For anyone interested the 2014 Irish Photo Rally is live. Visit http://www.irishphotorally.com/  Great event. Great organisers. Also the World Famous Faugheen 50 RRC,of which I am a founding member, will be bringing back the road races to the Fabulous Faugheen Village on the 9/10 August 2014. Camping could be arranged for any K bike owner that may know a member of the club and may even be granted free entry if they wish to help on the either of the two days. Great experience to be involved.

Excellent timing Tom. That's the Saturday after August weekend when we usually have a meet up. Its a camping weekend for me too, somewhere. My son is also a biker and also an A&E doctor in Cork and did a training course in Mondello last month. He would probably like to be there to help out as he loves road racing. We go sometimes head off together and that would be a nice outing.

Thanks for posting this. I was at the Faugheen 50 years ago with a friend of mine who competed. I think it might be time for a revisit  -o:

Does this perhaps mean that our Saturday after August weekend meeting might be at the road races? Sounds good to me.....Weekend camping? Friday night even? If no camping at the road races then its Nore Valley or is that too far??

92KK K100LT 193214 wrote:Excellent timing Tom. That's the Saturday after August weekend when we usually have a meet up. Its a camping weekend for me too, somewhere. My son is also a biker and also an A&E doctor in Cork and did a training course in Mondello last month. He would probably like to be there to help out as he loves road racing. We go sometimes head off together and that would be a nice outing.

We would love to have you both there,esp your son. We have had to pay large fees for doctors in the past, and if he could attend for any time on the wknd, he would be more than welcome. We have to run the event this time at great financial risk to the club and to our members, due to the lack of sponsorship in the current economy. The total cost of running the event last time in 09 came to 83,000 euros. This sum was raised by a bunch of local amateurs but all great and hard working enthusiasts for our sport. We will trim finances to the minimum this time but the bill will still be substantial. Any help welcome.

92KK K100LT 193214 wrote:Does this perhaps mean that our Saturday after August weekend meeting might be at the road races? Sounds good to me.....Weekend camping? Friday night even? If no camping at the road races then its Nore Valley or is that too far??

No it is not far to the Nore, and no camping at the road races other than competitors, but as I said earlier, privileges can be arranged  and for those willing to commit to give of their time on the weekend. It is a massive buzz to be involved. A new local club was formed in '03 and somehow managed to raise the funds to bring the races back after a 17 year lapse,and to hear the two-way radios crackle with the words "Bike's On Track, Bikes on Track" and the late BIG D say the words on the loudspeakers, "Ladies and Gentlemen,Welcome to Faugheen, the Faugheen 50 is back". That sure was an awesome moment for me. Now we are bringing it back again.

Ringfad wrote:Thanks for posting this. I was at the Faugheen 50 years ago with a friend of mine who competed. I think it might be time for a revisit  -o:

How long ago? We have some of the earlier programmes so if you want to pm his name I might find it somwhere in a programme and copy it for him. No guarantee that I will though.

PM on its way

This looks like a good trip. Nore Valley is about 35km away so its not a bad little trip. There is a nearer camp site between Clonmel and Cahir but the Nore Valley appears a nicer site and its also a nice road over. For those who prefer their creature comforts there is no shortage of B&B accommodation.

Do we make this into an Irish Eccentrics weekend away?

92KK K100LT 193214 wrote:This looks like a good trip. Nore Valley is about 35km away so its not a bad little trip. There is a nearer camp site between Clonmel and Cahir but the Nore Valley appears a nicer site and its also a nice road over. For those who prefer their creature comforts there is no shortage of B&B accommodation.

Do we make this into an Irish Eccentrics weekend away?

For those who wish to camp and give a little help, camping will be arranged in the paddock at the races. Can't get any closer to the action.  Eccentrics welcome.

I managed to get two of the Photo rally sites visited yesterday, a nice round trip of 369Km on my K100 16V. Only 22 sites to go.


Banbridge - note the Polar Bears in the monument



and

Balbriggan - Martello Tower

I presume that the monument is to Francis Crozier, the Arctic explorer.

We don't have any for McClintock?

RicK G wrote:I presume that the monument is to Francis Crozier, the Arctic explorer.

Aye that be him! Born in or near Banbridge!

Isn't it amazing how you know some of these things, I saw that monument and the polar bears mentioned and immediately thought that might be to Francis Crozier but I have not the faintest idea where I knew that from.

RicK G wrote:Isn't it amazing how you know some of these things, I saw that monument and the polar bears mentioned and immediately thought that might be to Francis Crozier but I have not the faintest idea where I knew that from.

Flashbacks eh! How about Pat Keohane and The South Pole Inn ?  Two more locations for this years rally. Anything come to mind???

tomfoley wrote:

RicK G wrote:Isn't it amazing how you know some of these things, I saw that monument and the polar bears mentioned and immediately thought that might be to Francis Crozier but I have not the faintest idea where I knew that from.

Flashbacks eh! How about Pat Keohane and The South Pole Inn ?  Two more locations for this years rally. Anything come to mind???

No didn't ring any bells but looked up wiki an found a very interesting story.
I think Francis Crozier may have come up when I was doing some digging into the Franklin Expedition of the North West Passage because the brother of my 5 x Great Grandfather was the Ships Surgeon.

You mean the one McLintock went to find. Another Irishman too! I read a lot on the Franklin expedition and how they lingered on.

Among many others, I think there have been more expeditions to find out the "real truth" of what happened to the Franklin Expedition than actual expeditions for a North West Passage.
I read a few months ago that some of the remains found in shallow graves in the permafrost may have actually been the ships surgeon.
http://northwestpassage2011.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/secret-from-beyond-grave.html

You would be very right in that. McClintock's sole reason for going was to find out what happened to the Franklin expedition, almost everyone who went since then tried to follow Franklin's route to find them. Unfortunately they were much colder times and a lot more polar ice so their chances were slim. We look at winter as being wet but its not so long back that the Thames would freeze over enough to hold a winter festival on the ice.

I recall reading that in the early 1600s the Thames froze over quite regularly in winter and that some of the experts say that 400 year cycles are recorded there and that it can be expected that it may very well happen again in the near future.
There has been some recent investigations here on the barrier reef by drilling into the coral bombies (big mushroom shaped heads of coral) to get core samples much like tree rings and that there was a period here that corresponds with the freezing of the Thames when there was a 34 year period when there was no significant run off from the coastal rivers that deposited silt on the reef so there was a really bad drought, far worse than we are experiencing at the moment.

I recall reading that in the early 1600s

Obviously, riding a K is the answer to eternal life   

Mike

mike d wrote:I recall reading that in the early 1600s

Obviously, riding a K is the answer to eternal life   

Mike

  Good one Mike !!!

Pat Keohane as mentioned by Tom Foley earlier, is a fascinating Character and the South Pole Inn was the home of Tom Crean (cousin of my grandfather) and one of the most experienced Antarctic explorers ever. It's a shame that their achievements weren't feted or celebrated while they were alive.

As is often the case these pioneers aren't recognized in their own time. It's is only recently that the brother of the surgeon on the Franklin Expedition (Professor John Goodsir) is getting recognition for his work on Bacteria 25 years earlier than Louis Pasteur made himself famous by using a lot of Goodsir's work and expanding on it then calling it his own.

RicK G wrote:As is often the case these pioneers aren't recognized in their own time. It's is only recently that the brother of the surgeon on the Franklin Expedition (Professor John Goodsir) is getting recognition for his work on Bacteria 25 years earlier than Louis Pasteur made himself famous by using a lot of Goodsir's work and expanding on it then calling it his own.

Academics!...They're still at it too!

One might say echoes of Darwin and Wallace too.....

I only just finished a book about the various ideas of the origin of birds and did they evolve from reptiles or are they still living dinosaurs etc and the different arguments that have been used over the years and how one stole anothers work it almost like reading about WW2 sometimes.

88KE wrote:

mike d wrote:[size=16.363636016845703]I recall reading that in the early 1600s[/size]

Obviously, riding a K is the answer to eternal life   

Mike

  Good one Mike !!!

Pat Keohane as mentioned by Tom Foley earlier, is a fascinating Character and the South Pole Inn was the home of Tom Crean (cousin of my grandfather) and one of the most experienced Antarctic explorers ever. It's a shame that their achievements weren't feted or celebrated while they were alive.

I think Tom Crean was shunned by the local people due to his participation in an English epedition though not sure if there is any truth in this. I do remember washing our bikes in the stream beside the Inn at the first  motorcycle rally  in Ireland.