On July 19, 1904, motorcyclists gathered outside the Belfast Banking Company in Donegall Street to embark on a 200-mile journey to Londonderry, via the coast road, taking in Carrickfergus, Cushendall, Coleraine and Portrush to Guildhall in Derry, which would mark a stopping point for riders before starting on their return route via Maghera and Toome, finishing at Glengormley’s The Crown and Shamrock Inn, a venue that still exists today. The race took place over a single day, with the first person to complete the race deemed the winner. That person turned out to be Glengormley man John Paul Burney, who chose a Royal Enfield, which had 3.
5 horsepower, and beat 16 other riders. Burney would later relocate to Dublin where he would open a garage servicing Enfields during the First World War. This weekend, around 35 motorbike fans will set off from the 1904 starting line in Donegal Street and will be waved off by the Belfast Lord Mayor.
Lisburn woman Joan Crawford (81), who is helping to organise the event and who told the Belfast Telegraph that a race was held in 2004 to mark the event’s 100th anniversary, says of the 1904 race: “It was an extraordinary event. It was done in one day and there was a mandatory stop in Guildhall Square.” According to news reporting at the time, the race in 1904 was shrouded in secrecy, as even though the Ulster Centre of the Motor Cycle Union of Ireland was on good terms with the authorities, police would not allow a 200-mile race on public r.