre-wide grass border inside the hard shoulder, which would be an ideal greenway if it were just kerbed off. Are there Munstermen and Munsterwomen out there who'd like to take the Thomas MacDonagh Greenway project on and give the councils involved a nudge to do it?

Two metres wide is less than minimum standard for a two-way greenway, 3m is minimum, and most family journeys (which are one of the biggest users of greenways) tend not to want to cycle beside a busy road.

ford2600

Grassey wrote: »

My grandad was a huge GAA man, would cycle Mallow to Croke Park with his brother whenever Cork were playing there. 2 days up, 2 days back. Sleep in a field/hedgerow. this was back in the 40s. The cycle was part of the big event!

Did it 10 years ago myself for hurling final, cycle was most certainly the highlight!:)

marvin80

I've read a few books about the War of Independence in Tipperary and those lads thought nothing of cycling from Tipp to Dublin by bike.

I read one story where a wanted man (possibly Dinny Lacey) got a puncture one day and went into a RIC barracks to get help fixing it!!

marvin80

ford2600 wrote: »

Did it 10 years ago myself for hurling final, cycle was most certainly the highlight!:)

That sounds brilliant - one for the bucket list - a good 11 months to get the training in

ford2600

marvin80 wrote: »

I've read a few books about the War of Independence in Tipperary and those lads thought nothing of cycling from Tipp to Dublin by bike.

I read one story where a wanted man (possibly Dinny Lacey) got a puncture one day and went into a RIC barracks to get help fixing it!!

Dan Breen in his book "My fight for Irish Freedom" reckoned people who spoke of the beauty of the Galtees were never up there at night in January in regular clothes...

ford2600

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUn2WHHvc8A
A celebration of our most successful sporting hour

cdaly_

ford2600 wrote: »

There are lots of nice existing, and very quite ways of completing that journey, without any need for a greenway. The main navigation question is east or west of Galtees.

Tipperary/north Cork is a labyrinth of smaller roads with which one could complete that route. Cahir-Thurles has lovely options both sides of motorway which has one on lovely quite roads.

Rechuchote wrote: »

Wouldn't it be gorgeous to have a safe greenway - and the space is there along this road, it would be simple for the councils to do it.

Personally, I'd much prefer that these smaller roads be turned into non-permeable roads for motorised traffic. Local traffic only with no through routes would make these much nicer both for cyclists/walkers but also for local residents. It doesn't take much effort to steer the car onto a main road to get where you're going...

Rechuchote

ford2600 wrote: »

A celebration of our most successful sporting hour

Not the first way I'd have thought about the War of Independence, mind you…