From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
'Arjay' - Richard James Patrick Mecredy - was born on May 18th, 1861, in Ballinasloe, Co Galway. His father, Reverend James Mecredy, a Church of Ireland clergyman, was at that time rector of the Connemara parish of Inverin.
RJ as he signed himself - or Arjay as he would become known to one and all - went to Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, and then to Trinity College Dublin. After graduating in 1884, he taught briefly before being articled to his solicitor uncle, Thomas Tighe Mecredy, at Merrion Square.
Arjay never completed his indentures or received his "parchment". Instead, the lure of the open road and cycling beckoned.
The previous year, aged 22, Arjay had taken part in his first cycle race. This came about by accident - he was returning from a cycle touring holiday when he came upon a cycle race at Monasterevin. He entered and was victorious being described in the daily papers as a "young English tourist".
The event marked his entry into the sport and his interest in cycling quickly deepened. He became widely known in cycling and when JG Hodgins founded the Irish Cyclist and Athlete in 1885 it was natural that he should ask Arjay to be one of his contributors.
By the end of that year, Arjay had become the paper's editor and, by the following year, was its owner along with his brother Alexander.
By now he had developed into a top-class and highly versatile cyclist and in 1886, he travelled to London where he won the 25-Mile English Tricycle Championship at Alexandra Park, followed by the 5-Mile English Championship in 1887. Numerous other wins fell to Arjay during these years and at the end of the 1887 season he decided to retire from the sport.
An early and powerful advocate of John Boyd Dunlop's pneumatic tyre, he interviewed Dunlop in the Irish Cyclist in 1889. Although retired from cycling and aged almost 30, his greatest success was now to come at the National Cyclists' Union meeting in London in 1890.
These championships were the nearest thing that then existed to a world championship and attracted the very best riders. Racing a Humber with Dunlop's new pneumatic tyres, he won all four championships, at distances of one, five, 25 and 50 miles.
Ending the season undefeated, he subsequently won seven more Irish cycling titles before retiring for a second time. In 1897, Arjay travelled to London for the annual cycle show, where he was to have an encounter which helped shape the rest of his life.
Pioneer motorist SF Edge took him for a "spin" in his car. At once, Arjay saw the possibilities of the new machine. In January 1900, he founded Motor News, designed to offer advice on motoring and motoring matters in an easy-to-understand and practical manner.
It can hardly have escaped Arjay's attention that there were no more than between 50 and 100 cars in Ireland at that time so the depth of his conviction about the future of the automobile is readily apparent. Arjay's fluid non-technical style soon endeared him to an ever-expanding band of readers in Ireland and in Britain.
The following July, he led the first organised tour of motor cars in Ireland from Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel to Killaloe - 10 cars took part. The following year, Arjay organised the Irish Automobile Club's Irish Tour, a highly successful event which was followed with great interest in the newspapers of the day.
In 1920, ill-health forced Arjay to leave the running of the two journals in the hands of his colleagues and he travelled to France and California in the hope of improving his health. He died at a sanatorium in Scotland on April 26th 1924.
His passing was widely mourned and the breadth of the tributes paid to Arjay served to show how wide his influence had been and the deep affection in which he was held by all those who came to know him.