Cyclist who enjoyed tour and time trial sucesses

OBITUARY: Michael Creighton, Bective

Michael (Mickey) Creighton of Bective, who died on 30th November last, aged 86, was a prominent and successful cyclist in the 1950s and '60s, who took part in a number of Rás Tailteanns over two decades, in an era when Meath dominated the national cycling scene and produced numerous Rás Tailteann winners and stage winners.

Mickey Creighton was the first member of Navan Road Club to win a stage race when he took overall honours in the 1960 Rás Connacht. The Bective rider had a very consistent record during the 1960s when one of his best efforts was fourth in the final placings of the 1964 Rás Tailteann, when Meath took team honours for the first time. Creighton rode very steadily throughout the ’64 Rás and held third place overall going into the two stages on the final day. But as Paddy Flanagan took the yellow jersey off Ben McKenna on the Navan to Ashtown time trial, Shay O’Hanlon jumped above Creighton.

O’Hanlon won the time trial from Flanagan and McKenna, with the Navan Road Club rider in sixth place. Creighton comfortably held fourth place on the concluding 30 miles stage in the Phoenix Park, watched by 40,000 spectators. It was Creighton’s seventh time to ride in the Rás Tailteann, with his first two attempts in the eight-day race in the 1956 and ’57 editions as a member of Bective Wheelers, a club which had a short existence due to a lack of members. The eight-man team in 1957 also comprised Tommy Flanagan and Alec Davis of Navan; Ben McKenna, Willie Heasley, Paddy Rose and Jim Louth, of St Patrick’s, and Eddie Navagh of Kentstown.

Creighton had won the NCA Beginners Championship in Athlone in 1956 and also took the national junior title in Navan that year when Willie Heasley was second. Another big race success for Mickey Creighton was in the 1960 Tour of Meath, promoted by the National CC, starting and finishing in Navan, taking in Oldcastle. He also won the Tour of Monaghan, a 90 mile event, in 1967, when St Patrick’s of East Meath won the team event. He was a nominee for the Royal Meath Association Personality of the Year at the time.

Writing in his history of Navan Road Club, journalist and Bohermeen cyclist, Noel Coogan, recalled a period in the second half of the 1960s, when Mickey Creighton was placed, usually third or fourth, nearly every Sunday. The Bective man trained very hard, usually 45-mile spins three evenings a week, mostly on his own. He rode in the Rás Tailteann a few more times after 1964, once on the Derry team. He achieved a stage victory into Carlow in 1967, when outsprinting Seamus Kennedy and Dubliner Tony Arthurs.

There were controversies at times, including in the 1973 Ras which saw his team mates on the Meath Discover Ireland team, led by Brian Connaughton, stage a protest at his disqualification by not taking their places in second position behind the French team, before the fifth stage, from Tralee to Gort, started. It was alleged he got a tow from a car, whereas he stated he put his hand on a car while looking for a drink of water. Immediately after the end of a tough 106-mile spin across the mountains from Macroom to Tralee, the French team lodged an objection to Creighton, who was taking part in his 15th Ras, the media reported at the time.

Mickey Creighton enjoyed success in time trials and took three 25 mile victories in a row, achieving a time of under an hour in each. In 1969, he was on a Navan Road Club team alongside his protégé Noel Clarke, and Larry Clarke, which took team honours in the National 25 miles Time Trial Championship at Dunleer.

He also enjoyed track racing and won Meath titles at one mile, three miles and five miles on the grass, as well as competing with success at the Eamonn Ceannt venue in Dublin.

In 1965, the Meath Chronicle reported that he won a 10-mile cyclocross held over the Bohermeen circuit.

In the first Scurlogstown Olympiad in 1968, Creighton took part in a ‘Round the Houses’ cycle race, with Shay O’Hanlon, Seamus Kennedy, Brendan O’Donoghue and the full Irish team that had competed in the Rás Tailteann that year.

In 1969, he moved over to the Irish Cycling Federation for a period, disillusioned with the politics within the National Cycling Association at the time.

In latter years, Mickey Creighton enjoyed a quiet life at Bective, where he was one of the last old characters in the area. His passing came just weeks after that of another Bective local, Paddy Rahill. During the filming of the movie, 'The Last Duel' in Bective in 2020, both men recalled previous films being made in the area. Mickey recalled Rock Hudson shooting Bective Abbey in the 1950s, while Paddy worked on the set of Mel Gibson's 'Braveheart' in the 1990s.

After he left Meath County Council, he worked with Reilly Crane Hire, run by his old cycling friend, Frank Reilly, until Frank's death, and later work with Noel Clarke on painting contracts. Mickey took his daily paper and kept abreast of national and international news. He was a good conversationalist and very sociable.

Predeceased by his wife Bridie (nee O'Dowd, Trim), and his sister, Tessie Costello, Bective, Michael Creighton is survived by his son, Tony, Navan; daughters, Tracey, Navan, and Sinead, Kentstown; grandchildren, Jessica, Cody, Emily, Mark, Amy, Rosie and Bríanán; great grandchildren, Rory, Connie, and Ted, extended family, neighbours, and friends.

His funeral took place from the Church of Our Lady of the Nativity, Kilmessan, to the adjoining cemetery, celebrated by Fr Terence Toner, PP, Kilmessan. Navan Road Club provided a guard of honour.