Epic cycle offers new spin on life

Lifestyle – Caitríona Nic Ghiollaphádraig marked her 60th birthday by cycling the entire length of the Wild Atlantic Way, a trip which tested her emotional as well as physical endurance. But her experiences and the people she met transformed her life and have struck a chord with others, as she tells JUDY MURPHY.

Most people mark their 60th birthday with a party or a holiday. Those trying to avoid undue attention just retreat from the world for a few days.  Caitríona Nic Ghiollaphádraig took a very different route for her 60th in 2017, when she embarked on an epic 2,670 km cycle from Moville in Donegal to Kinsale in Cork, along the route of the Wild Atlantic Way.

She began planning her journey in 2015, following a brainwave during a cycling trip to Kerry. But two years later, everything had changed and she began this once-in-a-lifetime journey in a state of despair.

For years, the Carlow woman, a former Home Economics teacher, had a home in rural North Connemara. She loved its wilderness, especially on clear, starlit nights.

Then public lighting was installed. Caitríona hated its impact on the skyscape. However, when she raised the issue locally, she was shocked at how her concerns were dismissed and felt she could no longer live there.

Terrified of not belonging any more in a place she’d called home, Caitríona faced some tough questions.

“What am I afraid of? Am I going to live the rest of my life not being courageous?  I’ll never be courageous unless I do it now. That’s what forced me on the cycle,” she explains.

A warm, quietly spoken woman who laughs easily and seems happy in her skin, Caitríona practises and teaches 5 Rhythms and Open Floor Mindfulness Movement Meditation. But appearances can be deceptive, as she explains during our interview in Clifden’s Station House Hotel – she had intended cycling the seven miles from Cleggan where she now lives with her partner Gráinne, but it’s a filthy day, so she drove.

Caitríona always exuded an air of self-sufficiency throughout what seemed like a fulfilled and successful life. But the reality was different.

“All my life I had wondered ‘why am I so awkward? Why am I so difficult? If only I could be different. This experience only amplified these negative emotions,” she says referring to the event that led to her leaving her home.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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