Rev Martin McNeely: Funeral hears Presbyterian minister embraced loyalist flute bands and Gaelic sports to spread Gospel
The funeral of a Presbyterian minister has heard he would join any club where he could “have fun and talk about Jesus” – leading him to embrace loyalist flute band culture and play hurling.
Rev Dr Martin “Marty” McNeely, 55, passed away on Saturday after a long illness.
He was minister at Ballykeel Presbyterian Church, Ballymena for 16 years and was installed in Fahan Presbyterian Church in Co Donegal in March 2024.
He was the husband of Julie, father of Joshua and Martha and son of Robert and Florence.
His friend Adam Smyth, currently Director of BBC NI, told mourners at Connor Presbyterian Church in Ballymena, today, of a conversation ‘Marty’ had with someone taking oxygen therapy alongside him in July.
Both men had an interest in Gaelic games and Marty said he was going to the All Ireland Hurling Final that weekend which they noted was clashing with the final day of The Open in Portrush.
The other patient then turned his attention “critically” to another clash with the Open – the annual Portrush Sons of Ulster band parade the same night.
But Marty said he had attended the parade many times and that it was "a positive expression of loyalist culture”.
"His fellow patient could not comprehend how Marty could equally enjoy loyalist band parades and hurling. But that was Marty.”
He would join any club where he got the chance “to have fun and talk to people about Jesus”.
Adam also recalled his friend’s days as “DJ Marty” when a student at Jordanstown, and revealed he would “sometimes come out of retirement” at The Pavilion bar on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.
Rev William Henry told how Marty was born to Robert and Florence McNeely and lived on the family farm in Tyrone with his younger sisters Helen and Mary.
When he was ten the family sold up and moved to Hampshire.
Marty “lost his way a bit” in his youth but asked his father for “one final chance” to support him to go back and do A Levels.
This turned out to be “a pivotal decision” and he returned to the University of Ulster at Jordanstown where he mixed with people from all backgrounds and met his wife Julie.
“This, along with his subsequent Christian conversion, formed the basis of his ministry,” he added.
His sister Helen said she had joked with Martin about saying something at his funeral, but he replied: “Seriously Helen – I don’t want my funeral to be all about me.”
By this, she said, he meant he wanted people to “look beyond Martin to the God who he loved and trusted.”
In 2012 she attended a Christian conference in Australia where an international speaker recounted a stay with a minister in NI and accompanying him to a pastoral emergency. The speaker had been “blown away” by the minister’s “pastoral and servant heart” as he sat with a woman in challenging circumstances.
Helen’s friend turned to her and said: “That sounds just like your brother.” She replied “through gritted teeth” that it was him. “Even in Australia I was Marty McNeely’s sister!” she added.
She praised the “unbelievable” medical care he had received from neurology and oncology doctors and nurses – and Macmillan Support and Marie Curie charities – over the past 17 months.