RTÉ's Cian McCormack gets on his bike for Morning Ireland

RTÉ’s Cian McCormack gets on his bike for Morning Ireland

RTÉ Radio 1’s flagship news programme Morning Ireland is taking its bike to the country’s high roads and byroads to bring interesting unheard stories and voices to the station’s listeners.

The Ireland by bike series will hear the stories of real people at the start of the summer as reporter Cian McCormack travels on his bike for ten days in June stopping in towns, villages and communities from Dublin to the Midlands and South East and South West.

Cian will be visiting Mullingar, Athlone, Westmeath, Galway, Portumna, Offaly, Birr, Roscrea, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Waterford, Dungarvan, Cork and many other places during the series.

Ireland by bike will gauge tourism, communities working for themselves and people’s view on politics, services and government, among other issues.

Cian will cycle on his making daily reports on Morning Ireland from Wednesday June 1 to Friday June 10.

Listeners can interact with the Ireland by bike series directly by emailing: irelandbybike@rte.ie or on twitter: @cian_mccormack or @morningireland.

“Two years ago I cycled the Wild Atlantic Way for Morning Ireland. This time I’ll be cycling parts of Ireland’s Ancient East and hopefully getting to places I sometimes don’t get a chance to stop when I’m on the road for Morning Ireland,” said Cian.

“I’m hoping to hear stories from people as I travel. I want to take the temperature of the nation post – government formation.

“I’m also interested to see how people, families and communities are facing the summer.

“I’m hoping to meet people and communities that they tell their stories too – maybe they are running an interesting local festival or have something positive to tell us.

"But also, I’m interested in seeing how areas have recovered after the heavy winter storms that hammered the country during the winter.

“The best way to contact me before I start cycling is on the special email for the series: irelandbybike@rte.ie,” said Cian.