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HISTORY & CULTURE GROUP

TTHE DEVIL ON WHEELS?
CYCLING`S IMPACT ON 19TH CENTURY IRELAND

BRIAN GRIFFIN
Bath Spa University

Monday, 28 January 2008 at 7.30pm

Although the bicycle might seem an innocuous and mundane object in today’s world, this was far from the case when the machine made its first appearance in rural Ireland in the late nineteenth century. This paper charts the varied reactions to the ‘devils on wheels’ and explores the complex interaction between the middle-class male and female cyclists and the people who lived in the rural areas through which they cycled.