History & The Arts
Ireland cycling history: whizzing in all directions
...changed this. When William Hume of Belfast's Cruisers Cycling Club rode a pneumatic-tyred, chain-driven safety bicycle at the Queen's College sports on 18 May 1889, he was at first jeered by the onlookers and by other contestants, but Hume's easy victories over the Ordinary riders in the bicycle races signalled the beginning of a dramatic revolution in cycling in Ireland...