Bicycles, Long Coats and Shooting Jackets

by Dr Miriam Moffitt

 

RCBL MS 1073

Cycling came into its own as a means of transport towards the end of the 19th century and many Church of Ireland clergy swiftly took to the bike. The RCB Library has recently focussed on this theme and has made some of its more unusual photographs available online here. However, as we will see, the practicalities of riding a bike caused considerable anxiety among some members of the Church.

The advent in 1885, of the ‘Rover bicycle’ with its equal–sized wheels and robust chain, coupled with John Dunlop’s development of the pneumatic tyre…


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