I know I’m a bit late writing this little bit about Nobber’s spin off but here’s just a tiny morsel of my experience and what has been etched into my brain after participating in it. To date there has been seven Cycle Against Suicide Spin Offs and for personal reasons Nobber was to be my first. I vaguely recall passing through the sleepy village of Nobber once before but that was only because I remembered the name being mentioned on a journey before, I think it was when I visited Dunleer for a job interview many years ago, so I knew it was relatively remote as far as villages go and I didn’t expect anything like what I found. I’d seen a lot of posts that the Nobber CAS gang had been posting to the CAS Spins Page and I was delighted to see how the local towns and business’s appeared to be lending their support to Dudley, Shane and the rest of the people of Nobber as they tried to pull together to host a CAS event. They had a lot to live up to from what I’d heard as previous events held in Gorey and Dungarvan had set the bar extremely high, well Nobber did not disappoint, not by any account. When I finally found the last road I needed to take to get to Nobber, I knew I was there because I saw the sign, no not the “NOBBER” sign, it was well before that, it was an orange bicycle with balloons, which was the precursor to all of the other signs, you know the ones, “ITS OK NOT TO FEEL OK AND ITS ABSOLUTELY OK TO ASK FOR HELP” and all the others that were there welcoming the cyclists. Given that I’d gotten lost a couple of times on the way I was now certain that I was there but clarification happened when I tried to drive through the village and there were 450+ cyclists draped over the main street. I thought I was back in Montrose for the first day of the Cycle Against Suicide. It was such a sight, a sea of orange on a backdrop of blue sky, today was going to be a special day. Looking for parking I happened upon Richie, he told me to park down the road as there was no space and I said “I’ll meet you above” because right being right, I was late as usual. I got changed in the car and made my way up to the town and was lucky enough to just catch the tail end of the cycle as it was leaving Nobber, I was a little disappointed that I’d missed the speech before the peloton set out, but I was there, it was sunny and spirits were really high. As usual I stayed at the back, right where the best views are ;) and found a few unsuspecting folk to have the bit of banter with. I didn’t want to rush to the front and knew I’d meet Richie in Hedford House at the food stop. The atmosphere was electric from the outset and entering Kilmainham Wood a smile was brought to my face when I heard a comment from one of the bystanders clapping us on “Jesus, it’s like the Giro, there’s so many of them”. I’d been to an event earlier in the week, An Evening With The Pros, and even though we were not pros it felt like we were. After all we were cyclists and just like the giro we had bicycles adorning the route in our famous “Grand Tour” colour, no not pink, orange, the colour of Jim’s Army, the ”Tangerine Marines”. I met many new faces on the spin off and many familiar ones too, it’s always great to catch up with old friends but it’s even better to see the first timers, and there were so many. The first timers are a great measure as to the success of how word is spreading, in fairness the fact that so many people in North Meath got behind the spin off and supported the event is a great testament to how well Dudly, Shane and the gang have spread the message of “It’s OK not to feel OK and it’s absolutely OK to ask for help” not only in Nobber, but all over in Kilmainham Wood, Castletown and all of the localities that came out in support. A quick stop at Hedford House gave an indication of how big this event was with people filling every available area and talking to each other, friends, family, stranger, talking… and most importantly listening to each other. Personally I was still chuckling at the fact that a woman had been calling the speed ramps “HILLS” to alert cyclists behind her of the obstacles, I now dub them “Skerries Hills”. I met with Keith and he was asking for Richie, like a lot of other people, but no one appeared to have seen him since the beginning of the cycle. I was a little surprised that he was not around but did not think much of it as the volume of people made it difficult to find anyone. The last 20km was a nice soft spin back to Nobber and I had the company of Bernadette, who is involuntarily challenging Ciara for “Rear of the Year”, for most of it. Again I happened upon a few people I’d never met, one man in particular, Pat, who cycles with Lorcan Mac An Bhaird, a friend in common. Pat was a nice auld sort, and initially was on his guard when he recognised my Deenside Wheelers gloves, as he originally being a Tipp man didn’t know if it was good to Fraternise with the enemy thinking I was a Kilkenny Cat, but I put him at ease when I told him my origins were coloured green and white and I was a son of the Lady of the Shannon. The arrival back in Nobber was spectacular, the street (Main Street) was thronged with people cheering and clapping, people feeling a great sense of accomplishment for making the journey, or cycling the route, or helping to make the event a success, no matter what their part people felt on top of the world and deservedly so. I can’t really say that the food was the highlight of my day, but I guess it was one of them. Whoever thought of those baked potatoes should get a medal, they were a Godsend. I still had not found Richie and at this stage I was getting a little concerned. I asked a few people and they said they’d seen him earlier in the day but not during the cycle. My phone had been forgotten in the car because of my rush to catch the cycle earlier so I had a wander around to see if I could find him. With no result I went into the hall thinking he might be in there. There was no room to move in the hall as Dudley gave a talk on why he had decided to host a spin off in Nobber and the impact that suicide had on the community. A quick video gave people a great insight into what people felt there and the need to change and create services to help with depression and mental health issues. The audience were there to listen and listen they did, you could nearly hear a pin drop when Dudley spoke because people were interested in the message and they were interested in listening. Usually Jim gets the crowd riled up, but this time Dudley and crew got the music rocking and the atmosphere changed from “serious business at hand” to let’s get this party rocking… And it rocked… And rocked some more. Returning to my car when the evening came to a close the mystery to Richie was solved. A quick call to him solved it very quickly, a burst tyre had seen him withdraw from the cycle and go home. I was saddened as I knew he would have enjoyed the day, but hey, there will be other spin offs.I don’t know if they will be of the same calibre as Nobber’s but the message will be the same “It’s OK not to feel OK and it’s absolutely OK to ask for help” I don’t know if Jim Breen is forming a cult, a movement, a political party, or what it is, but whatever it is, it’s working. From day one I’ve been of the belief that if the Cycle Against Suicide saves even just one life, then it is worth everything to support it… Talking to people on various parts of the cycle and even on other cycles, it is clear that it has saved many more than one… Keep up the good work. Sorry about the video quality ill try to put up a better version. https://youtube/watch?v=c7JkA1PrqlE
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 22:35:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015