With the dire need to get out of the house and blow some of the cobwebs away after the festive season, we ventured a few miles out to Donagahdee.
The day turned out to be very cold for the 60th anniversary of the Ulster Vespa Club inaugural event, which was a run to Donagahdee held on 27th December 1954.
The current Ulster Vespa Club celebrated a run to Donaghadee on the same day, which also marked the official formation of the club in 1954 and we were to glad to turn up and take a few pics with those half dozen or so who braved the cold and ever looming rain from the start point of the run at St Anne’s Cathederal Belfast.
My thanks for the offer of tea and sandwiches, I think they needed it more than I did and perhaps we should not have sold our own scooter, even if it was a later model Piaggio even if Elaine did kept the t-shirt.
Trevor & Elaine (warpped up warm in the jeep) – Right To Ride
From the Ulster Vespa Clubs facebook page, here is a bit of history of the club which we are only to glad to highlight – “27th December 1954 was the date of the first Ulster Vespa Club event and marked the official formation of the club.
That inaugural event was a run to Donaghadee and, most likely, started from the premises of the Vespa dealer, Artie Bell, on Belfast’s Woodstock Road.
Following the formation of the Vespa Club of Britain in 1952, it wasn’t long before Douglas were encouraging all of their dealers to facilitate the formation of local Vespa clubs to boost sales and in those first two years, the number of clubs had exceeded the half century mark. The Ulster Vespa Club being designated as branch 55 of the VCB.
That initial run attracted less than a dozen people; however, within a short number of years the UVC would go on to be one of the biggest branches within the VCB. The photograph in the poster above shows the participants of that initial event.
This Saturday is the 60th anniversary of that club run and to mark the occasion the current Ulster Vespa Club will also be riding to Donaghadee.
If anyone has information or photographs regarding the original UVC or ANY information relating to scooters in Ireland from the 50’s until the 80’s, I’d love to hear from you.”
Ulster Vespa Club – On Facebook
Ulster Vespa Club 60th Anniversary Ride Out To Donaghadee – December 2014
A picture of the participants of the first Ulster Vespa Club run to Donaghadee on 27th December 1954
Courtesy – Ulster Vespa Club