Meet the team

Bob Guiney

One of my life goals was always to own a motor bike. When I achieved this I learned that there was a strong biking community out there. I got involved with a club and friends started gathering in my garage every Saturday as there was always a bike that needed to be worked on. As well as talking about bikes the craic was great, everyone was able to let off steam and as time went on they would talk about all sorts of issues that affected their daily lives. It was like an unofficial counselling session and everyone always left feeling better. We were asked by a friend to help get his brother’s bike back on the road as he was suffering from depression and thought it would help. We got him back on the road and between working with us and getting back on the bike he said he felt better. In no way was he cured or the problems in his life gone but with a little bit of respite from his problems and issues he felt better. I myself got lots out of it, and speaking to the others discovered they all felt the same. I felt good about being able to facilitate this and wanted to develop the idea further.

Chris Donnelly

I’ve always enjoyed working on and riding motorbikes. But a few years back I came off my bike and wasn’t able to ride for a very long time. So I started working with friends teaching them how to service and repair their bikes. Getting together with friends and having a laugh together made not being able to ride a bike that bit easier to deal with. Then few years back we were asked to help some people who were suffering from depression, loneliness and isolation. At the start it was just to get them set up with working on bikes and get them riding and to give them an interest. But it became more than that we were making a difference helping them cope that bit better. And we as a group were benefiting too. Seeing the changes in the people we helped gave us a good feeling about what we were doing, so much so that we decided to take it further. So we got together as a group and set up what is now Bikes and Minds. And its been building ever since.