The caretaker had opened up the building especially for our visit. He could hardly contain his pleasure when he sat at a dark oak Tudor dining table and admired the 100-foot-long banqueting hall that bears the crest of Queen Elizabeth I and the famous Carrick Knot-the golden replica of which adorns the uniform of sailors in the U.S. And I couldn’t appreciate it then like I do now.” The smile remained as we looked around the building, which was in the middle of an extensive restoration program. Should his ghost still watch over the ancient structure, he’d have been pleased to see that visiting his home on this overcast winter’s day was an equally dark-haired young man whose mount was not a flaming white charger but an aluminum-alloy bicycle, and whose “earldom” now covered the world.Īfter a firm handshake, the smiling Kelly told us, “I haven’t been here since I was seven or eight. The 10th Earl-known as Black Tom because of his mane of black hair-died in the castle in 1614 at the then ripe age of 82. ![]() Ormonde Castle remains Carrick’s most prominent building, and this is where Kelly suggested we meet. He lived in the Elizabethan mansion he built in the 1560s adjacent to the Norman-style castle the first Earl erected on the Suir’s left bank 250 years earlier. Previously, Carrick’s best-known citizen was an Irish nobleman named Thomas Butler, the 10th Earl of Ormonde, a so-called cousin and lifelong friend of England’s Queen Elizabeth I. That’s where my photographer and I would meet up with the most famous son of this town of 5,000: Sean Kelly. After docking in the harbor at Rosslare, there’d be another 90 minutes of driving to reach Carrick-on-Suir, a town of gray stone buildings that bestrides the River Suir, the boundary between the counties of Tipperary and Waterford. George’s Channel-which followed a five-hour drive from London. On this gray November day in 1984, a wind out of the west blew salty air into my face and whipped up steely waves after a four-hour crossing of St. This is where Viking long ships landed in the eighth century, where the Normans arrived to claim Ireland for the crown of England in the 12th century, and where German U-boats hunted down Allied ships in World War II. At the time of this visit with Kelly, in his hometown of Carrick-on-Suir, the Irishman had just topped the world rankings for the first time-after a 1984 season headed by victories in two monuments, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.Īs the ferryboat approached the rocky coastline of southeast Ireland I could almost feel the skein of history unraveling beneath its wake. Kelly acquired his in-depth knowledge of Europe’s classic races and grand tours from his 16 years as a professional cyclist, including five years as the No. Today, Sean Kelly is best known for his phlegmatic television commentary on Eurosport, providing skilled analysis of major bike races alongside more excitable colleagues. ![]() Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!Ī visit with Sean Kelly at his Irish hometown in 1984
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