The O'Neill Family of Leinster

John Henry Bailey was born in 1840. He had a brother who emigrated. Itis claimed that he had six uncles who were all over six feet in height.He had many hobbies, of which fishing and shooting were the principal.
He had the distinction of being the first man to own and ride a bicyclein Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland. He carried on the business of selling Morris cars and viousmakes of bicycle, of which the Raleigh and the Swift were the mostpopular.
He was also an Auctioneer, an Agent for the Phoenix Brewery, the PoorRates Collector for Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland, both for the Town Commissioners and theCounty of the Town. He was also one of the earliest members fo the CorribBoat Club which opened in 1864. He died on the 8th November, 1904 leavingtwo sons, Frank and Harry.
The very active business of selling and repairing Morris cars wascontinued on by his son Frank, who also developed the bicycle businessand enlarged the front of his premises so as to exhibit the variety ofbicycles then on the market and to show off his cars. This business wason the east side of Eyre Square and is now remembered as the site for theformer Odeon Hotel.
Frank showed particular interest in rowing and cycling and won manysuccesses on the river and around the county. In the Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland Express for1904 we find a lengthy account of the improvements and alterations in thepremises of "Bailey Brothers".
His brother, Harry replaced his father as Rate Collector and he enjoyedcycling and fishing contests also, competing regularly against hisbrother.
In August 1906, Frank told his friends that he intended to race thepassenger train from Clifden to Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland on his bicycle, a distance of 50miles exactly. The train was supposed to take 1 hour 52 minutes,including stops but owing to unscheduled hold ups it usually took two anda half hours.
While Frank was quite an accomplished cyclist with a number of firstplaces to his credit in both races and track events, nobody believed hecould do it. The road from Clifden to Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland was fairly flat. but it waslittle used and the surface from Clifden to Ourgherard was not tarred.From there to Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland the surface had long tarred stretches. He had tocover 50 miles of barrent exposed unsurfaced roads, at an average speedof just over 20 m.p.h. A back-up vehicle would have been unthinkable inthose days as cars were still very unreliable and would have addedgreatly to the expense of the ride, so he would have no spares readilyavailable. A puncture would take the best part of five minutes torepair. Yet he still believed he could do it.
The day before the event, he took the train to Clifden and had a goodnight's sleep. The day dawned dry and as he had hoped, with a strongNorth West wind. There were no weather forecasts in those days, but hehad studied the weather patterns over the previous few years and feltthere was a high probability of a strong tail wind to Galway, County Galway, Connacht, Ireland at that timeof the year.
He wokred to a stop at the station a bare 30 seconds before the trainpulled in and stopped.
Bestman was Bernard Clare. Bridesmaid was Anne #Nolan