Where do you practise your cúpla focal? On the Luas, silently reciting the names of the stops as Gaeilge? At the kitchen table, trying not to be humbled by your child’s Irish homework? Or in front of the telly, watching sport on TG4, unsure whether úd is a try or a penalty?For David Meana, it’s on his bike, where he becomes his alter ego, Daithí Ó Méanaigh.Meana came to Ireland from Salamanca in Spain with his now wife after living in Belgium for two years. When she landed a job in Dublin with Instituto Cervantes (a public organisation that promotes Spain’s language and culture abroad) in 2007, the pair packed up their lives once again and have lived here ever since.“At the first company I worked for [in Ireland], the general manager was living in Phibsborough, and he was kind of involved with Bohemians,” says Meana.“In Spain, I’m licensed to be a football coach, so as he knew some people in Bohemians, for a year and a half I was training the under-12s in 2008, before our first kid was born.“My English was a real barrier when I was training, because everything that I have in my head and all the knowledge that I have about football, it was really difficult to put into words at that stage. It was frustrating at the beginning.”Classes quickly brought on his level of English, and a move to a software company – where he has now worked for over 15 years – and the births of his two children all conspired to make Ireland feel more like home.But despite moving to Castleknock in 2015, it was a chance encounter with a fellow Spaniard that ultimately led him to join the local cycling club.David Meana with his niece Nerea Sánchez (who is on Erasmus in Dublin) at a Bohemians match last March. “When I started doing road cycling, I bought a road bike and I started cycling, I wouldn’t say seriously, but more often,” Meana recalls.“There is a shop, Cycle Superstore, and I was buying some things one day and a person working there was Spanish.“We started speaking in Spanish and he was saying we should go cycling together, so we started going together, and I was going always cycling with him. He left [Ireland] at the beginning of 2023, but before leaving he sent me a text and said: ‘Look, for you not to be cycling alone, there is a club real close to where you live, Castleknock Cycling Club, that looks good.’“At the beginning it was like, I’m fine on my own, but then at some stage I said, ‘well, I’ll join the club and see how it goes’. It’s one of the best things that I have done. I’m really, really glad that I joined.”As Meana found, there’s a strong community awaiting those who chose to don their Lycra and give club cycling a go.“It’s so welcoming, the people are so nice. I’m quite shy. My wife tells me ‘you make friends really easy’, and maybe that’s true, but I’m still really shy joining something at first. But again, the people are so welcoming and they’re really easy to get on with.”With “a good variety of ages and levels”, it’s been a chance for Meana to meet people from Castleknock and the surrounds with whom he might not otherwise have crossed paths.“It’s the social part that is really important,” he says. “We do things like, for example, during the summer we have a Wednesday spin; a short spin that we do in the evenings. And every year there is one spin that we do where we finish close to the Strawberry Beds and we go to the Goats Gruff there to have pizzas.David Meana during last year's Orwell Randonnée in Co Wicklow. Photograph: Gareth Grimshaw/Castleknock Cycling Club “We have some other days where we have like scones and coffee, and we have a Christmas party.“It feels like family. Whenever I go to a spin, I feel like I’m really so comfortable. Sometimes I think about going on my own and it’s like, ‘no, what’s the point?’, I would miss the camaraderie.”Meana went the extra mile last year, gaining his Irish citizenship. “For many years I was saying I have to do it. I’m living here and I really feel Irish. But nowadays, with how things are with politics, if there is a referendum, for example, like Brexit in the UK, I want to be able to vote, I live here.“With Spain, you can have both nationalities, so if you’re not losing you nationality, why not?” And his Castleknock clubmates were all too ready to help further his assimilation. [ Enhanced Games explained: sport’s most controversial event unpackedOpens in new window ]“During the spins, some guys are teaching me some Irish, like different ways of responding to ‘conas atá tú?’, how to order coffee and cake, etc. “For most of them I am not David, I am Daithí, and they even ‘translated’ my full name to Daithí Ó Méanaigh, which I use on Strava. I love learning Irish and definitely I will register for the adult classes that Castleknock Community College organises every year.”So, does Ireland feel home? Sí. Yes. Tá.