North Dublin hero returns

Shauna Bowers

A NORTH DUBLIN man has broken a Guinness world record by being the oldest person to circumnavigate the world by bike.

Dermot Higgins (56), who is currently living in Skerries, started his journey when he retired in July 2017 and completed it on April 1. 

Dermot trekked through 21 countries on his adventure. He kicked off in Madrid last July, travelling through Europe, Central and South-East Asia, Australia/New Zealand, across the US and back to Europe.

“I am immensely proud and somewhat a little bit sad that it’s over because it was so exciting and brilliant,” Dermot told the Northside People. 

“The impact that it’s made has been phenomenal. It’s opened up so many new opportunities for me. At the moment I’m still on the crest of the wave; it hasn’t crashed yet.”

Dermot completed the challenge while spreading awareness of UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development and raising funds for Irish Aid charity Trócaire. He has raised €17,000 for Trocaire so far but he is hoping to get that to €30,000 before the end of the year – which would be a euro for every kilometre he cycled.

The journey was a long one for Dermot and with it brought many ups and downs but the Rush native said India was a perfect encapsulation of both highlights and lowlights.

“It took me quite a while to adapt to it [India],” he said. “In some regards it was terrible because it was such a shock and there was so much poverty and so much dirt. I mean there was such poor sanitation and you’d see dead bodies on the ground. 

“But there was also great joy in people’s lives. There was great colour and great food and great spirituality.

“There were many times and many situations where I thought to myself that this wasn’t worth it for the pain and loneliness. My spirituality and my followers, they are what got me through it.”

Despite all the ups and downs, the biggest message that Dermot took home from his adventure is that there are so many different types of people in the world.

“My message really is that, yes the world is round and it’s very big and beautiful and it’s full of so many wonderful people. 99.9 percent of people are there to help you. Very few actually want to harm you. People are good.”

Despite the incredible achievement that this was for Dermot, he isn’t ready to stop yet. He is planning on going around the world again in about two years.

“I’m hoping to complete another project in 2020 called the bipolar bicycle challenge,” Dermot said. “In that, I’ll hopefully be the first person ever to cycle around the world over the poles, from north pole through south pole.” 

Dermot added: “It’s a huge challenge and nobody has ever done it before but I believe I’m capable of doing it.”