Cycling advocacy in Ireland suffered a great loss last month with the passing, after a short illness, of Tom McClelland from Northern Ireland Cycling Initiative (NICI) and CTC NI.

I first met Tom in the early 2000’s when a dozen or so representatives of cycling campaign groups from around the island converged on the home of David Maher, then Chair of Dublin Cycling Campaign, in Portarlington, Co. Laois. We were there to form an (all island) Irish Cycling Campaign and Tom travelled down from Belfast, bringing with him his great ebullience and experience in cycling campaigning matters. Over the following years Cyclist.ie (the network of campaign groups around the country) crystallised and Tom was a core part of the network endeavouring always to attend meetings around the country and to share his insights into political lobbying on cycling and environmental issues.

He championed particularly the cause of slower speeds and campaigned for all urban roads to have a maximum 20mph speed limit. He was a tireless campaigner and spent many hours each week at meetings, making calls and attending conferences both on this island, across the water and beyond. As well as being Chairman of the NICI, Tom was an active member/supporter of Living Streets, Transport 2000, Sustrans and CTC Northern Ireland (the National Cycling Charity).

Tom was a superb host when any one of us from Cyclist.ie – Dr. Mike McKillen, Shane Foran, Damien Ó Tuama – or colleagues from the CTC were invited to Belfast to support local efforts on the cycle campaigning front. We were introduced to everybody and made to feel very welcome at the home of himself and his wife Kathryn in Dundrod. He took great pleasure showing us the many 1000’s of deciduous trees that he planted all around his home in the hills and filling us in on the colony of bats living in the roof of his house!

Even when requiring ambulatory oxygen as his illness had advanced, Tom travelled from Belfast just last September for the Cyclist.ie meeting in Tailor’s Hall in Dublin. Tom wasn’t just very committed to making sure that our campaigning would lead to real change on the streets, he was wonderfully energising and great company in any group. Dublin Cycling Campaign and Cyclist.ie will miss him very much. We convey our condolences to his family.

Damien Ó Tuama, Dublin Cycling Campaign and Cyclist.ie