Wheel love: Couple reunited with their beloved motorbike after 55 years

One evening in the summer of 1964, Eileen McAuliffe (16) was in Blarney village with a friend when she heard the low rumble of a motorcycle. When she looked up, she saw Andy Casey (19) parking his green BSA A50, and Eileen was besotted – with the bike, as much as with the man.

From that moment, their shared life journey began; brought together, in part, by their love for the classic British motorcycle. Now, more than half a century later, Andy and Eileen Casey, who will be 55 years married this April, have once again been reunited with the bike to which they credit their first meeting.

“I approached him when I saw the bike,” Eileen says of that first night. “I didn’t know one end of a bike from another. I cycled a bicycle – but a motorbike? I hadn’t a clue. But I thought it was lovely. And then we were all chatting away for ages and after a while, anyway, he asked me to meet him on another night.”

The teenagers started dating, a pairing which, Eileen says, nearly caused her parents “to have a stroke” when they found out her new boyfriend owned a motorcycle.

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“They thought I was going to be killed off the back of it. I had to meet him in secret so they wouldn’t know. I’d be hiding and he’d have to stay away so they couldn’t hear the bike.”

We saw this bike parked up on the road and it was the bike my husband had owned when I met him that day in Blarney. We were shocked

The Cork couple were married two years later and had children, meaning they had to replace their bike with a car. When the children grew older, they got other bikes which they would ride around the southwest of the country. But they never forgot the Royal Star – the BSA A50.

“We often talked about it. I was always feeling kind of guilty that he had to sell his beloved bike. I traced it at one stage in Dublin. I got on to Store Street Garda station and they told me who had it, but he had sold it on again, and we couldn’t trace it after that, so we didn’t think about it for a long time again after that,” Eileen says.

Vintage

That all changed about 10 years ago when, while taking part in a vintage motorbike ride, they stumbled upon the bike by chance.

“We saw this bike parked up on the road and it was the bike my husband had owned when I met him that day in Blarney. We were shocked. We thought it was amazing that we saw it. It was changed to a different colour. It was a lovely green colour when my husband had it, but it was changed to a red. So we were a bit disappointed to see that,” she says.

“It was just a coincidence this man, we had seen him around, but it was a coincidence that he had that specific bike on that day. It has come full cycle after all the years. So you can imagine how we felt.”

The couple approached the owner and told him their story, but at the time he had no intention of selling it. They asked him to let them know if he ever changed his mind, and to give them first refusal. About two years ago, they finally got the phone call for which they had been hoping.

Andy received the bike last year and spent several months restoring it, work which he describes as a “labour of love”.

On the rallies you might start in Killarney, stay in a hotel, and do the ring of Kerry or the ring of Cork. It's just lovely you get to go up in all the mountains

"The bike was in fairly good condition all right," he says. "I've fixed up other bikes that have needed about five or seven years' work, but the man who had this one, he sent it to England to get the engine done and all that, so the mechanical side of it was good.

“I just had to strip it down, the whole lot, to get it repainted in the proper colour. She runs beautiful. I have her tuned up lovely now, she’s running lovely.”

Rallies

The couple haven’t had a chance to bring the bike out on any long journeys since its restoration, due to bad weather conditions and Covid restrictions. However, they are members of a vintage bike club which has several annual rallies, and hope to take the bike out on a jaunt this year.

"On the rallies you might start in Killarney, stay in a hotel, and do the ring of Kerry or the ring of Cork before we go back home. It's just lovely you get to go up in all the mountains," Andy says. "Our son Liam and his wife Suzanne are fans of the bikes as well so they join up with us as well sometimes so that's lovely. It's good fun really, like."

Andy has loved bikes “since he could walk”, but did he ever believe it could help him meet his future wife?

“It had a bit to do with it, all right. I think she fell in love with the bike more than me, you know,” he says, laughing. “But anyway, 55 years down the road and we’re still together, so I must have done something right.”