GALWAY man with a rare medical condition had his only viable means of transport cruelly stolen from him after a night out with friends at the weekend.

Castlegar resident Liam Cullinane was diagnosed with Listerial Meningitis, a severe and rare form of the disease, in 1993. Since then he has had problems with walking, which has made his specially designed three-wheeled bicycle an essential means of transport for him.

“It’s a major loss of independence,” said Liam when describing the loss of his bike, which was stolen outside Halo nightclub on Upper Abbeygate Street in the city in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“The bike was locked on the street and the bouncers saw it when they reopened the nightclub doors at 2.40am,” he said. “By the time I got out of the nightclub at 3am the bike was stolen.”

Liam told the Sentinel that, when he noticed that his bicycle was missing, a friend of his who was with him at the time immediately began asking people on the street whether they had seen someone leave with the bike. He then went about following the directions he was given until his trail was ended at the intersection at the bottom of Henry Street.

The bicycle has two front wheels and one wheel at the rear. It is described by Liam as being maroon in colour and has a woven basket at the front. The Galway man described the bike as his “form of wheelchair” due to the slow pace at which he has to walk.

Due to the rareness of Liam’s illness, his bike is the only one of its kind in Ireland. It was just a few months old, after a crash he had in March of last year resulted in him having to get a replacement, which took over a year for it to be custom built and delivered to him from Wales.

The bicycle cost Liam €3,000, and other alterations made to it when it was serviced just two weeks ago cost him a further €180.

Unfortunately this is not the first time that...