CLUB HISTORY - FROM THE BEGINNING TO PRESENT (2004)
IT'S TIME TO SPILL THE GUTS !!

It all started many moons ago in the early nineties in a town called Limavady which is situated near the north coast of Northern Ireland. On any given weekend the local lads with bikes would seem to congregate at a well known meeting place in town and end up going for runs together along the coastal roads. This eventually became a regular practice and as all good stories go...before we knew it… there was a regular bunch of lads & machines meeting in the town just champing at the bit to head off at full throttle.

By 1993 the bunch had settled into the usual faces doing the usual runs every weekend. As the town had always had a history of various bike clubs over the years it was eventually suggested that the bunch should actually organize themselves, think of a name & become a club.

As with most things of importance the finer details were all discussed over copious amounts of alcohol at the local watering hole. By February 1994 approximately seven young leather clad crutch rocket hero's had picked a name, had a patch made up & low & behold, the ‘JESTERS MCC’' were born.

Due to the excitement & naivety of the young members of the new club the membership grew at a serious rate with all manner of bike enthusiasts, friends, friends of friends, cousins & strangers becoming members. Once things settled down & a sort of uneducated course was set the numbers soon dwindled back down to a manageable 15 – 20 bodies when folks realized it wasn’t for them.

Over the next few years & with gaining confidence & experience the club functioned really well with the usual trips, events, runs out & partying being organized & attended to a good degree. The members were having fun and were well enough thought of that an affiliated JESTERS MCC was started by friends of the club in the Isle of Man. This club eventually chose to become JESTERS MC IOM but have since dropped the JESTERS name and moved further into the 1% lifestyle.

As with most organizations the running of our JESTERS MCC fell to the usual same people & the leaders & followers eventually fell into their respective rolls. When this happens, 'rightly or wrongly', the clubs direction was steered towards the strongest opinions & thoughts of those at the helm.

As a result of this, the unfortunate situation of ‘discontent among some of the troops’ & ‘behind the back murmurings’ reared their ugly heads. Although things were going well & the club had a couple of successful rallies under their belt, the rot had already set in & unfortunately discontented murmurings became voices which eventually caused tensions.

When things finally came to a head in July 1999 a meeting was called & surprisingly, in quite dignified terms, a decision was made on the future of the club. This resulted in, for a variety of different and personal reasons, that all but two of the members decided that the club for them was over and it was time to leave. The remaining two consisted of a long standing member & an original founder member of the Jesters MCC from back in February 1994.

It was time for a new beginning & a more dedicated direction for the JESTERS MCC. Sadly the long standing member decided to call it a day & left one stubborn old die hard to see if the whole thing could be salvaged. The opinion was held that as long as there was one patch out there carrying the ‘ Jesters ‘ name then there was still a club.

The first thing that was done was to find like minded allies & then change the patch. Slowly but surely help arrived & a new patch with different colours was designed to distinguish the new members & club from the old.A more dedicated direction into the biking lifestyle & bike club scene was taken on by the new members. A few people came and went but we took our time & the club hovered between 3 – 5 members for a year and a half until we were approached by interested bikers who liked what the club was trying to achieve.

We are now going from strength to strength & enjoying our biking to the full and in 2004 we celebrated our tenth anniversary. We have members that live all over our fair green Isle, both North and South, stretching from Limavady to as far as Cork. There is also now a brother club of JESTERS in England that we ride and party with regularly, check out the link to their site.

Some of us still wear the old patch upside down on our jackets both as a mark of respect for the clubs origins,  and also to signify that it is no longer the recognized colours of the Jesters MCC.

We have to thank everybody (both good & bad & whatever their current views of the club) who have passed through the Jesters ranks & circles over the years for their input. IF IT WERE NOT FOR THEM WE WOULD NOT BE WHERE WE ARE TODAY OR LEARNED WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED.

We would also take this opportunity to thank all those individual bikers, friends & clubs who have supported us over the years especially during & after what has become affectionately known as “Our Summer of Discontent” in 1999.

CHEERS TO ALL!!