The 1980’s was a special time in Irish Cycling with the successes of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche on the world stage. The pictures here are how cycling was going in Ireland during that decade.
These are some pictures that were on negatives I dug out from old boxes in my garage. I must add, I’m not a sports photographer, I just took pictures as a hobby, so the quality is variable and action photography back then was a lot more difficult than today with the modern digital cameras.
The reason I am posting these pictures now is because a couple of years ago I bumped into an old friend of mine Peter Morton. He told me the old pictures I had been posting on my website (IrishCycling.com) are the only coverage from those years and they are an important record for the sport. That got me thinking and I put it on my bucket list to publish what I can find in videos and pictures over the next number of years. Sadly Peter Morton passed away earlier this year, it’s thanks to him that started me putting these online.
Pictures and Editing by Peter Purfield
Enjoy – More to follow when I have time
More archive pictures and video on https://www.IrishCycling.com
7 Comments
Great photos and videos Peter 👌👌
great tunes to go with the racing awesome
Fantastic, memories of old Ireland, for example, the nun at the roadside clapping Sean Kelly in the TT. As a fellow photographer Peter has good composition for cycling photography.
They're fabulous Peter, precious memories, thanks a million for taking them in the first place and now digitizing and sharing. You're a star!
I rode the 1982 Tour then the 83 Calor Kosangas Dublin-Galway-Dublin.
Fantastic racing and brilliant lads.
Incidentally, which club in the earlier photos is wearing green jerseys with black and yellow quarters and vertical side stripe? Boys in this kit feature in the Microdisney "Town to Town" video, I just wonder who they are.
Great pictures, almost Cor Vos!
Great memories
Thanks for sharing Peter – like the one of Mark Young and Stephen Spratt in Clonakilty