True grit is secret of Mattie’s success

City Lives – Ciaran Tierney meets one of the world’s top motorbike stunt riders, Mattie Griffin

Stunt rider Mattie Griffin rode his first motorcycle when he was just six years old. The 33-year old laughs about it now – and swears it was not on a public road – but perhaps it was inevitable that he would grow up with a love for bikes and cars, given that his father worked as a mechanic, based in Woodquay, throughout his childhood.

Mattie Senior was not as crazy as his son about motorbikes, but he was always working on cars and trucks, so that Mattie Junior and his brother Patrick developed a keen interest in the mechanics of vehicles from hanging around his garage as youngsters.

“We spent a lot of our time in the yard where he used to be fixing cars and selling parts. I suppose it started from there. We were driving cars, obviously not out on the public road, at the age of six. Anything Dad got, he taught us how to use it or work it,” says Mattie.

“My legs weren’t actually long enough. I remember driving a 250cc bike, which was mental, when I was nine or ten. I remember I used to have to run along beside the bike, and let the clutch out, and throw one foot on the left peg and throw my right leg over the other peg to start off. I wasn’t able to reach the ground, but I was able to start it.”

Not that his parents were reckless or didn’t care. His mother, Mary, had serious talks with the Griffin brothers about road safety at a much younger age than most of their peers. Off-road biking and fixing machines became a life-long love.

School holidays were spent working for Harry’s Cycles in Bohermore. Like his father, he was always fixing bikes and cars. Mattie developed a strong work ethic from a young age and even opened his own motorcycle shop in 2002, at just 22 years of age.

“I was only 22, with two guys working for me. I’ve always been that way, getting up early, putting in a lot of hours, but I found there was not enough business. We had to do everything ourselves, even down to cleaning out the toilets. But I was working 12-hour days. You’d pay the guys’ wages and a few bills and end up with nothing for yourself,” he recalls.

The shop lasted for almost six years. During his spare time, Mattie kept trying out tricks on motorbikes. He had enjoyed competing in trial bike racing as a teenager and found he just loved spending hours on end trying out stunts on his own.

“I never thought I’d make a living from it. It wasn’t my plan to become a stunt rider. I just loved it as a hobby. There was nobody else doing it in Galway. I did a lot of trials riding, which is an absolutely brilliant sport. There is no high speed, but there is a lot of skill involved,” he says.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.