Former Managing Editor of Belfast Telegraph dies after short illness
DAVID Neely, a former Managing Editor of the Belfast Telegraph, has died after a short illness. He was 73.
He was born and brought up in Londonderry where his father James ran the family undertaking business of R Neely and Company.
He attended the Model Primary School and later Foyle College. In those days he was a keen cyclist and was a member of the Londonderry Wheelers. It was a hobby he followed later, on two very different sets of wheels.
David chose a career in journalism, and joined the Coleraine Chronicle as a trainee reporter, He then moved to the News Letter
in Belfast, and later joined the Belfast Telegraph as a general reporter.
He became Assistant News Editor during some of the worst years of the Troubles. He eventually was promoted to Managing Editor where he dealt with the many complex legal issues involving a busy newspaper.
In this role he represented the Editor, and handled a constant stream of legal queries.
During his time in the Telegraph he was also the paper’s authoritative motorbike correspondent and wrote a widely-read weekly column on that subject.
He retained his love of motorbikes and he and his wife Anne spent holidays touring widely in
Europe on his BMW.
He was also a member of a local group of biking enthusiasts who regularly made trips to many parts of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic as well as to Europe.
David also had a love of jazz, and during his News Letter days he shared that passion with their legendary columnist and jazz expert Bud Bossence.
He was also a keen bird-watcher and horologist, and he had a fine collection of quality watches, which he often mentioned to his journalist friends.
Paying tribute, his younger brother Alastair said: “David was always somebody I looked up to. He was a great brother who helped to guide me through life.
He was a very well-known and popular person, and he had a wide circle of friends.”
Mr Neely is survived by his wife Anne, his daughters Lisa and Fiona, by his grandson Atticus and by his brother Alastair. He was pre-deceased by his first wife Gwen and by his brother Philip, a member of the Merchant Navy who was lost at sea in 1989 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Martin Lindsay, a former editor of the Belfast Telegraph, said: “David and Norman Jenkinson and I were on the news desk during some of the worst years of the Troubles. He was a first-rate journalist who entered the profession through traditional roles.
“During those difficult years, to say the least, David played a huge role in ensuring that we delivered the best possible service for our readers at a time when the news landscape was changing almost hour by hour, and sometimes as bombs rocked our Royal Avenue building to its core. David was a true professional.
“After his heart attack, he kept me abreast of his condition by text from his hospital bed. He always had a ‘glass half full approach’ to his illness, and he showed a steely determination to get back on his feet and he was determined to return home to his family and friends.
“I am so saddened that he did not get the happy ending that he, and all those who knew and loved him, had so desperately hoped for.”