Talk:Tour of Ireland

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[edit] Name of Article Nissan Classic or Tour of Ireland

This event is returning this year and will be called the Tour of Ireland, it is going to be organised by the same group (TEG) and will aim for a similar feel and a similar international top level of racing. This thing is, in the core of the eighties the race was only known as the Nissan Classic. I put in "known as the Nissan Classic and Tour of Ireland" - I only included tour of ireland here to refer to the new event.

The name Tour of Ireland actually also encompasses a much older event, of which i know only very few details - in Ireland before the eighties there was two Tours of ireland each year these were the Ras Tailteann and the Tour of Ireland, these were organised by two separate national cycling federations which were deeply divided on the issue of Nationalism in Ireland. One federation acknowledged the separation of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Republic while the other cycling federation wanted a united ireland, the latter organisation not being recognised by international cycling union and its members were not able to contest the world championships or represent Ireland at the olympics. Several cyclists switched from one organisation to the other but this was not really allowed, for example Paddy Flanagan crossed over from the nationalist NCA organisation to the ICF and then back to the NCA. The riders in the ICF organisation had the chance to compete against much more foreign teams than those in the nationalist organisation as the International cycling federation (was it called the UCI in them days?) banned teams from competing in the Ras - as you will see the only foreign winners of the Ras Irish Tour - Ras were from the USSR and sometimes some socialist teams from France or Holland who perhaps werent aware of the ban.Pat McQuaid won I think the 1975 edition of the Tour of Ireland, and Sean Kelly won several stages of that race too. In the late seventies these two organisations rejoined and the first united Ras was 1979 won by Stephen Roche. I dont know if it was at this point that the Tour of Ireland ceased to be. So renaming the article would have to encompass the larger history associated with the Tour of Ireland name. The essence of the this race was the international flavour from the eighties of the Nissan Classic which I am sure the older edition didnt have (but I dont know). Therefore until the new race establishes an identity for the name Tour of Ireland, I would think the Nissan Classic should be the name, unless more information could be unearthed about the older Tour of Ireland and linked to the Nissan Classic, --Dawesaudax 20:10, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Should we change the name of this article to 'Tour of Ireland'? The race first stage is in August 22 as far as I know. I'm not sure if both races should have the same article or different (If it's held as the first edition of the race then I think we should be creating a new article).Drunt 20:15, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

After adding additional information to the article in order to encompass the older event, I have renamed the article "Tour of Ireland (cycle race)" and requested to administrators for uncontroversal moves to move this article to the title "Tour of Ireland." However there are some issues about encompassing the older event -

The winners of many of the editions of the race are unknown.

The junction between the 1984 Tour of Ireland and the 1985 Nissan Classic is not known per se- if there was a definite decision that the Nissan Classic was the Tour of Ireland. This needs to be clarified. (although Stephen Roche referred to the Nissan Classic as the Tour of Ireland in one interview.)--Dawesaudax 19:24, 31 August 2007 (UTC)