The Southern Lions Scooter Club was founded back in April 1983 in the Irish town of Dingle in County Kerry, Ireland. The town that weekend was the centre point for an Irish scooter rally with Mods and Scooterboys attending from all over the country in sheer droves. There were Mods from the four corners of Ireland there from cities such as Dublin, Limerick, Waterford and a hefty contingent that weekend from the city of Cork but also another breed of Corkmen were on show this time from the north of the county and from the town of Fermoy. A chance meeting outside a cafe in Dingle town square between two Limerick lads and three Fermoy lads was to be the start of some great friendships and the birth of the Southern Lions S.C.

The four lads that day were Kevin Elliot and John 'Fritz' Fitzgibbon from Limerick City and PJ Butler and Garry Graney & Paul Lewellyn from Fermoy Town. After talking for what seemed like ages about paralel ideas it was decided the lads that day form a new club in the Munster region although the Cork City brigade were kind of anxious that the Fermao lads link up with them but at the time that never seemed like a good idea and so shortly after the Dingle Rally the lads met up again and the Club was indeed formed. This led to regular excursions with the Fermau lads coming to up to Limerick for some weekends and the Limerick lads going down to Fermay for the same craic and mighty drinking sessions. We would also of course link up as a club for the main Scooter rallies in Ireland and as we did so our numbers started to grow. Other Limerick Mods and scooterboys soon joined the ranks and the first of our Club patches appeared and were of course proudly worn on our Parkas and Flying jackets at the time.

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Shannon Town..

When we started going to Shannon town about 1985/86 the main haunts for a friday night was the GAA club which did play some Mod stuff etc and some Ska, this was quite good as I remember. later on though the Shannon Knights Pub was used alot also which was alright and quite a few of the lads used to regularly go. Most of the time we would either just hang around the town centre just having a laugh generally. Bunratty was also a good haunt aswel and fibber mc gees nightclub and dirty nellys - the latter generally on a sunday - I think that the first rallys that I rememeber that year were Spanish point and Fanore also although the dates again are rather sketchy - Spanish point was a complete washout, I remember it never stopped raining and the only main talking point was that a few of the lads obtained various cadburys items from a shop which was shut and we had creme eggs for breakfast dinner and tea. There was also Fanore which was generally just ourselves and some of the Galway lot which was quite a laugh as it turned out, although this may have been the rally where Martin flannery came off his scooter on the way home, giving him serious head injuries, he was in hospital for some weeks. The t-shirts were printed up in 86 and read, Southern Lions S.C. Thomond. Tony Noonan thought of the Thomond part - being the region of Limerick where most of the members came from, we all agreed so they were printed, the rear had pist-n-proud 86 here we go again - the front also had a cartoon lion charachter standing beside a chopped vespa with lambretta forks. They looked quite good at the time. The first rally I remember us wearing these was at Salthill in Galway and funnily enough we were all in this small club on the main street, and some bloke started on Greeno, now I dont know if the guy never took much notice of the shirts but there must have been about 15 of us wearing them, next minute all hell broke loose glasses went flying, chairs in the air, the guy whoever he was took a good few slaps, we were all kicked out of this club and the local bill were waiting outside, all they did was to tell us to behave and we could get served at the pub down the road if we were quick.

What a carry on. Ballymahon was also that year which was a well organised rally and well represented by our club aswel, there was also a number ones meeting aswel but the location escapes me (old age setting in) this was memorable for the fact that myself and Martin walsh had to sleep in the back of some old bus - the two of us were legless and must have looked some sight climbing in the back window of this bus. There was also sweatshirts made up for the club but what year again, I couldnt tell you, also another patch was made but I cant even remember the design, Kieron might have one on my old flight jacket which I believe that you have found recently. More tales from the riverbank later on .

Kev Elliot. July 2002