Sad death of an Offaly and Tullamore running legend

THE death has taken place of Mick Neville, one of Tullamore and Offaly's greatest ever male runners – the only Offaly man with a better track record than him is James Nolan, a two time Olympian and European medalist who grew up just a couple of miles from Neville's Lynally home in Screggan.

He is on a par with another outstanding performer, Rhode man John O'Toole who was a phenomenally successful runner in the 1980s – a Tullamore Harriers' member, O'Toole won the national marathon title and competed in three World Cross Country Championships. There have been other outstanding and successful runners but the international achievements of Nolan, Neville and O'Toole put them out ahead of everyone else – Pauline Curley and Ann Marie McGlynn (Nee Larkin and another runner who grew up not far from Neville's home, in Mucklagh) have been the top two female athletes.

A native of Lynally, near Mucklagh, Mick Neville was an international standard runner during the 1960s. He achieved some fantastic times, chased down Olympic qualification and only denied the ultimate accolade by injury. He broke Irish and European records – a fearsome competitor, renowned far and wide, he beat some of the top athletes in that era, including an Olympian Abede Bikila.

Mick Neville followed a path less travelled – he grew up in GAA territory in Lynally but there was a great running tradition in that area in the 1950s and 1960s. Tullanore Harriers was only formed in 1953 and a young Neville soon joined them. He initially ran with a long defunct club, St Colman's in Mucklagh and his transfer from them to Tullamore Harriers near the end of the decade resulted in objections and disqualifications – Neville had switched by 1958 and he had led Tullamore Harriers to the team title in the Offaly Junior Cross Country Championship early that year when 17 years of age. The second placed club, St Cronan's, near Roscrea, objected on the basis that Neville had not been properly transferred, the Offaly Athletics County Board upheld it and St Cronan's were declared the winners.

At the time Tullamore Harriers were willing to accept new members, even if their transfers were not officially sanctioned and them and their County Board had swords drawn for a few years.

There was plenty of controversy in that era as St Colman's in particular objected to any of their members transferring to the bigger club – their best runners tended to move to Tullamore Harriers, where there was an overall better standard of training partners and runners and while Neville's initial career with them was short, he left a lasting impression.

He won national and Leinster championships at a variety of distances from 15 miles to 2 miles, setting a national 2 mile record in 1961. He won the second and third Quinlan Cup in 1960 and 1961 – the Quinlan Cup was a cross country race at the time, staged at Arden, and it later became one of the most sought after prizes on the Irish athletics calendar as a road race with its list of winners including Eamon Coghlan and John Treacy.

He was almost unstoppable at that time but his Tullamore Harriers career ended – for two decades anyway – in 1961 after the notorious “battle of Tallaght” in 1961. A row erupted at the Leinster Cross Country Championships in 1961 at Tallaght when officials attempted to pull a Kilbeggan man racing for Tullamore Harriers, Paddy Bastic out of the race – Bastic had moved to the Tullamore club from Kilbeggan AC but there were objections and when officials tried to remove him from the race, his team mates and supporters resisted furiously with a general melee taking place.

There were big repercussions for the then fledgling club with Tullamore Harriers suspended for a year. It was later reduced to six months on appeal but by the time that suspension was served, Neville was gone. He moved to Donore Harriers in Dublin, rather than miss a year's action when he was in his prime. The above mentioned Bastic, joined him in Donore Harriers - Bastic later moved to New York, where he prospered in the early New York marathons, finishing fourth in the first in 1970, though it was a small event at the time with just 127 entrants and only 55 men finishing a looped course in Central Park.

Ironically Neville's switch, difficult as it was for him, served his running career well. Tullamore Harriers were an NACA club at the time and their members could not run in international competition in those years when there was a bitter split in Irish athletics. Donore Harriers' members could run for Ireland and Neville soon ran for his country – he finished seventh in the International Cross Country Championships in Sheffield in 1962, the percursor to the modern World Cross Country Championships.

Neville became a regular international competitor, going toe to toe with some of the great runners of that period. He broke the European three mile record at an indoor meeting in Wembley in 1962, though he didn't actually hold the record as he finished second to an English man, Derek Ibbotson.

In 1963, he moved to Coventry to work where he joined the Coventry Godiva Club and he remained a star figure. There were regrets for Neville, missed opportunities that could have propelled him into a different league again. He had the qualifying time for the three mile event in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics but injury ruled him out. One of the biggest missed opportunities was down to pure bad luck – he had an athletics scholarship offer to go to Idaho University in the USA in 1961 but unfortunately complicated age eligibility criteria that would have limited his availability in his first year or so meant that he didn't go.

Injuries resulted in him taking a two year break from running after 1964 and he returned to Ireland in 1966, eventually moving to Waterford after a few years. In 1981, he rejoined Tullamore Harriers, running as a masters athlete. Tullamore Harriers always occupied a special place in his affections and he was a very successful masters runner, taking several titles from then into the 2000s.

80 last year, he was a quiet, reserved, dignified, very popular, genuinely nice man - the Neville's and their extended families are hugely respected and regarded. He was modest about his athletics achievement, never seeking limelight or acknowledgement for them – in fact he was almost embarrassed when they were highlighted over the years, which they occasionally were - but he ran at a level and with an intensity that very few of his fellow county men and women have managed to match.

He was predeceased by his son Paul who died in 1967 at two years of age. He is survived by his wife Ann, his daughters Lisa and Aideen; sisters and brothers Rita Daly (Cappincur), Joe (Lynally), Vin (Lynally), Mary Enright (England), Liam (USA).

May he rest in peace.

The following profile on Mick Neville was included in the Tullamore Harriers history book in 2018:

Mick Neville – the Lynally dynamo who became a national name

HIS career with the Tullamore Harriers was a fairly brief one but his name is still uttered with pure awe any time it is mentioned in Spollanstown and his achievements stand the test of time.

Mick Neville is one of the great names of Offaly athletics and while he has spent far more of his life outside Offaly than in it, his athletics accomplishments have served as an inspiration to generations of people.

Born in 1940 in Lynally on a stretch of the road that has produced some great GAA and running families, Mick Neville was a legendary runner during his peak years in the 1960s, breaking Irish and European records and beating an Olympic marathon champion, Abebe Bikila among many other top class athletes.

An unwitting pivotal figure in the controversial events that led to Tullamore Harriers being suspended in 1961, Mick Neville transferred to Donore Harriers in the wake of those events which are outlined in greater detail elsewhere in the book.

It is ironic that those unfortunate events actually made Mick Neville the runner. As Tullamore Harriers was a NACA club, he couldn't represent Ireland with them and it was only with the Dublin club, Donore Harriers that he could tog out for his country.

 Mick Neville took up running at 12 years of age when he attended trials in Daingean for the Offaly youths Leinster cross country team. He was unsuccessful on that occasion but made the team the following year and won his first Leinster medal at 15 years of age.

He had joined the Mucklagh based, St Colman's Club and there was a thriving running scene in that area at that time.

In the 1950s, the athletics scene in Offaly was very different than now, bearing no comparison to the high participation rates that currently exist but with a quality of running and times that many modern runners can only look on with wishful envy.

Mick Neville was to the vanguard of the boom that took place in this period. Tullamore Harriers was formed in 1953 and the Lynally man joined them towards the end of the decade – his transfer from the Mucklagh based St Colman’s towards the end of the 1950s sparked objections and controversy, resulting in the Harriers getting disqualified from races.

He trained very hard, doing ferocious 10 x 1 mile and 4 x 3 mile sessions while competition at that time consisted primarily of sports days, road races and brutal cross country races.

Towards the end of his teens, he had emerged as one of the country's top endurance athletes. The range of his talent was immense as he prospered in long distance events such as the 15 mile road race and track races such as the mile. For example in 1958, he won the All-Ireland 15 mile championship and two weeks later he won the Leinster 2 mile track championship.

In 1960 at twenty years of age, he set a new Irish ten mile record on grass, running a phenomenal 51.05 minutes and lapping a field that included former champion, Harry Gorman.

In 1960, he was almost unbeatable and he took silver behind a local athlete, Sean Sullivan in the national cross country championships in Kilmallock. He was part of a famous Tullamore Harriers team that won a 6 mile race in London and won a host of other titles and races that year, setting records and personal bests all over the place.

In 1961, he broke the national two mile record in a time of 8.51, after competing for an Irish 4 x 1 mile team the previous night.

Tullamore Harriers' suspension in 1961 forced Mick Neville to change clubs - he couldn't afford a year out of action at the time and the Tullamore Harriers' loss was Donore's gain. He also had a scholarship offer from Idaho University in the USA to consider at this time. In the wind up, age eligibility considerations meant that it did not happen but it was a decisive factor in the difficult decision to transfer.

In 1962, he won the AAU and NIAA junior and senior titles in the space of eight week, finishing over a minute clear of the field in the AAU senior eight mile event and leading Donore to the team title.

He soon became a regular international and he competed in the Home Countries Championship in Wales in 1962, on a team that included Olympic champion, Ronnie Delany.

In 1962, a predecessor of the modern World Cross Country Championship, the International Cross Country Championships took place with a 7.5 mile race in Sheffield in England and Mick Neville was part of an Irish team that took to the post in a top class field that included a future Olympic steeplechase champion, Belgium's Gaston Roelants. Showing typical courage and guts, the Offaly man ran with Roelants for much of the race before suffering late on and finishing a still excellent seventh in 45.05 minutes with Roelants winning in 44.40 His Belgium team mate Marcel Vandewattyne was second in 44.46 and England’s Mel Batty was third in 44.48 – just seven seconds separated the 5th to the 9th finishers and Neville’s run was particularly noteworthy as he fell during the race. .

He was at his fantastic peak in 1962 and among his memorable achievements was a three mile race at an indoor meeting in Wembley in London when he and England's Derek Ibbottson both broke the European record with Ibbottson first in 13.44.8 and Neville breathing down his neck in 13.45.2 with famous English runner Ron Hill trailing behind them.

Unfortunately a back injury ended his ambitions of competing in the European Championships that year.

In 1963, work brought him to Coventry in England where he joined the Coventry Godiva Club and he continued to record sensational times. He ran 4.07 for the mile in the club championship and a short while later, ran 13.33 for the three mile event, where Basil Heatley had to set an English record of 13.22 to beat him.

Later that year, he won the 5,000m at an invitational race in Czechoslovakia while in one 12,000 metre race there, he beat the Ethiopian, Abebe Bikila in a race that was started by legendary Finish champion, Emil Zatopek.

In 1964, he had the qualifying time for the Tokyo Olympics in the three mile event but sadly, injury meant that he couldn't travel.

Injuries were becoming an increasing problem for Neville and he opted out of running for a couple of years before returning home to Ireland in 1966.

Running was not a priority for Neville in the 1970s and it was in the 1980s before he started racing seriously again. Though now a masters runner, it was not long before his class shone through again.

In 1981, he rejoined Tullamore Harriers and he won Leinster masters titles in 1 mile, 4 mile and cross country races. His dedication to training was the thing that separated him from many of his peers and he represented Ireland in a host of masters events at home and abroad throughout the 1980s. He continued this excellent form in veteran events in the 1990s and into the 2000s, showing that while age can reduce a person’s powers, class is permanent.

“He was an incredible athlete. He was that good, I always thought he was capable of winning an Olympic marathon. You had to see him competing to realise how good he was,” recalled long serving club treasurer Brendan O’Shea.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mick Hayden was a frequent training companion of Mick Neville and he remembers those times with great fondness, particularly their regular after work runs home.

“He was the best athlete in the country at that time,’ Hayden said. “He was an all rounder. He could break two minutes for the half mile. He was the first Irish man to do four minutes flat for the mile. He won the Irish fifteen mile road race at 19 years of age.”

The training in those early years was severe and Hayden recalls them doing sessions of ten interval miles on the Clara Road and ones of 40 x 200m.

“He was some athlete, he was a star,” declared Hayden.