John Lackey, from County Longford, Ireland, was an Irish road racing cyclist, and later cycle sport administrator and race organiser, holding office at club and national level in Irish cycling for more than 20 years, including more than a decade directing the Tour of Ireland multi-stage road race.
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 40,873 at the 2016 census. The county is based on the historic Gaelic territory of Annaly (Anghaile), formerly known as Teffia (Teathbha).
The Irish are a nation and ethnic group native to the island of Ireland, who share a common Irish ancestry, identity and culture. Ireland has been inhabited for about 12,500 years according to archaeological studies. For most of Ireland's recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people. From the 9th century, small numbers of Vikings settled in Ireland, becoming the Norse-Gaels. Anglo-Normans conquered parts of Ireland in the 12th century, while England's 16th/17th-century (re)conquest and colonisation of Ireland brought many English and Lowland Scots people to parts of the island, especially the north. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland and the smaller Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities including British, Irish, Northern Irish or some combination thereof.
The Tour of Ireland was a bicycle stage race held in August, which ran for 35 editions over a 56 year period. Irish rider Seán Kelly recorded the most wins, four.
John Lackey came from Soran, between Killoe and Ballinalee, Co. Longford. [1]
Killoe is a parish in County Longford, Ireland. The parish of Killoe is located approximately 6 miles north of Longford Town, and is home to Cairn Hill or Carn Clonhugh - the highest peak in County Longford.
Ballinalee is a village in north County Longford, Ireland. It is situated on the River Camlin, and falls within the civil parish of Clonbroney.
Lackey began his cycling career with the St. Mark's club in Dublin, where he had moved for work, in 1951. He started by touring, then pursuing time trials, and then mass-start races, winning his first attempt in that discipline. [2]
He later cycled with Tailteann cycling club, and was for some years its captain. [1]
He won more than 200 races, primarily in Ireland. He won the Grand Prix of Ireland in 1953. In the Tour of Ireland, he finished in 1954 as one of just 15 from a field of 108, was twice third in the general classification, and came second, by only 42 seconds, in 1955, when the tour ended in Longford. Lackey also won the first Tour of Wicklow. [1]
He was selected for and rode in the 1954 Route de France (a 10-day amateur stage race) Irish national team, [1] and the World Road-racing Championships in Denmark in 1956. In 1957 was selected to ride in and captain the all-Ireland team for the World Championships in Belgium. [2]
In 1961 he became the first rider from Ireland to win the Tour of the North (in Northern Ireland). [1]
Having held various club and Dublin County Board offices, he was elected as massed-start (road racing) secretary of the internationally recognised cycling federation, the CRE, in November 1960, for the 1961 season. [3] He held that role on the C.R.E., and a similar role on the Irish Cycling Federation, executive committees, over several years.
After his racing career, Lackey became a key organiser of stage races in Ireland, including the Tour of Ireland, of which he was director for 14 or more years. [1] [4]
Lackey, a Protestant, [5] was married to Doris Lackey, a former national women's cycling president. He lived his later life in Dublin and near Blessington in Co. Wicklow, and retired as joint Managing Director of Kelly's Builders Providers of Thomas St. Dublin, in early 1990. He died in early November 1990. His funeral was at Cloughlea and his ashes were interred at Glasnevin. His brother William "Bill" Lackey also cycled. A son, Ian, later spent a period as Garda Superintendent for Lackey's home area in Longford.
Brian Robinson is an English former road bicycle racer of the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the first Briton to finish the Tour de France and the first to win a Tour stage. He won the 1961 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage race. His success as a professional cyclist in mainland Europe paved the way for other Britons such as Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban.
Rás Tailteann, known for sponsorship reasons as the An Post Rás or the Rás for short, was an annual 8-day international cycling stage race, held in Ireland in May. Around Ireland, the race is referred to as The Rás. By naming the race Rás Tailteann the original organisers, members of the National Cycling Association (NCA), were associating the cycle race with the Tailteann Games, a Gaelic festival in early medieval Ireland.
The National Athletic and Cycling Association, from 1990 the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland was a federation of sports clubs in the island of Ireland practising athletics or bicycle racing or both. It existed from 1922 to 2000, though for most of the period it was not the sole governing body in Ireland for either sport. Its refusal to recognise the partition of Ireland got it expelled from the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Clubs formerly in the NACAI are now affiliated to Athletics Ireland or Cycling Ireland, each formed by the merger of the NACAI with rival bodies respectively affiliated to the IAAF and the UCI.
Seamus 'Shay' Elliott was an Irish road bicycle racer, Ireland's first major international rider, with a record comparable only to Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. He was the first Irish person to ride the Tour de France, first to win a stage, and first to wear the yellow jersey, and first English speaker to win stages in all the Grand Tours.
Patrick "Pat" McQuaid is an Irish road racing cyclist, who had a strong amateur career and a brief professional period, before moving into race promotion and administration in Ireland and globally, serving four years as head of Irish cycling's governing body, and later two four-year terms as president of the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and three years as a member of the International Olympic Committee. McQuaid is also a qualified secondary school teacher.
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The Clonfin Ambush was an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 2 February 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. It took place in the townland of Clonfin between Ballinalee and Granard in County Longford. The IRA ambushed two lorries carrying members of the British Auxiliary Division, sparking a lengthy gun battle in which four Auxiliaries were killed and eight wounded. The Auxiliaries eventually surrendered and their weapons were seized. The IRA commander, Seán Mac Eoin, won some praise for helping the wounded Auxiliaries. Following the ambush, British forces burned a number of houses and farms in the area, and shot dead an elderly farmer.
The Shay Elliott Memorial race is a one-day race held in Spring in Ireland. It is run in honour of former Irish professional cyclist Seamus Shay Elliott. The race was previously known as the Route de Chill Mhantain. It became the Shay Elliott Trophy in the late sixties, then the Shay Elliott Memorial after his death in 1971. The race is the most prestigious Irish one-day event after the national championships.
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Séamus "Sé" O Hanlon also known as Shay O Hanlon is a former Irish amateur road racing cyclist. He was a top amateur in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the Ras Tailteann stage race in 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967. O Hanlon belonged to the National Cycling Association (NCA), one of the three cycling associations in Ireland at that time and the one whose members were excluded by the UCI from world championships and Olympic Games.
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Michael (Mick) William Cusack is a British-born Irish former international racing cyclist, author and speaker. He competed as a member of the Irish national cycle racing team.
Colm Christle was an Irish cyclist. He was most famous for winning the first Rás Tailteann, in 1953.
Donal O'Connell, Dublin, Ireland, was an Irish road racing cyclist, and later cycling sport administrator. He set several national records and qualified for the Olympic Games, and served as a race official and administrator for more than 40 years, holding office at club level for more than 30 years, later holding several national roles and then co-founding the Irish Veteran Cycling Association.
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Soran which sprawls the parishes of Ballinalee and Killoe... in truth he was a Killoe man. ... Route de France 1954 ... winner of over two hundred races ...first winner..Tour of Wicklow
John Lackey (Tailteann) was re-elected as Tour of Ireland organiser