by John Kenny
William Joseph 'Joey-Yeur Man' Dunlop. Born February 25, 1952, died July 2, 2000) was considered amongst the greatest motorcycle riders of all time.
Joey and his late brother Robert Dunlop were two of seven childern born to Willie and May. Robert was a twin to his sister Margaret and the family squeezed in together in a semi-detached stone cottage about a mile of so from the County Antrim village of Dunloy.
Joey's achievements are staggering and include five consecutive Motorcycling Formula One titles from 1982 to 1986. But it was on the Isle of Man at the famous TT races, which he excelled.
Dunlop - three Isle Of Man TT hat-tricks
The ‘King of the Road’ won 26 races including three hat-tricks in 1985 1988 and 2000. His career also included countless wins at the North West 200 and victories at the Ulster Grand Prix.
Joey was also awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth of England for his humanitarian work for children in dilapidated Romanian orphanages.
Unknown to many outside his family, Joey would load up his race transporter and head off on his own, sleeping in the truck on a plank of wood in order to deliver clothing and food underprivileged kids in Bosnia Hungary and Romania. He was also awarded the MBE for services to motorcycle racing.
Joey was more shy and introverted, preferring to do his talking on his bike right throughout his career while brother Robert was much more talkative, two completely different characters and coming into bike racing eight years after Joey had started, Robert felt more than a bit over shadowed at times.
'In fact I was embarrassed' said Robert.
'Because Joey and I would be in the same race together at times. We used to go into the pubs and they would say "well how’d you get on?" I think they were just basically being polite because Joey had maybe won three races and I had finished eighteenth or twentieth.
'But I never lost sight of what I could achieve and in fairness I wasn’t on as good a machine. I took a long time to learn the trade, but you know anything I learned, I never forgot.'
Joey had accidents during his career, big ones too at the likes of Brands Hatch and Tandragee.
Fatal crash at European Road Race Championships
But he didn’t survive his last crash and died instantly when he lost control of his bike before hitting a tree in Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia, in the year 2000 while leading the 125cc race at the European Road Race Championships.
Many wondered just why he had taken himself off to Tallinn that weekend. He had been there before and was part of a remarkable BBC Northern Ireland Television documentary that showed a previous trip to Estonia, alone with his bikes and a crash that broke his collar bone and severed a finger.
'Yer Maun’ as he was known to his legions of fans, clearly liked the track in Tallinn.
Rather like himself, it was a no airs and graces circuit with none of the hype that surrounds the likes of MotoGP. So when his long time sponsor and friend Andy McMenemy took his own life in 2000, Joey was stunned.
Perhaps as a way of dealing with Andy’s death, he loaded up his van and headed to the former Soviet enclave. After taking victories in the 600 and 750cc races, Joey was leading the 125 race when he appeared to lose control in the damp conditions.
A massive crowd from all over the world and from the length and breadth of Ireland descended on Ballymoney for Joey’s funeral on the 7th of July 2000 including brother Robert who was one of the pall bearers in what was in reality an unofficial state funeral.
An ignominious end to a fantasic career.
Extracted from John Kenny's The Dirty Dozen: Ireland's Motorsport Legends, published by O'Brien Press.
