Ronan Kelly’s Ireland: Kilkenny Story Cycle

This was recorded one year before lockdown. Jason Morrissey loves Kilkenny and loves talking about it. Just as well he’s a cycling tour guide so.

Kilkenny if you know it is a medieval city it’s great for tourists you can stroll around seeing the old buildings on the medieval mile but someone suggested to me that I could get a bit more out of Kilkenny if I booked a tour using my usual form of transport McKenney cycling tours were open early on Sunday morning and it was before the tourist season kicked off in earnest so my ticket got me a tour with the full attention of the owner himself I love my hometown and I like talking about and it’s very interesting and so here I am

Making a living of cycling around chatting I lost my job in a recession in 2009 and I was unemployed and looking electrician I was in construction and I was back I was worked in Dublin or car Korowai was back in kilkenny and I wanted to make a new lease a life for

Yourself in kilkenny and a friend of mine said to me he saw the guy doing the walking tour and about 30 or 40 people wouldn’t doing the walking tour and it’s pointing at castles and walls and he said you could do that oh I said you

Think so he says yes so so come into my head and then I went off and bought a couple of bikes and start website and I just had to do that and name 10 years later now II I have 380 bikes and four stores and 15 staff Kilkenny is famous

For a few things it’s on the river nor and it’s also home to one of the best hurling teams in the country so we stopped here to the statue the Harling statue this beautiful sculpture it’s dedicated to anybody who’s ever played to Sports Authority fortune carries any shirt is touching

The body is catching the ball and he’s be clearly been felled by a temporary guy but you get his comeuppance once he comes down if Kenny as I say is full of medieval buildings and usually they have a story to go with them yes building behind me it just was once

The home of calcaneus most famous character a lady by the name of Alice you can see her name on the wall Alice Hitler and Alice lived here in the 1200 some early 1300 son it’s one of those stories you know where she came from money and she was used to a certain

Lifestyle and then it became no surprise when she went and met and fell in love with one of the wealthiest guys in town and everything was going fine and she couldn’t be happier until suddenly one day in the prime of his life her husband died all very very sad but

He left all his property and all his money to Alice you know every cloud and she was very very sad but after what she got over it and she had a new guy and he was the third richest flying together so of course she fell in love and married

This guy and everything was going fine until suddenly one day he too died and you see where this is going yeah so he left all this property in all of his money to Alice and to cut a long story short four times Alice married and every time she marries each guy was richer

Than the last name time she married him tall died suddenly in the prime her life leaving all of her money in all her property to Alice so it didn’t become an all suspicious until the year 13:24 a guy came to the city then Bishop Richard loved red and he said for the

People who could did not see what’s gone on him she’s killing these guys she’s taken her money and people of clock any we didn’t think were suspicious because in those times he didn’t have CSI tech any so so he demanded that Alice be tried for crimes of heresy and

Witchcraft for killing her husband’s the North’s involved accused of being a witch noting identity he burned drowned hung and the date was set for the trial of the century Alice was to be tried by fire not a very pleasant prospect the data sets on the morning November 13 24 and everything was prepared

Alice was waiting her fate in the dungeons of the castle and the townspeople marched up to the castle to get her bring her down when they went to her saddle she was gone vanished vamoosed escaped and she has used her magic powers to turn herself fewer wait why would you turn yourself into

Something that would allow you to escape the Florida everybody says well I covered myself ie it is believed that Alice used her magic powers to turn herself into a black cat blame the black cat allowed her to slink out to the bars of the cell and down into the city and

Pray and the people at the trader and 700 years later when you see a black cat roaming the streets of Kilkenny that’s believed to be Alice looking for a rich husband so are you rich or no you can see the cat today is one of the symbols of click any are sporting team

Is called the cats today this is a tourist attraction people come from all over the world to have a point here and lovely food great music and it’s a really good place to meet rich men with short life expectancies the thing about being on the bike in

Kilkenny is you can get right out into nature pretty swiftly two minutes here something cappuccinos in the city center and lovely cafe another two minutes and you in the country Sundays and all you can hear is birds and in the river here we have some otters and foxes around

You’ll see the Kingfisher there it’s a real treat you don’t seem too often yes I have yes actually I have a bounty on this head I give anyone on my tour one euros to spot it for me so and usually I don’t have to pay them on your own when

It’s worth it when I do There is a tree creeper looking at their look Not the rear but there it’s unusual during the last recession Jason had to sell his house when his work is an industrial electrician dried up he had to become self-employed something he already had experience I well I had an early in my in my childhood I was an entrepreneur eyes I’d

Go up to the local golf club and picked golf balls there the bushes and sell him to the sport shops for 50p wash him up with jiff a-anything washerman bring him in and sell it to the sport shops and for 50p and ID cards call him to the

Door again again it doesn’t max fly off the air please the tour doesn’t go smoothly Jason keeps stopping to chat to locals who themselves have a bit of history yeah flag or GPO 1916 or some of the people Jason chats to have a bit of celebrity this woman is related to George Clooney

Apparently what’s the George Clooney connection George has promised to visit us in Kenya at some stage has me yeah if he ever well he’s probably claiming you using other new taming so whose lead no no the dog is leading the child and the child is leading us it’s not like working on

It you’re cycling around having a chat fresh air sometimes they bring my kids to school and then I go to work do two days working two hours and collecting from school this is really nice lifestyle Jason Morrissey of Kilkenny cycling tours