Among the thousands of bikers who passed through the Joey Dunlop Memorial Garden yesterday to pay tribute to Joey – who died in a road race in Estonia in 2000 – there was a palpable feeling that “the show must go on” despite Robert’s death.

One bleary-eyed biker, who declined to give his name, said: “You have no idea of what it feels like to ride your bike at 200mph. There is nothing like it. It’s an addiction, once you do it, you never look back. I knew Robert and Joey and they were the same.

“Everyone knows the risks but you never think it will be you. The show must go on.”

Irish 2007 superbike champion Conor Cummins, 21, from the Isle of Man, said he still plans to ride in the race.

He said he felt for the Dunlop family and extended his sympathies to them.

“But racing is in the blood, it is built into you and you can’t help it,” he said.

“For a split second you think that it could happen to you and you are aware of the risks but you do it.

“It is a really selfish way to think, I suppose, but you just get on with it.

“If it happens it happens, there is nothing you can do about it. It is a case of ‘if your number is up, your number is up’.”

However, Dorothy Pitt, Mayor of Douglas on the Isle of Man, said she knew Robert and his brother Joey well from their participation in the TT races and said she and her husband Stephen are “just devastated”.

She said Robert’s death was the “only talk in Ballymoney, there is nothing else to talk about”.

Mrs Pitt said: “I cannot describe how I feel. Robert seemed so confident about getting back on.”

Mr Pitt said he and his wife were over last year when Robert received the Freedom of the Borough.

“I knew Robert. I met him quite a number of times. I also knew him and the lads and of course Joey and Linda and all the family.

“Last year we went for a few pints after he received the Freedom of the Borough.”

She added that while Robert died “prematurely, he was killed doing what he enjoyed most”.

He added: “But it is not easy for the ones left behind...it was so quiet and so eerie.

“People were coming in, carrying their helmets in silence.”