Simply the plan was to get a few of us Irish rollerbladers to do a small trip around the East and South of Ireland. With myself driving, along with Albert, Paraic and Donal. I hoped where would be at least 20 of us if not more! Joey Egan flew over from Germany on the Wednesday evening, I can only imagine whats it like for Joey to be back on home turf, after spening years working at Starlight Express in Buchan, Germany. What better to do but go for a few drinks in the local pub in Dublin with Joey and Mark Dolan {Rocko}. After being refused drink after 11.30 by a weird old guy behind the bar we took a notion to grab our push bikes and cycle on into the city centre, where we could be served on into the morning. After a few more we some how managed to cycle back to mine around 4 or 5 in the morning after a few funny incidents with all 3 off us falling of our bikes at one stage ! The next day we headed out for a skate and meet Evan, a roller from Gran Canaria living and studying in Dublin. It was rush hour traffic and with the winter evenings getting dark early we decided to head into town, when we arrived at the black ledges it was so windy and already getting dark, so we headed around the corner to the transfer ledges for a skate, where we meet the who is she crew: Ray, Crony and Jay, along with Albert; the weather was horrible so we didnt skate for long and headed home for some food . That evening Keir Lindsay flew in from Glasgow, Scotland, so I drove up to the airport and meet him, as usaul its a pleasure to spend some time with Keir, he always has a funny story and a bit of banter! We dropped his stuff of at mine then headed into town for a few, where we meet all the lads in the Bernard Shaw pub on the southside. I wasnt drinking as I was driving so I was obviously the soberest of the lot for once! We drove out to Isabels (my girlfriends) in the west of Dublin where we had a few cans and watched a few skate dvds, then hit the hay .
The next morning is when the actual tour started, the first spot was Gorey, Co. Wexford home to a small outdoor concrete park and a skate shop called Wreckless …www.wreckeless.com When leaving Dublin the weather was lovely which was surprising, and the closer we got towards Gorey the darker the sky got. When we got to the skateshop it was was raining really heavily, we headed on around to the skatepark just to chance it, but the bowls were like swimming pools! After hitting up a take away for some grub we decided to head on to Kilkenny for the night. Although the drive should be no more than a hour or so we some how done it in nearly two and a half! Believe it or not the main road that brought us all the way in to Kilkenny was closed off, but the bright side was we took some back roads, and ending up stopping for directions in a very small village called Glynn. After getting directions from the lady in the shop we decided to head across the road into the old pub, after speaking with the woman behind the bar we soon realised it wasnt any oul pub we had stumbled across, but amazimgly the oldest one in the country, if not one of the oldest in Europe or the world. Actually the pub was founded in 1772 and had been run and owned by the same family since. The woman behind the bar told us she was now the eighth generation to own and run the place. So after a few we where back on the raod to Kilkenny. When we got there, we meet with Donal, Evan, Jay and Dano who had already booked into a hostel, so we booked a room in the same hostel. Later on we meet up with old school Irish roller Kevin, a Kilkenny native who brought us to a few of the local pubs. As Jay and Dano are both under age we didn’t last long in any of the pubs. After Keir, Joey and Dano up sing karaoke we were soon asked to leave. We headed back to the hostel where Keir was having a bad whitey, in which he felt the draft of the whole next day . The next morning we got thrown out of the hostel at 11 which was a good thing because we all got up early and the weather was good. We headed up to the first spot, two kinked rails with a long flat and a rugged run up, which took a bit of getting use to. Keir was the first one to complete the rail with a frontside and then a sweatstance. Dano back royaled it along with topacid and Evan was doing most it in a kindgrind. I back royaled it then topsoul to tts back to topsoul, by this stage it had started to drizzle rain but I really wanted to x to truespin x in so continued to skate it with Evain who was trying to complete it in a kindgrind. After both Evain and myself got the tricks we wanted we moved on to the next spot, a kinked drop rail which was on both sides. Keir was first to put his skates on and just before skating the rail he started to get sick over the drop, literally sick from drinking to much the day before. Joey was dropped the hammer with a royale first go with a 180 off the drop. Then we moved on to the next spot, which was a car park gap with some variations of rails with drops. Dano and Joey 180’d the gap both first go. Then Dano spotted a roll in of a near by roof in which he rolled in 180 out. When Donal unitied the rail 180 of the drop. It was getting dark and we where getting tired and hungry so we went to a Eddie Rockets down the road for some grub. We drove on to Cork that night, arriving just in time for Halloween. Meeting Cork rollers Morgan, Brain, Paul and Jane in the Brug pub in the centre of Cork . I must say I dont think I have ever been in such a busy place where there was so many people dressed up so well. Really people in Cork must spend all year getting their costumes ready. That night we got a taxi to Morgans house and stayed there after walking in the rain around Cork for hours. The next morning we woke in Morgans and went to the new concrete park in Cork centre, it is quite small, but we had a great session! Little Dano busting 540 tru mizous on the bank to box and 450 backslides on the rail ,, but with no grabs so they didnt count : ) Evain from Gran Canaria got hurricane topsoul on the bank to box and Joey displayed his park skills with huge 540 flatspins on the bowl corner and om the small bowl corner Morgan dispalyed tje heavy tech shit with with bk royale to tru soul to topsoul to tru top soyale up and around and the whole length of the bowl corner ! As you can imagine it started to rain no doubt, so we headed the famous indoor carpark ledge, in which a great session went down With to many goods tricks I cant even remember .Some I can remember are Joeys in spin top sunnyday , Evians tru fish and tru top porns, Keirs bk savanah to spin around sunnyday 3 out and Morgan flawlessly did every tru spin ! After we left the carpark ledge we called it a day and we dropped Morgan and Darren back to Morgans house and instaed of heading to kerry like planned we got on the road to New Ross as the weather was still bad and according to the weather reports it was sat to stay that way for the next few days ! In New Ross we stayed with Joeys mother where we went out that night just Keir, Joey , his mam and myself to the local pub for a few , then headed back to the house for a few more and stayed up till all hours in the morning talking. Next day when we got up we tryed to convince Keir to stay on in Ireland for another few days, but he had to get back to Scotland for work the next day , so back on the road to Dublin and we dropped Keir off at the airport. That night myself and Joey stayed in my girlfriends place again in west Dublin .Next day myself and Joey headed to the new skate plaza in Donaghmede for a session and then when it got dark ,we headed to the Lucan skatepark which is lit up with spot lights and there we meet the who is she and the two emo brothers and had a good session .
Text by Conor Manweiler
Photos by Donal tech hammer Glackin and Jane Burns
And Last but not least thanks a million to Mammy Egan and Morgan Lynch for letting us kip at thier place !
