Richie Byrne, RIP

Dublin Cycling Campaign wishes to convey its condolences to the family and friends of Richie Byrne from the Irish mountain-biking community who died over-night.

Richie was, without exaggeration, the best known mountain-biker in Ireland and introduced many hundreds, if not thousands, to the sport and culture of mountain-biking over an almost 30 year period. He was irrepressible, irreverent and addicted to bicycles and biking adventures in the Irish mountains.

Richie delivered a characteristically colourful and frank talk to Dublin Cycling Campaign just over two years ago about the history, current state and future of mountain-biking in Ireland. While cycle campaigning and mountain-biking (and cyclo-cross) occupied very different parts of the bicycling spectrum, he ‘got’ what we were about as activists challenging the status quo. Richie was quintessentially anti-establishment with very little, if any, patience for dealing with humourless bureaucrats and incredibly slow-moving government processes!

On a personal note, I really enjoyed my mountain-biking adventures with Richie and the MTB crew in the early 1990’s - he knew every inch of Dublin and Wicklow and loved nothing better than introducing new people to the mountains on Dublin’s doorstep. He certainly wasn’t averse to dishing out the slagging, but with his heart firmly in the right place. It’s so sad he succumbed to his battle with cancer at such a young age (just 54).

Our thoughts are with his wife Carol and daughter Sophie.

Damien Ó Tuama on behalf of Dublin Cycling Campaign and Cyclist.ie

Thursday, 29 September 2016 (All day)


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