{"id":42128,"date":"2025-08-04T05:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42128\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T05:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:43:10","slug":"bike-tour-reveals-the-forgotten-club-that-helped-steer-the-irish-language-revival-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42128\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike tour reveals the forgotten club that helped steer the Irish language revival \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A commemorative bike tour retracing the routes of a forgotten cycling club,, which helped drive the Irish language revival will take place as part of this year\u2019s F\u00e9ile an Phobail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Organised by Sp\u00f3rtlann na h\u00c9ireann\u2019s GaelStair project, the tour will follow a trail laid out by a Belfast cycling club founded by Irish speakers more than 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish News, Michael Jackson, project coordinator of GaelStair, said the tour aims to celebrate a generation of activists who sought to infuse the Irish language into everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just about the Irish language being taught in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\"Toyota<\/a>\"Eating<\/a>\"AnOis\u00edn \u00d3 Ceallaigh, Se\u00e1n Mac Se\u00e1in, Joe McNally with one of the orginal bikes that used by An Cumann Rotha\u00edocht in the 1960’s. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

\u201cAs important as that was, they also had things like cycling clubs, swimming clubs, arts clubs, drama clubs – all of these social initiatives that would create conditions to allow people to live their lives through Irish. That\u2019s really where the idea for the bike ride came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original bike club was founded by members of An Cumann Chluain \u00c1rd, an Irish language club which has been involved in teaching the language to people from all areas of Belfast since 1936.<\/p>\n

Read more: How a Belfast community used theatre to heal, unite, and inspire<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GaelStair\"The original bike club was founded by members of An Cumann Chluain \u00c1rd <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were effectively activists who worked to bring the Irish language into the working-class districts of Belfast,\u201d Michael explained.<\/p>\n

From this movement came An Cumann Rotha\u00edocht (The Cycling Association) in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the old photos we\u2019ve seen, it looks like they travelled all over the country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s really fascinating about the club is that it wasn\u2019t just about getting on your bike and having a nice day out, it was deeply tied to the Irish language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club would\u2019ve produced a small paper which would have had the names of various towns and townlands and places where they\u2019d been, as well as things like bike manuals all written and published in Irish.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, there was a lot more going on than there usually is in your standard bike club.\u201d<\/p>\n

To emulate the club\u2019s historic connection to the Irish language, the tour will take cyclists on a journey through the history of the revival, while immersing them in landscapes and stories enjoyed by generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be stopping off at various spots and meeting with some of the people involved in the original Cumann Rotha\u00edocht who will be able to tell the guys on the tour about their memories of the bike club when it was first founded.<\/p>\n

\"AnOis\u00edn \u00d3 Ceallaigh, Se\u00e1n Mac Se\u00e1in, Joe McNally with one of the orginal bikes that used by An Cumann Rotha\u00edocht in the 1960’s. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice synergy and way to engage people in the history and heritage of the Irish language community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are interested in lectures, classes and talks but for other people who want to get involved with the Irish language it is things like cycling, sports or drama that they connect with.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we want to provide as many opportunities for everyone to get involved with the language and in engage with the history as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael adds that the lasting impact of groups like An Cumann Rotha\u00edocht cannot be underestimated. <\/p>\n

\u201cA really good example of the influence the club has had is Se\u00e1n Mist\u00e9il who is the director of Sp\u00f3rtlann na h\u00c9ireann,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a first-generation B\u00f3thar Seoighe so he was raised in the Shaw\u2019s Road Gaeltacht, and his uncles were part of the original bike club, and through them Se\u00e1n developed a love of cycling as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much so that when he was a teenager he cycled roughly around 120 miles from Belfast to Gweedore. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when we were setting up for this event, he found the bike he rode there on in his attic \u2013 it just goes to show how things like this can help to shape the next generation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking on the event Se\u00e1n said the cycling club was and is a historic example of the \u201cdetermination to socialise and to live life through Irish\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis novel and engaging bike tour is a celebration of a generation of activists who tried to infuse the Irish language into everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough GaelStair and Sp\u00f3rtlann na h\u00c9ireann we hope to revive the connection people have to the Irish language in all aspects of their lives, whether they are into history, literature, music or even sports like cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: The forgotten village beneath Cave Hill: how Whitewell\u2019s story has been brought back to life<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GaelStair\"An Cumann Rotha\u00edocht (The Cycling Association) was formed in the 1960s <\/p>\n

Setting out from Hawthorn Street on Saturday, August 9, at 10am, the tour will travel through Belfast\u2019s Gaeltacht Quarter towards Shaw\u2019s Road Gaeltacht and up to Colin Glen, taking just over an hour to complete.<\/p>\n

Organised bilingually and open to Irish speakers and learners alike, Michael believes events like these are \u201ccritical\u201d in preserving the Irish language community in the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a commemoration of the past – it can also help shape our future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think there are some invaluable lessons to be found in the history of the Irish language community in terms of how they socialised the language and how they used it as a vehicle for progressive activism in many forms.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we want to celebrate that legacy and hopefully use it to drive the Irish language forward and improve the lives of the community around us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A commemorative bike tour retracing the routes of a forgotten cycling club,, which helped drive the Irish language…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,36985,1366,85],"class_list":["post-42128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-feile-an-phobail","tag-language","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}