Lucania bicycles

Published in 20th-century / Contemporary History, Features, Issue 4 (July/August 2012), Volume 20

The Lucania bicycle works in South King Street, Dublin. (Michael Walker Jnr)

The Lucania bicycle works in South King Street, Dublin. (Michael Walker Jnr)

Lucania bicycles were manufactured by John O’Neill at the Lucania works in South King Street, Dublin. An advertisement for the Lucania in a 1911 edition of Sinn Féin carried the information also that the company had won a contract to supply the Post Office with 400 delivery bicycles. Following the Stockholm race, Sinn Féin quoted a letter from one of the Irish participants, detailing the very difficult conditions with which the cyclists (and bicycles) had dealt and reinforcing the ‘buy Irish’ message quite forcefully. At no point did the issue of where the cyclists had been placed in the race come into the equation:
‘None of us had the slightest trouble with our machines, although we had several bad falls, and I can tell you that numerous of our competitors’ machines broke in two and forks, etc., gave way during the course of the race, and as we were the only team who had no spare machines, our machines had to bear very close scrutiny from the other competitors, both native and foreign, who seemed surprised at the confidence we expressed in the ability of our machines to get through without any trouble. The result justified our confidence.’

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