Touring cyclist Emmet Ryan tells of his healthy pursuit of cycling

Teacher Emmet Ryan felt trapped, over-worked and under-appreciated in his London job. He tells Colette Sheridan how he broke the rut.

One dark damp winter evening in London, Emmet Ryan, fed up with his teaching job in a tough area in the east of the city, decided to do something about his long-held fantasy to ditch his secure job and cycle around Ireland.

Ryan, a Cork man, was tired of London, but not of life — contrary to Samuel Johnson’s observation to Boswell that “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”