Former international Eugene Moriarty gets in to winning breakaway en route to his own wedding

From left to right: The man of the moment Eugene Moriarty, close friends Stephen O'Sullivan and Aidan Crowley and brother Conor Moriarty, who was best man on the big day.

By Brian Canty

Some get fancy cars or horse-drawn carriages, but the only way Eugene Moriarty was arriving at the church for his recent wedding in his native Listowel, Co Kerry, was on two wheels.

A former top international who was among the very best in the country for more than a decade, Moriarty tied the knot with bride Iris Simon the Friday before the August Bank Holiday.

And with him in the ‘breakaway to the church' were men he has known for more than 20 years, Aidan Crowley and Stephen O’Sullivan.

Together, the trio have the distinction of having won most of the races in the country throughout their careers - with Crowley still winning. And when asked was the bike the only mode of transport he considered on his big day Moriarty could only agree.

“Twas indeed," he laughed.

“The church isn’t that far from my parents' house and of course all the boys would know it pretty well having stayed before. But we were watching for a gap in the weather all morning, there were a couple of showers and of course the last thing you want is to arrive at the church soaking wet. So in between the showers we made a dart through town, suited and booted."

“One of my other groomsmen Ivor Brown followed us in the car, did neutral service for us! And going through the town then there was a farmers' market so it just added to it. We were coming into lunch time and there was a lot of people around so we got a great reception."

"We didn’t broadcast it or anything like that. From my perspective I just wanted to ride to the church with the boys, keep it low key. But of course once we hit the town, it’s a one-way system around it and by the time we got around to the market there was a huge crowd and it was just brilliant.”

They then parked the bikes in the sacristy, did the needful and then cycled down to the Lisowel Arms Hotel around 100 metres away for the reception.

Because Moriarty works in Holland and travels quite a bit, the wedding doubled as an extended homecoming and the celebrations lasted the guts of a week.

“The pubs did a good turn out of it and Listowel really came out well for of it," he said.

Stickybottle didn't have a reporter in the town on the day but the locals said Eugene Moriarty and O'Sullivan could be seen doing long and honest turns on the front as the escape hurtled towards the church. By all accounts Conor Moriarty hung back filling a supervisory role, with Crowley sitting on the back of the escape waiting for the sprint which he eventually fluffed despite never doing a stroke.