The Cycle of Life

It was 50 years ago this summer when Brian Connaughton won the Ras Tailteann, the marquee event of Irish cycling.

He shakes his head at that reality. “Fifty years, hard to believe, incredible,” he says slowly as if by doing so it might make it more believable.
From the 1960s right up to the early 1980s, Brian was one of the brightest stars in the Irish cycling firmament. He rode in the Ras - then a major event in the Irish sporting calendar - 13 times; winning it once in the summer of ‘69. In his last appearance in the famous event in 1981 he won the final stage into the Phoenix Park. He was 38. As a way of finishing with a flourish it was hard to beat.
Like most cycling enthusiasts he will be surely keeping an eye on the Tour de France as it unfolds this week with the TV images showing the peleton winding and weaving its way through the beautiful French countryside.
A retired Garda, Connaughton has loved cycling since he was a youngster and he still goes out on his bike regularly for a spin with friends on the roads close to where he lives - one of the reasons, no doubt, why he looks so fit now that he’s in his seventies.
Brian Connaughton is sitting in the back kitchen area of his fine house located in a very pleasant, leafy estate close to Clonee. The day is humid and he has his back door open to let in some cooling air. Every now and again this most affable of men will glance out as he recalls some incident from his life, as if in looking out, he’s also looking back.
His life, so far, has had many memorable moments - with that Ras victory half-a-century-ago right up there - but it has also been tinged by great loss; friends who have moved on. Then there was the passing of his sister Marie who succumbed to illness only in her forties.
There was profound tragedy too in the loss of his wife Mary after suffering dementia, in 2010.

DULEEK

On a wall in Brian Connaughton’s house are photographs of him with friends from the cycling world. There’s also a collection of newspaper clippings related to the 1947 All-Ireland SFC final in New York, won by Cavan.
He has clearly a close affinity with Cavan and with good reason - he spent the first 16 years of his life in the Breffni County; first in Kingscourt and later Redhills where his father served as a Garda. When he was 16 the Connaughtons (the family included eight children) moved to Duleek where Brian Connaughton senior became the local sergeant.
“I played football myself for a couple of years but I wasn’t very good a it but I always had a passion for a bike and cycling,” he says. It was a passion that brought him in contact with many fascinating people. People who helped shaped what he became.
He recalls the time when as a youngster he came in contact with Jimmy Lynch who started the White Cross Cycling Club, outside Duleek. When Brian started to show some promise Jimmy brought him down to Tuam for a cycling event. Brian had a chance to get on the Meath team for the Ras and a good performance out west would seal his place. They headed off in a car that Jimmy, clearly a skilled mechanic, had largely constructed himself. “He made one car from two separate Morris Minors,” recalls Brian.
“We ran out of petrol three times on that trip and ran out of water at least once but we had great luck. One of the times we ran out of petrol we were able to free-wheel down a hill at Horseleap and into a petrol station.
“When steam starting to erupt from the engine because of a lack of water we came to a stop and there, when we looked around was a pump.” Brian performed well in Tuam and clinched his place on
the Meath team. Great days, wonderful memories.
After he left school, Brian landed a job in a hardware store in Drogheda. Every working day he would cycle from Duleek to Drogheda with a group of young friends, who also worked in the town. They would gather at Platin and the journey invariably turned into a race. On one occasion while going into Drogheda, Brian crashed on his bike. He was knocked unconscious, lost a few teeth and spent a few days in hospital, but it didn’t turn him off cycling.
He went on to join Navan Road Club and became good enough to win the Ras, the All Ireland of the cycling world. “I won it in ‘69 without winning a stage. I was never a sprinter although I had plenty of staying power over the hills, the hard terrain, that type of thing. I was with Navan Road Club we had some great teams, great cyclists, such as Seamus Kennedy, Larry Clarke, Noel Clarke.”
 

GARDA SIOCHANA

While he was working in Drogheda, Connaughton joined the ranks of the Garda Siochana and had “nice easy spells” serving in places like Kinnegad and Killucan where there was little or no crime. Then he was transferred to Fitzgibbon Street Station, Dublin and was in for a real culture shock. His “bailiwick” was the north inner city from 1970 to ‘77 - and he was horrified by the poverty he found there.
His job included handing out warrants for unpaid debts; debts more often than not he knew the people couldn’t pay.
“You got to know these people and it was a fantastic experience to get to know them because they did their best. I would write a report and write: ‘No way should this person be expected to pay for this.’ Often they didn’t have to.”
Brian finished out his garda career in an administrative role and retired but that didn't mean he took things easy. He set up a business - Cycleways - with another great Meath cyclist, Philip Cassidy. Gradually it became clear that all was not well with his wife Mary. Brian and Mary had met during his days in Killucan, and went on to have two children - Shane and Elsa.
By her late fifties Mary was experiencing difficulties and eventually was diagnosed with dementia. “Mary had been showing symptoms for a couple of years before she was diagnosed with dementia at 59 and slowly but surely it progressed and you
know it’s amazing how the illness works.
“She was so young to get it and it was dreadful news. We shed tears because she was conscious to the reality. She knew she had the disease yet she was still able to drive the car. She always had a fantastic sense of direction, she could drive anywhere yet it came to the stage where she couldn’t use a knife or fork.
“You do the crying and the sorrow and all that in the early stages then you have to knuckle down and work at it. Mary would sit very quietly, she was very easy to care for. She was small and I could lift her and move her around here and there but I often wondered if the roles were reversed, what would Mary have done in terms of having to lift me into a shower or bath or wash or dress me? Some people who have that illness become very restless, Mary could sit anywhere and she wouldn’t move. I was blessed that way.”
Brian has in more recent years formed a relationship with Kristina, a Swedish woman, and they vary their time between Ireland and Sweden.
He points out that many of the eight youngsters in the family he grew up went abroad to carve out a new life, although most returned. A number of his sibling live nearby including writer Shane, best known as co-author of the screenplay for the film ‘My Left Foot’. Shane has
also written a number of other famous books such as ‘Border Station.’
A lot has happened in the life and times of Brian Connaughton, with that Ras victory 50 years ago a moment he will always treasure. Always.

 

BRIAN CONNAUGHTON

...ON HOW HIS LIFE CHANGED AS A GARDA

“I was initially based in Kinnegad and Killucan then suddenly I was thrown in at the deep end when I came to Fitzgibbon Street in 1966 and it was a whole new deal. From a handy country life, walking around doing your bit of work, suddenly you are in the middle of the poorest part of Europe at that time, the north inner city in Dublin. There were people then living in awful conditions, so many of them.
“I saw, in a place in Foley Street, two youngsters using the bath as their bed, two of them, using old blankets. I saw an old man, he bought a piece of furniture - and it’s ridiculous to think back now - but if they couldn’t pay for it the company would take a case against them, a civil case, and we got the warrant to enforce it. “

 

... ON HIS JOB AS A WARRANTS OFFICER
IN DUBLIN INNER CITY

“It was hard going but it was an amazing life too. There were no drugs then, I was lucky. I did that from 1970 to ‘77 and I had the same old bike cycling around, into the flats. I’d be in unform cycling around with a bag full of these warrants, I would do other parts of the city as well, the business community but when I’d go into the flats I could be 20 minutes, the kids would love to have a go on my bike, I never locked it. I still had it seven years later, nobody ever stole my bike.
“There was no animosity from the people. I think it was my attitude, I was on their side and they sensed that. I would often say ‘no this person shouldn’t pay this fine.’ Two years later you wouldn’t go into the flats it was no-mans-land, the place was awash with drugs and the atmosphere had changed completely. Much more aggressive, especially for guards.”

 

...ON THE CYCLING FRATERNITY IN MEATH

“I wasn’t a prolific winner but I just loved being there at the finish for the kill, getting the satisfaction from riding hard and riding well. In Meath at that time (1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s) we had some fantastic riders. The hardest race of the year was the Meath championship final. There was a ferocious competitiveness and rivalry between the clubs, and we hadn’t that many clubs, yet we could have 50 cyclists taking part in the Meath championships.
“So many great cyclists came from Meath over the years, some have gone from us. I think of Gabriel Howard, Ben McKenna, Ras winner in 1959, Seamus Kennedy who died a young man, Mick Nulty had a tragic accident on his bike and was very seriously injured, super cyclists. I think of Sean Lynch, who tragically passed away in an accident recently. There’s a great cycling fraternity and we’ve had so some great cyclists over the years and you’d have to pay tribute to them all.”

...ON HOW HIS LIFE CHANGED AS A GARDA

“I was initially based in Kinnegad and Killucan then suddenly I was thrown in at the deep end when I came to Fitzgibbon Street in 1966 and it was a whole new deal. From a handy country life, walking around doing your bit of work, suddenly you are in the middle of the poorest part of Europe at that time, the north inner city in Dublin. There were people then living in awful conditions, so many of them. 
“I saw, in a place in Foley Street, two youngsters using the bath as their bed, two of them, using old blankets. I saw an old man, he bought a piece of furniture - and it’s ridiculous to think back now - but if they couldn’t pay for it the company would take a case against them, a civil case, and we got the warrant to enforce it. “ 

... ON HIS JOB AS A WARRANTS OFFICER 
IN DUBLIN INNER CITY 

“It was hard going but it was an amazing life too. There were no drugs then, I was lucky. I did that from 1970 to ‘77 and I had the same old bike cycling around, into the flats. I’d be in unform cycling around with a bag full of these warrants, I would do other parts of the city as well, the business community but when I’d go into the flats I could be 20 minutes, the kids would love to have a go on my bike, I never locked it. I still had it seven years later, nobody ever stole my bike. 
“There was no animosity from the people. I think it was my attitude, I was on their side and they sensed that. I would often say ‘no this person shouldn’t pay this fine.’ Two years later you wouldn’t go into the flats it was no-mans-land, the place was awash with drugs and the atmosphere had changed completely. Much more aggressive, especially for guards.” 

...ON THE CYCLING FRATERNITY IN MEATH 

“I wasn’t a prolific winner but I just loved being there at the finish for the kill, getting the satisfaction from riding hard and riding well. In Meath at that time (1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s) we had some fantastic riders. The hardest race of the year was the Meath championship final. There was a ferocious competitiveness and rivalry between the clubs, and we hadn’t that many clubs, yet we could have 50 cyclists taking part in the Meath championships. 
“So many great cyclists came from Meath over the years, some have gone from us. I think of Gabriel Howard, Ben McKenna, Ras winner in 1959, Seamus Kennedy who died a young man, Mick Nulty had a tragic accident on his bike and was very seriously injured, super cyclists. I think of Sean Lynch, who tragically passed away in an accident recently. There’s a great cycling fraternity and we’ve had so some great cyclists over the years and you’d have to pay tribute to them all.”