Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:59:55.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

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

2 Irish Cyclist, 8 June 1887.

3 Griffin, , Cycling in Victorian Ireland, pp 53–88.Google Scholar

4 For a recent discussion of Irish cycling clubs see Griffin, Brian, ‘Irish cycling clubs, 1869–1901’ in Kelly, Jennifer and Comerford, R.V. (eds), Associational culture in Ireland and abroad (Dublin and Portland, OR, 2010), pp 105–26.Google Scholar

5 Irish Cyclist, 27 Sept. 1893.

6 Belfast News-Letter, 6 Feb. 1894.

7 Ibid., 28 July 1896.

8 Irish Wheelman, 24 Aug. 1897.

9 Ibid., 9 Nov. 1897.

10 Hansard 4, lxi, p. 178 (7 July 1898).

11 Bassett, George Henry, Louth county guide and directory, including the town and county guide of the town of Drogheda (Dublin, 1886), p. 340.Google Scholar

12 Details from The Belfast and province of Ulster directory for 1884 (Belfast, 1884), pp x, xix, 101, 149, 230, 260, 612.

13 Irish Cyclist, 11 Nov. 1885.

14 Ibid, 26 Jan. 1886.

15 Freeman’s Journal, 1 July 1886; Irish Cyclist, 29 Feb. 1888.

16 The industries of Dublin:historical, statistical, biographical (London, c.1887), p. 116; Irish Times, 30 Aug. 1888.

17 Irish Cyclist, 15 Jan. 1890. The Centaur Company advertised the ‘Irish Sharpshooter’ and ‘Irish Ranger’ models in this catalogue.

18 Albone’s company manufactured the ‘Irish Ivel’ safety bicycle. For a discussion of Albone’s contribution to the cycling industry in nineteenth-century Britain, see Hindle, Kathy and Irvine, Lee, A thorough good fellow: the story of Dan Albone, inventor and cyclist, including a short history of cycling (Bedford, 1990);Google Scholar Benson, Mike, ‘Dan Albone and the Ivel bicycle’ in The Boneshaker (1991), pp 22—41.Google Scholar

19 Thom’s official directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: for the year 1900 (Dublin, 1900), p. 1941.

20 The figure for 1891 comes from Thom’s official directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: for the year 1901 (Dublin, 1901), p. 1281.

21 Census of Ireland, 1901, Cd 1190 H.C. 1902, cxxix.1.

22 Freeman’s Journal, 13 Jan. 1894.

23 Westmeath Nationalist, 27 May 1897.

24 Irish Times, 21 Jan. 1897.

25 Irish Cyclist, 12 Feb. 1896.

26 Irish News, 8 Sept. 1897.

27 Irish Cyclist, 21 Mar. 1897. Dublin department stores also sold bicycles in this decade: see Rains, Stephanie, Commodity culture and social class in Dublin 1850–1916 (Dublin and Portland, OR, 2010), p. 131.Google Scholar

28 This claim was made in the Irish Wheelman, 9 Nov. 1897.

29 Gribbon, H.D., ‘Economic and social history, 1850–1921’ in Vaughan, W.E. (ed.), A new history of Ireland, vi: Ireland under the union, ii 1870–1921 (Oxford, 1996), pp 311–12.Google Scholar

30 Belfast News-Letter, 25 May 1898.

31 The names and addresses of the sixty-five agents are detailed in an advertisement in Irish Cyclist, 29 June 1898.

32 Ibid., 2 Aug. 1899.

33 See Griffin, , Cycling, pp 75–83Google Scholar, 85–86.

34 Ibid., pp 91–2.

35 Irish Cyclist, 24 Apr. 1895.

36 Ibid., 28 Nov. 1888.

37 Sligo Champion, 29 Sept. 1894.

38 Westmeath Nationalist, 30 July 1896; Irish Cyclist, 12 Aug. 1896.

39 Weekly Irish Times, 18 Sept. 1897.

40 For the example of the Great Northern Cycle Company of Draperstown, a bootleg operation run by two National schoolteachers who passed off their counterfeit bicycles as Rudge-Whitworth machines, see Loughrey, Patrick, ‘Commerce, cycling or the classroom?’, Ulster Local Studies, 8, no. 3 (winter, 1983), pp 25–9.Google Scholar

41 Sport, 10 Mar. 1894; Irish Cyclist, 12 Feb. 1896; Weekly Irish Times, 8 May, 22 May 1897; Irish Tourist, July 1898.

42 Irish Homestead, 27 Feb. 1897. Italics in original.

43 Undated Irish Field article in Ulster Football and Cycling News, 8 May 1896.

44 Social Review, 6 Feb. 1897.

45 Poem by ‘Bearings’ in Ulster Cycling News, 8 Feb. 1893.

46 Irish Cyclist, 20 Jan. 1897.

47 Irish Wheelman, 7 Dec. 1897.

48 Irish Cyclist, 11 Nov. 1885.

49 Ibid., 11 Dec. 1889.

50 Belfast News-Letter, 28 Mar. 1892.

51 Ulster Cycling News, 18 Jan. 1893.

52 Irish Times, 19 Mar. 1897; Social Review, 3 Apr., 19 June 1897; Irish Society, 10 Apr. 1897; Weekly Irish Times, 26 June 1897.

53 Irish Cyclist, 4 Apr. 1888.

54 Ibid., 23 Mar. 1891.

55 Sport, 2 May 1891.

56 Ulster Football and Cycling News, 4 May 1894.

57 Sport, 18 Aug. 1894.

58 Irish Cyclist, 9 Jan. 1895.

59 Punch, 12 Sept. 1896. All illustrations are courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

60 Munster Life, 27 Mar. 1897. An original ‘Eiffel’ bicycle may be seen on display in the National Cycle Collection at Llandrindod Wells in Wales. For a fine example of a John Griffiths Corporation advertisement in the art nouveau style, see Rennert, Jack, 100 years of bicycle posters (London, 1973), p. 27.Google Scholar

61 Weekly Irish Times, 8 May 1897.

62 Ibid.

63 Irish Wheelman, 27 Mar. 1900.

64 For a discussion of this aspect of the cycle trade in North America, Britain and continental Europe, especially France and Germany, see Ritchie, Andrew and Rabenstein, Rüdiger, ‘Mostly middle-class cycling heroes: the fin de siècle commercial obsession with speed, distance and records’ in Mangan, J.A. (ed.), Reformers, sport, modernizers: middle-class revolutionaries (London and Portland, OR, 2002), pp 91–133.Google Scholar

65 Kerry News, 11 Jan. 1898.

66 Irish Cyclist, 17 Apr. 1895.

67 Ibid, 24 Apr. 1895.

68 Westmeath Nationalist, 9 Jan. 1896.

69 Irish Wheelman, 8 June 1897.

70 Ibid., 22 June 1897.

71 Killeen, Michael, ‘Harry Reynolds world cycling champion’ in Dublin Historical Record, 41 (Dec. 1987–Sept. 1988), p. 78.Google Scholar

72 Irish Wheelman, 15 Jan. 1901.

73 Cros, Arthur du, Wheels of fortune: a salute to pioneers (London, 1938).Google Scholar

74 Irish Weekly Independent, 6 July 1895.

75 Irish Cyclist, 29 Feb. 1888; Cycling, 18 Apr. 1891, 30 July 1892, 28 Jan. 1893; Sport, 12 Nov. 1892, 23 Dec. 1893; Belfast News-Letter, 13 Feb. 1893.

76 Cycling, 25 Mar. 1893.

77 Ibid., 24 Jan. 1891.

78 Ibid., 13 June 1891.

79 Ibid., 29 Oct. 1892.

80 Ibid., 2 May 1891, 4 June 1892.

81 Ibid., 31 Jan. 1891; Irish Cyclist, 4 Jan. 1893; Sport, 13 May 1893.

82 Irish Cyclist, 3 May 1893.

83 Ibid., 21 Feb. 1894.

84 Kerry News, 19 Oct. 1897.

85 Irish Wheelman, 13 Apr. 1897.

86 Irish Cyclist, 14 Mar. 1888.

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

88 Irish Cyclist, 7 Mar. 1896; Irish Wheelman, 6 July 1897.

89 Irish Wheelman, 9 Mar. 1897.

90 Ibid., 15 June 1897.

91 Munster Life, 22 May 1897.

92 Irish Cyclist, 8 June 1898.

93 Irish Tourist, July 1898.

94 Irish Cyclist, 5 Feb. 1896.

95 Social Review, 23 Jan. 1897.

96 Irish Tourist, July 1898.

97 Irish Wheelman, 22 May 1900.

98 Irish Cyclist, 14 June 1893.

99 Irish Athletic and Cycling Record, 18 Jan. 1898.

100 Ibid., 8 Mar. 1900.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid., 11 Feb. 1897; Belfast News-Letter, 26 Jan. 1898.

103 Irish Wheelman, 12 Jan. 1897.

104 Weekly Irish Times, 29 May 1897; Irish Cyclist, 2 Aug. 1899.

105 Irish Cyclist, 23 Sept. 1891.

106 Ibid., 18 May 1898.

107 Sport, 28 July 1894.

108 Irish Cyclist, 2 Aug. 1899.

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

110 Ulster Cycling News, 26 Apr. 1893.

111 Irish Tourist, July 1898.

112 Advertisement on unnumbered page in Redmond, C.P., Beauty spots in the south-east of Ireland and how to see them by car and cycle (London and Dublin, 1901).Google Scholar

113 Bartleet, H.W., Bartleet’s bicycle book (London, 1928), pp 72–5.Google Scholar

114 Grew, W.F., The cycle industry: its origin, history and late development (London, 1921), p. 29.Google Scholar

115 Irish Wheelman, 15 June 1897; Weekly Irish Times, 29 May 1897; Irish Athletic and Cycling Record, 28 Jan. 1898, 8 Mar. 1900.

116 Commercial Ireland, 27 Dec. 1890.

117 Sport, 21 Apr. 1894.

118 Freeman’s Journal, 28 Jan. 1895.

119 Irish Times, 18 Jan. 1897.

120 Irish Athletic and Cycling Record, 8 Mar. 1900; Irish Wheelman, 26 Feb. 1901.

121 Sport, 18 Nov. 1893.

122 Irish Cyclist, 23 Jan. 1895.

123 Midland Reporter, 24 Mar. 1898.

124 Irish Wheelman, 11 May 1897.

125 Ibid., 19 Jan. 1897.

126 Enniscorthy Guardian, 26 June 1897.

127 Advertisement on unnumbered page of Redmond, Beauty spots.

128 Sport, 7 Apr. 1894.

129 Irish Times, 1 Jan. 1897.

130 Weekly Irish Times, 19 Apr. 1892.

131 Leader, 9 Mar. 1901.

132 Bulfin, William, Rambles in Eirinn (2 vols, London, 1979 Google Scholar edn), i, 13; McGarry, Fearghal, Eoin O’Duffy: a self-made hero (Oxford, 2005), p. 9.Google Scholar See also the bilingual advertisement for ‘Pierce’ and ‘Lucania’ bicycles sold by the Dunshaughlin Gaelic League activist, Peter Murray, in Jim Gilligan, ‘Murray’s of Dunshaughlin, 1896–1910’ in Cronin, Denis A., Gilligan, Jim and Holton, Karina (eds), Irish fairs and markets: studies in local history (Dublin and Portland, OR, 2001), p. 240.Google Scholar

133 Freeman’s Journal, 19 Apr. 1897; Sport, 28 Apr. 1894; Belfast News-Letter, 19 June 1899.

134 The Stanley show was named after the club that originated it, the Stanley Bicycle Club: Herlihy, David, Bicycle: the history (New Haven and London, 2004), p. 188.Google Scholar

135 Ulster Cycling News, 1 Mar., 8 Mar. 1893; Belfast News-Letter, 6 Mar. 1893; Irish Cyclist, 8 Mar. 1893.

136 Freeman’s Journal, 13, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30 Jan. 1894.

137 Freeman’s Journal, 23, 28, 30 Jan. 1895; Irish Weekly Independent, 2 Feb. 1895.

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.

139 Freeman’s Journal, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Jan. 1898.

140 Belfast News-Letter, 26 Jan. 1898; Irish Athletic and Cycling Record, 28 Jan. 1898.

141 Belfast News-Letter, 6 Mar. 1893.

142 Ibid., 18 Jan. 1897.

143 Irish Athletic and Cycling Record, 28 Jan. 1897.

144 Belfast News-Letter, 6 Mar. 1893.

145 Freeman’s Journal, 22 Jan. 1894.

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

147 Daly, Mary E., Dublin, the deposed capital: a social and economic history 1860–1914 (Cork, 1984), p. 48.Google Scholar She adds that ‘innumerable companies’ were established in this period, only a few of which were ultimately successful.

148 Tompkins, Eric, The history of the pneumatic tyre (Lavenham, 1981), p. 1.Google Scholar

149 Wilson, A.J., Two trips to the emerald isle (London, 1888), p. 11.Google Scholar

150 Irish Cyclist, 20 Nov. 1889.

151 Cros, du, Wheels of fortune, p. 81.Google Scholar

152 Ibid., pp 56–7.

153 This complicated story is outlined in a very clear manner in Moore, John, Motor makers in Ireland (Belfast, 1982), pp 141–4.Google Scholar

154 From its incorporation in 1889 until April 1896, the shareholders of the company paid in some £260,000 and received dividends totalling £658,123: Harrison, A.E., ‘Joint-stock company flotation in the cycle, motor-vehicle and related industries, 1882–1914’ in Business History 33 (1981), p. 186.Google Scholar

155 Details of the court case in Freeman’s Journal, 3, 16, 21 July 1891.

156 Cros, du, Wheels of fortune, pp 100–1;Google Scholar Higman, H.D., ‘Founding of the Dunlop Tyre Company’ in der Plas, Rob van (ed.), Cycle history: proceedings of the 5th international cycle history conference (San Francisco, 1995), pp 91–4,Google Scholar at p. 93.

157 Freeman’s Journal, 19 Oct. 1893; Irish Cyclist, 25 Oct. 1893.

158 Irish Cyclist, 22 Nov. 1893.

159 Drogheda Argus, 16 May 1896. Although ‘Dunlop’ appears in the company’s name, John Boyd Dunlop had resigned as a director of the Pneumatic Tyre Company in March 1895: Cooke, Jim, ‘John Boyd Dunlop 1840–1921, inventor’ in Dublin Historical Record, 59 (Spring, 1996), p. 26.Google Scholar

160 Irish Figaro, 23 Jan. 1897; Irish Cyclist, 8 July 1898.

161 See Bob Montgomery’s short biography, R.J. Mecredy: the father of Irish motoring (Garristown, 2001).

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.