The McNeillys of Ballyclare by Milne Mairs -

[willie reynolds]

I'd just put my feet up as Match of the Day was starting when I heard the rumble of wheels come up the driveway past the side of the house. Heidi our golden labrador heard it to and pushed her nose through the patio door curtains to look out into the darkness. ''What about you young Mairs'' were the words that greeted me as I opened the back door to Davy McNeilly. ''You're late on the path tonight Davy'' I replied . He was returning home from a Point -to-Point meeting and had stopped with me to see if I had any nestboxes in the workshop as he needed to mate some stock birds. All I had was one set of 3 which he said would do nicely and asked how much they were, £55 I told him whereupon he offered me £50 which was my normal price for that particular type made of chipboard, but as these were made of top quality exterior plywood they were a fiver dearer. He held his ground on the offer and not wanting to fall out with the man over £5 I let him have them, and we put the boxes into the back of his Landrover. He then put his hand into his pocket and took out a roll of £20 notes that would have choked a donkey as they say, certainly at least £1000 by my estimation, peeling off a two notes which he reached me before putting them back into his pocket he then reached into another pocket and produced thick roll of £10 notes, giving me one . As he left I had to smile to myself as although Davy had got the boxes for a good price I also did well on the deal as the sheet of plywood they were made off had cost me nothing as I picked it out of a skip at the local refuse yard, with the only thing distinguishing it from a brand new sheet being a single nail driven through it, something I didn't mention to Davy of course.

Davy McNeilly was nobody's fool, a shrewd farmer whose stock sense saw him excell in cattle ,horses and his beloved racing pigeons, which he raced in the Ballyclare & District Club. Famous for his Delbar strain of mainly distance birds, to this day only one loft in Ballyclare has equaled his achievement of finishing 2nd in the Irish National Flying Club's Kings Cup race, that being Watts Bros whose loft was situated at the bottom of the Glen Road a few hundred yards from Davy's farm. He finished 2nd Open from Redon 520 miles in 1955, with Watts Bros finishing runner up to Anthony McDonnell's Bann King from Les Sables in 1963. The Ballyclare Club used to have a rule that you had to be at the clubhouse by 7.30pm on racemarking night and many times Davy tested that rule as he very often just made it on time .with some members taking a look at their left wrist when they saw him coming. What these men probably didn't take into consideration was that Davy had to see to a byre of milking cows and half a dozen looseboxes of horses looking fed, before trying to catch a couple of dozen pigeons and get to the club. The McNeilly Delbar pigeons are still mentioned these days when the older generation of fanciers talk about good channel birds throughout Britain and Ireland.

Two of Davy's sons Brian and Glenn are today top notch pigeon fanciers who both have finished 2nd Open in the INFC Sennen Cove Yearling National, that has got to be some kind of record in Irish Pigeon circles. They say that the few young people coming into pigeons today are usually sons ,and in some cases daughters, of past fanciers but to have two sons who race to different addresses in different clubs with the success of Brian and Glenn must be extremely rare. Brian and his wife although living in Ballynure race in the Doagh club where their success throughout the years has been well documented.

Brian once came to me wanting some nestboxes made and wanted to supply the materials himself if I would make them, which was ok by me . So I lent him my box trailer and off he went coming back later in the day with 4 sheets of plywood. I made my standard boxes out of 15mm thick moisture resistant chipboard which gave me a decent thickness to screw into, but was less than impressed when I looked at Brian's plywood which was only 9mm thick and made the job of screwing them together and nailing on a back that much more difficult. That was only one of the difficulties he gave me the other being the fact that he had given both sides of this plywood a fresh coat of creosote which made the job of working with it very unpleasant indeed, not to mention my machinery getting covered in it. I would imagine anyone else asked to make nestboxes with 9mm creosote soaked plywood would have told the customer what to do in two words of one syllable, but I soldiered on and completed the job even lending him my trailer to take them home when the job was complete.

I did some work for Glenn and his wife many years ago when they lived near Ballynure, and was very impressed by his team of pigeons and spacious two story brick built loft he had at that time. I believe they spent some time living in France since then and on return the name G McNeilly once again is prominent in the Ballyclare and National results which comes as no surprise to me as he is a first class fancier.

I have no doubt the brothers will keep the family name to the fore in Irish pigeon circles and who knows one, or maybe both, will possibly win a National in the future. I wish them well in their efforts to bring more glory to the McNeilly name.

Milne Mairs