Clooney eyes up Emerald road trip

By Arthur Strain
BBC News

George Clooney has Ireland as his holiday destination

A motorboat on Lake Como or Skibbereen by motorbike, for one Hollywood star this year it is the call of the auld sod that beckons.

A-lister George Clooney has said that he plans to ride around Ireland on a motorbike this summer.

His plan emerged during an interview with a Dublin radio station last week at the London premiere of his film Leatherheads.

"I am doing a motorbike ride in Ireland this summer," he told FM104.

"I hear it rains a lot but I've got the perfect outfit!"

Clooney, of Irish-American descent, is hardly the first to come over to view the ancestral pile, but doing so by motorbike is a relatively new phenomenon.

One of the companies that has sprung up recently to take care of the new market is Motorcycle Rental Ireland, based in Naas, County Kildare.

General Manager Grace Poutch said that more people are hopping off the plane and then onto the back of a bike.

But there are differences that North American visitors should be aware of - Irish roads are not US interstates.

"The odd one will think they can tour Ireland pretty much in a day or three, because it looks so small.

"I have to explain to them that it's really not like that."

A Harley Davidson could bear the actor around Ireland

There are other differences - KPH not MPH and which side of the road to use - but most motorcycling visitors manage to grasp this and keep their hired machines between the hedges.

Hopefully Mr Clooney's Ireland expedition will be an injury free one.

In 2007, he was injured in a motorcycle accident in New Jersey when his bike was hit by a car. He suffered a broken rib and his girlfriend two broken toes.

But in the Irish rental market most of the damage picked up tends to be from dropped machines rather than crashes, Ms Poutch said.

The bike choice for visitors can be tricky, with Americans favouring Harley Davidson's and cruisers rather than the sports tourers more popular in Europe.

While Irish roads may not be designed for cruisers, sticking to the machine you know is good advice.

Popular tour destinations include runs through Waterford and Cork, even up to the Giant's Causeway for those with tougher behinds and an adventurous spirit.

The former ER star has reputedly roots in County Cork, the rebel county. If he heads there he could also kiss the Blarney stone, not that the famous smoothie needs to.

The news of the trip has set female pulses racing, not least at the rental outfit where Ms Poutch said they would be trying to get in touch with the actor's agent to offer their services.

"If he's coming over he can have it for free, especially if he takes me out to lunch or better, puts me on the back of it," she said.