‘They speak to a lot of people that know you’
While McGuinness was aware that there were moves to nominate him for an MBE, it’s not something he’s been actively involved in.
“It’s taken my mate Jon Morgan eight years of work to make this happen. Jon started out as a fan but over the years he’s become a family friend. I wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to getting an MBE, but he has quietly worked away at it. There’s been a lot of to-ing and froing over a number of years. As part of it they speak to a lot of people that know you or have been part of your career. There have been lots of people involved and it’s been interesting seeing the people that didn’t respond to requests! So you know who’s in your corner and who isn’t!
“There will be someone, somewhere who has done their homework on me. I’ve got a clean sheet, there have been ups and downs and some ducking and diving, skirting round the edges, but I’ve got no black marks. There’s a lot of ways to skin a rabbit, but I’ve never done it in a way that has left anyone with their pants pulled down – if you get what I mean.
“Maybe it’s because I came back from the injury. I was bashed up. And there is certainly some emails in all the correspondence about the fact that I came back after breaking my back in four places to win the Classic TT, overcoming adversity etc. The easiest thing to do would be to hang your boots up and walk away, it’s not quite as easy to get back to fitness, refocus and carry on.
“There’s also been a part of the correspondence around all the electric bike racing I’ve done – in terms of development etc.
“Charity work was another factor and while I don’t think I’ve done too much of it when I actually look back at it there have been a few bits and pieces – hospitals, kids, air ambulance, blood bikes, injured riders and stuff I’ve done in Ireland and IoM. At the end of the day I think it’s an accumulation of things that have stacked up over time.”