Bertie Donnelly

Bertie Donnelly of Harp Cycling Club was Ireland’s most successful cyclist in the years between the two World Wars. He won 61 national track titles between 1921-40 including four consecutive tandem titles in the 1930s. He also broke many Irish records at 1,000 metres, one mile, and 25- and 50-miles tandem, and in 1928 competed at the Amsterdam Olympics, where he was eliminated in his 1000 metres sprint heat by the eventual gold medallist Roger Beaufrand of France.

Donnelly also went to the 1931 and 1933 World Cycling Championships at København (Copenhagen) and Paris respectively. The highlight of Donnelly’s career, however, was in winning the British five-mile championship in 1935 when he pushed himself to the limit which resulted in him saying after the race: “I don’t think I have ever been so near dying with effort.”

A former wine and spirit merchant, Donnelly later owned the “Bertie Donnelly” pub in Mullhuddart, Dublin, which was later renamed The Shanty. He was posthumously admitted into the Cycling Ireland Hall of Fame in 2013. Donnelly’s son Sean was also a leading Irish cyclist and emulated his father by winning many national titles.

Donnelly’s normal tandem partner and stoker (the rear rider) was Herbie Breadon, and coincidentally the two men died in the same week in 1977. They were both buried at the same cemetery, with Breadon arriving for the service a few minutes before Donnelly, which led to a newspaper the following day saying: “For once Herbie finally got ahead of Bertie!”