Meet the man who at 72 is cycling around the world
HE’S 72 and his love affair with bikes from the age of six has inspired Jack Kelleher’s big adventure to circumnavigate the globe by cycling and using trains and container ships.
The West-Cork based grandfather left Clonakilty on March 14, alone except for the company of his bike called Ms Von B, which he says “has a lot of titanium and old leather” and is inspired by the sexy character in Irish author JP Donleavy’s book, Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman.
“Bikes have always meant freedom to me. I get a sense of release and opportunity every time I mount a bike,” says Jack.
“My parents were survivors of the Great Depression. My mother in particular couldn’t tolerate seeing a boy idle. She preached a doctrine of hard work, frugality and productivity,” he says.
Yet his mother loved the outdoors and approved of him riding a bicycle.
“The bike took me beyond her reach. It gave me a place to daydream and dawdle. God bless her she taught me to love the bike. It was and is, like a pair of wings to me. It is the portal to a magical land,” he says.
Stepping through that portal three weeks ago for his six-month adventure wasn’t the realisation of any long-held dream however. “I don’t believe in bucket-list items. I’ve always loved the sea and loved to cycle. It dawned on me that I could make the rounds of family and friends while pursuing my passions,” he says.
A father of four, ranging in age from 45 to 21, his family are scattered in the US, where he lived before retiring to Ireland with dual citizenship six years ago. En route, he will stop off and spend time with them all, including his four grandchildren.
When not transporting himself by bike, he will use the time in trains and on sea passages to blog and to write fiction, which he hopes to get published at a later stage.
He has always enjoyed writing and it’s no surprise that on his blog he features a poem dedicated to his first love, his bike called Double Bubble, which he received in 1948.
Jack opted to return to the country of his namesake and grandfather, who was born in Crow’s Hill, Upton, Co Cork, partly as a solution to not having to decide which child he would live near in the States.
“Living in Ireland is family neutral and they can visit me here. I feel at rest in Ireland,” he says. “I retired from the bench in 2008 and lived a year in Paris before moving to Clonakilty,” he says.
He was a judge, a family court prosecutor in child protective cases and law professor in his day. He was a family court magistrate in Cortland, New York and professor of law at the University of San Diego. At USD he helped found the summer law programme at Trinity College Dublin which still offers comparative law courses for American and Irish students. And he has been visiting Ireland since his summer teaching at TCD in the ’80s.
The retiree has made himself at home in Clonakilty. He is the mechanic for the Bike Festival; is supporting local man Tommy O’Donovan’s project to make Clonakilty the first small town with its own bike-rental scheme, and he also volunteers in the management of the Clonakilty Favour Exchange.
As a big fan of children Jack has also ‘adopted’ a family locally for whom he does childminding and babysitting, after making friends with them at home-schooling groups.
“There are five kids from two different families. We have taco nights and go kayaking in the summer. We do science projects — bottle rockets and crystal radios, for example and I like to read aloud and the kids indulge me. We’ve read The Hobbit and The Hunger Games recently.”
No doubt they will all be following his blog enthusiastically, written on his android device, which is wrapped in a waterproof bag, along with his Kindle and his iPhone. In his travel pack he also has his clothing and personal care supplies; bike tools; pocket knife; penny whistle; waterproof binoculars, and a corkscrew for a glass or two of red wine.
Cycling and yoga have kept Jack fit into his 70s and full of vim for his sea-and-road trip: “The trick to being older is to recognise there will never be a better time than now no matter what mischief is in your mind,” he says.
“My children think I’m crazy but they’ve known that for a long time!”
* Read Jack’s blog at www.jackkelleher.ie
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