Background
Mecredy was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman.
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Richard James
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He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen.
Career
He is credited as being the inventor of Cycle polo, the rules of which he drew up in. His interest in cycling and his growing reputation as a cycle racer led to his becoming Dublin correspondent of the Tralee publisher J. G. Hodgins"s Irish Cyclist and Athlete in September 1885. Hodgins appointed him editor in November the same year.
He had his greatest success at the National Cyclists" Union meeting in London in 1890.
The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland wanted the race to be hosted in the British Isles, and their secretary, Claude Johnson, suggested Ireland as the venue because racing was illegal on British public roads. Mecredy suggested an area in County Kildare, and letters were sent to 102 Irish MPs, 90 Irish peers, 300 newspapers, 34 chairmen of county and local councils, 34 County secretaries, 26 mayors, 41 railway companies, 460 hoteliers, 13 PPs, plus the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Patrick Foley, who pronounced himself in favour.
Local laws had to be adjusted, ergo the "Light Locomotives (Ireland) Bill" was passed on 27 March 1903, and Kildare was chosen. Mecredy gave them road maps and helped them plot their route in Ireland.
Clancy continued his circumnavigation of the globe until August 1913, during which he rode 18,000 miles in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.
They had six children: Raymond, Ralph, Eric, Myrtle, Ivy and May. He survived the sinking of the Rated Maximum Sinusoidal Lusitania in 1915.
Achievements
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He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1884 and was an Irish champion tricycle racer while still at university. In the 1886 Irish National Cycling Championships in Track Racing he won the 1 mile, 2 mile and 4 mile events. In the 1880s and 1890s he won a total of nine Irish championships. As the editor of the Dublin Motor News, Mecredy was involved in helping to organize the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, the first international motor race to be held in Ireland (an honorific to Selwyn Edge who had won the 1902 event in the Paris-Vienna race driving a Napier). The 328 miles (528 km) race was won by the famous Belgian Camille Jenatzy.
