R. J. MECREDY

 R J Mecredy Maps

Richard James ('Arjay') Mecredy’s cycling publications were confined to Ireland, but he was well known and respected throughout the British Isles as an authority on all aspects of cycling.

Born in 1861 at Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, in the early 1880s while at Trinity College, Dublin he took up road and track cycle and tricycle racing with considerable success, both on ordinaries and the later safeties and ‘pneumatics’. In 1885 he became editor (and the following year proprietor) of the newly-established Irish Cyclist, a weekly periodical, with offices at 49 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin (home of Mecredy & Kyle, ‘Artistic & General Printers’), whilst continuing his racing career.  In 1894 Mecredy & Co. Limited was established and the Irish Cyclist moved to 2 (and later also 4) Dame Court, Dame St. A rival Dublin publication was the Irish Wheelman, published by J. C. Percy & Co., but in 1903 a merger took place to establish Mecredy, Percy & Co. Ltd, the new firm moving to premises at 34 Lower Abbey St. The Irish Cyclist briefly became Irish Cyclist & Wheelman, later reverting to its shorter name; in 1913 it became Irish Cyclist & Motor Cyclist. The Abbey St premises were badly damaged in the 1916 Dublin Easter Rising and the firm moved to 54 Upper Sackville St, which in 1924 became 54 Upper O’Connell St. In 1932 the firm was acquired by the Sackville Press, though the Mecredy & Percy name lingered on for a few years at nearby Cathal Brugha St. Mecredy retained an editorial role in the Irish Cyclist until his death in 1924; the journal ceased publication in 1931.

In 1888 Mecredy had co-authored The Art & Pastime of Cycling with Gerald Stoney. A much expanded second edition, now co-authored with A. J. Wilson (‘Faed’) and effectively a new work, appeared in 1891 (a copy of the 3rd edition, 1893, may be read on the Haithitrust website). Mecredy’s Cyclist and Pedestrian Guide to the Neighbourhood of Dublin was published in 1891 (unique among road books in giving distances to the nearest yard); both these publications appearing while Mecredy was still combining an active and successful racing career with editing the Irish Cyclist. A fourth edition of The Art & Pastime of Cycling appeared in 1897.

Advertised by Mecredy & Kyle in 1890 were a Cycling Road Map of Ireland – “with main roads coloured, larger scale maps of the environs of Dublin, Belfast and Cork at foot”, and an Environs of Dublin, on the half-inch scale. These would be G. W. Bacon products, new that year.

Probably Mecredy’s best-known cycling publication was his Road Book of Ireland, which first appeared, as a single volume, in 1892 and proved very popular. A second edition was issued in two volumes, South in 1896, North in 1897. These gave suggested tours and lyrical descriptions of the scenery met. The standard advice given by cycling journalists in Britain to their readers intending to visit Ireland was ‘get Mecredy’s Road Book’.  Both volumes were a shilling, increased to 1/6 during WW1. The guidebooks went through several ever-expanding editions, finally being reissued posthumously, largely rewritten, in 1932. The publication of the AA Road Book of Ireland the same year must have ended any prospect of further issues.

The road books contained skeletal maps, but between 1896 and 1901 Mecredy & Co. issued five larger-scale maps covering the main touring areas of Ireland: Wicklow, Donegal, Kerry, Connemara and Down. The main feature of these were three standards of road surface given – blue (good), uncoloured (average) and red (poor). The choice of blue for roads better than average contrasts with the colour scheme adopted by Gall & Inglis for their ’graded’ maps of Scotland and northern England, where blue depicted the poorest class. Hills, indicated by chevrons, were meticulously marked even on the most minor of roads, three chevrons denoting dangerous hills, two chevrons steep hill, single chevron ‘gentle inclines’. This was much more detailed than those on maps from other publishers, where only a few ‘dangerous’ hills might be vaguely indicated. A red cross indicated a point of danger, a blue cross beautiful scenery. Although the maps were not contoured a great number of spot-heights were given. At time of publication the choice of maps for Irish cyclists was extremely limited, with only the rather dated one-inch ordnance map, its reduction on the quarter-inch scale, or spin-offs from atlas maps of dubious vintage being available. All this was soon to change of course, with new products from the Ordnance Survey and Bartholomew, but for the time being Mecredy’s maps were the best available for cyclists. The Donegal map seems to have been discontinued by WW1. Road distances were supplied by Mecredy for the Route Guides included with some of G. W. Bacon’s Irish maps; in return these inserts included an advert for Mecredy & Co.’s publications (apparently even for a year or two after the 1903 name-change).

The information for Mecredy’s maps and road books was mostly collected by Mecredy himself, often from the saddle of a tandem with the ‘stoker’ taking notes. “I go over all the roads personally, and in these maps no road is omitted. If a road does not exist it is erased”. His efforts were supplemented with contributions from friends and correspondents. An extract of a letter from Mecredy to various southern newspapers in July 1901, gives a taste of what was involved: 

"Within the last few weeks I have covered over a thousand miles in the counties of Kildare. Carlow, South Wicklow. and a portion of Wexford in connection with a cyclists' map of these districts which I am at work upon. In Kildare and Carlow I found the road surface uniformly admirable, but when I crossed the border into County Wicklow the condition of affairs was very different. In some districts, such as in the neighbourhood of Hacketstown, [east of Carlow] the surface proved so bad that anyone touring there would never care to pay a second visit. In vileness, however, the roads I encountered in County Wexford beat all others. The surface was so abominable in places that I was afraid my bicycle would collapse, and I had to crawl along at an exceedingly slow pace. In the neighbourhood of Coolgreany [near Arklow] I came upon roads which apparently had not been repaired for years past. The foundations were laid bare, and as a rule each separate stone protruded several inches. A system of road maintenance (save the mark) which allows of such a condition of affairs cannot be economical from the ratepayers' point of view, and as regards vehicular traffic must prove absolutely destructive to vehicles, and most wearing on horseflesh."

The map in question would be a revision of his Wicklow one, which was later reissued covering a wider area and renamed as East-Central, an extract of which (1910?) is given below. The extension of the map into County Kilkenny and Queen’s County (now Laois) lacked information on the quality of the roads: either that or every road remarkably fell into the ‘average’ category. Price was still a shilling, two shillings on cloth. Although printed by G. W. Bacon & Co., that company appears to have had no input to the map content. 

This map has a few points of particular interest: one is a ‘red’ (i.e. poor) road following the south side of the Grand Canal, from Kilmainham in Dublin to the county boundary near Newcastle. This route – presumably only a towpath, usable by cyclists rather than motorists - only appeared on Mecredy’s map, and quite naturally did not appear in his route guide, as no tourist would shun the main roads for it. By contrast, today there is the Grand Canal Way, for walkers and cyclists, along the north side of the canal, providing the only traffic-free exit westward from Dublin. Another feature on the map is the marking, in pecked lines, of roads ‘out of contract’, and so to be avoided by motorists. This is a reminder that traditionally it was customary in Ireland for road repairs to be done by small local contractors rather than highway authority direct labour, so a road ‘out of contract’ was one no longer being maintained at public expense. 

As well as these regional maps, a national map of Ireland on the same principle of indicating road quality seems to have been mooted for some years before appearing, as far as I can discern, about 1909. It was superseded in 1912 by the following map:

 

 "The partial adoption of steam rolling Ireland and the extraordinary variation in the surfaces of roads in different districts, where the old system of road repairing is still maintained, renders it very difficult for motorists and cyclists to select a route which will give the most easy running. This difficulty now very easily solved by the publication of Mecredy’s Steam-Rolled Road Map of Ireland. The map is printed in two sheets, one covering the district north of a line between Dublin and Galway, and the other the district south of that line. A glance at the map, which is beautifully clear, accurate, and well defined, shows the marvellous development that steam-rolling has made in certain districts. Mr. Mecredy has placed motorists and cyclists under a deep debt by this cheap and handy publication, and we cannot imagine any them steering on a journey through any part of Ireland without possessing the two sheets of which it is composed. The price [1/- per sheet, 2/- on cloth] is merely nominal, and the map will be revised and brought to date at the beginning of each season”. 

Dublin Daily Express, 25 July 1912

A steam-rollered road was thus presumed to be one having a good surface; this of course all prior to the widespread introduction of tarmacadam. Although intended to be updated annually in July, and a second edition did appear in 1913, the map does not seem to have been perpetuated for more than a few years. . 

Around 1898 Mecredy invented, or at least codified, the rules of cycle polo. In 1900 he inaugurated the (Irish) Motor News, which he edited alongside the Irish Cyclist. He went on to author and publish several motoring titles, though never losing his enthusiasm and support for cycling and remained a keen and active rider. He was prominent in establishing the Irish Automobile Club and the Irish Roads Improvement Association and campaigned strongly for better roads and hotel accommodation, as encouraging visitors to Ireland by car or cycle.

Mecredy was a firm advocate of the healthy, outdoor life, and promoted several mass camping events for cyclists. In later years a vegetarian, in 1910 he published Health’s Highway, extolling the benefits of fresh air and exercise, correct diet, and breathable clothing. Even at home, he insisted on sleeping with all windows open. However, he was later to suffer from respiratory problems and died from pneumonia just short of his 63rd birthday.