New life Down Under for Cyril (84)
A Wexford resident who has begun a new life in Australia at the age of 84, was the toast of fellow motorcycling veterans at a farewell function in the Farmer’s Kitchen Hotel.
Cyril Pearson of Coolballow, one of the leading organisers of motorcycle sport in Ireland for more than 50 years, left Wexford last weekend to retire in Australia.
His friends gathered at a party to honour him for his contribution to motorcycle scrambling, motocross, grasstrack and trials at national and international level from the 1950’s when he and fellow bikers competed in Saggart and Mosney.
Cyril is an international clerk-of-course licence-holder and was also an international time-keeper for the sport.
At the party, he posed with a 1000cc Honda Africa Twin Adventurer motorcycle, one of the tallest motorcycles in the world and similar to machines he rode in the 1950’s and 1960’s to traverse rough terrain over hills, bogs and valleys.
Cyril has left his home in Coolballow, where he resided for the past 15 years, to join his son David in Geelong, Victoria State.
Before coming to Wexford, he and his wife Adeline, who sadly died three months ago, lived in Rathcoole, Dublin and Cyril worked with Roadstone.
Fellow national organiser Geoff Peat described him as ‘a shining star in a sport that is very much rougher than rugby’. Sean Bissett, president of the Motorcycle Union of Ireland presented him with a gold lifetime achievement pin, commended his contribution to the sport and described him as a ‘very precise’ official at motorcycling events in the presence of members of the now closed Irish Motorcycle Club (IMCC).
Among the attendance were well-known motorcycling organisers and enthusiasts from the 1950’s including Cyril’s brother Doug Pearson, Sam and Margaret Elliot, Peter Horan, Dermot and Audrey Byrne, Willow and Imelda James,Ben
Dunne, George Rogers of road racing fame and Geoff Peat who was co-organiser with Cyril of the world motorcycle trials held in Ireland in 1990.
When Cyril and his late wife Adeline settled in Wexford, they became involved in local charity work and in the Wexford Off-Road Motorcycle and Quad Club.