SHEILA ‘NANNY’ SPILLANE
The sad news came through on Monday evening that Sheila Spillane, a member of the Irish Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame, has passed on at a great age.
One of the best known and influential women in Irish greyhound racing for many years, she leaves behind the most incredible legacy.
A classic winning owner and breeder, along with her son-in-law JJ Fennelly, her ‘Burgess’ prefix has been carried by many champions over her lifetime in the sport.
Known by so many, especially those close to her, as Nanny, she was a special lady. And her influence stretched far beyond greyhound racing. Indeed, she help found Killeagh Camogie club, while she and her late husband John also providing the land for their first pitch.
As a result of her incredible dedication to Gaelic Games, the amount of girls she helped over the years and her wonderful work with her beloved Killeagh, she was inducted into the Evening Echo Hall of Fame in 2016.
Of course, Sheila was also a noted sponsor in recent years. The Shelley Fennelly Memorial has been run in honour of her late daughter and both she and JJ Fennelly have taken great joy from seeing some real stars emerge from the stake.
In truth, you could write a book or two on all that Sheila Spillane achieved in her lifetime and her legacy will live for many years to come in both greyhound racing and camogie circles.
She was inducted into the Irish Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame in 2023 and we have included the full citation from the night below. It will give you a better idea of who Sheila was and what she was about. By way of a spoiler, you will read that she was a true lady. She was also the most caring, generous and dedicated person you can imagine. She leaves behind a loving family, many friends and a legacy will that will live on for decades to come.
We would like to take the opportunity to send on our sincerest condolences to her son and daughter, Con and Mary, to JJ, who was such a big part of her life, her beloved grandchildren, her extended family and countless friends.
May She Rest In Peace.
Funeral Details to follow
2023 Hall of Fame – Sheila Spillane
In life, some people are givers and some people are takers. Sheila Spillane is very much in the former category. Known in greyhound circles as the ‘Burgess’ woman, she is far more than that to many more.
One of the first ladies of greyhound racing, she has seen it all. First introduced to the sport when she was seven or eight years of age, she remembers going to the track by donkey and cart, remembers the name of her first bitch and in more recent times, has seen her dogs perform at the very highest level in all four corners of Ireland and the UK.
This is the story of a special lady, a lady known as ‘Nanny’ to those closest to her and a lady whose generosity and strength of will and character has seen her make a real impact in the world around her.
There is also tragedy in her story but it spurred her on, to do more, to give back to the world and hundreds if not thousands of people are better off because of her drive and dedication.
You will hear that this isn’t even her first Hall of Fame recognition but there a bit to cover before we get to that.
So where to start? Well, I started with google. Type in Sheila Spillane and greyhounds and you will find hundreds of reports of how her dogs have won races around Ireland, some in graded company, many in the best of company.
But type in Sheila Spillane and add the word Killeagh and you get very different results. As a proud Cork woman, it was inevitable that she would be bitten by the Gaelic games, and more particularly the camogie, bug at some point but it’s safe to say it was more than just a passing interest.
In fact, she is the inspiration for a number of generations of girls that have been members of Killeagh Camogie club, a club that Sheila helped set up in 1973, the same year she lost her daughter Norma.
By way of giving something back to the parish, she not only helped establish the club but she and her late husband John also donated the land for the club’s first pitch. And where was that pitch? Well, here’s a clue, it was known as the ‘Burgess’ pitch.
Sheila and Killeagh Camogie are entwined. Indeed, the club website put up a tribute to Sheila over decade ago with one paragraph in particular hitting home how much influence she has had on so many generations of young women from Killeagh and the surrounding areas.
It reads: The Club estimates that since 1973 approximately 1,000 girls from the parish and surrounding areas were given the opportunity to play the game. She provided a venue and an environment where many lifelong friendships were made and fun was had. Many an All-Ireland medal winner was trained by Sheila over the years, and all past players look back fondly on those brilliant days when Camogie was a way of Life
Indeed, that figure can be added to greatly some eleven years later with probably closer to two thousand girls been given the opportunity to play the game they love. And Sheila was far from a bystander. There wasn’t a role she didn’t hold in the club, including acting as president to the present day.
It was for her dedication to her club and to camogie that she was awarded with a GAA President’s Award in 2012. And as hinted earlier, this evening is not her first Hall of Fame induction.
Indeed, back in 2016 she was inducted into the Evening Echo Hall of Fame for her wonderful work with her beloved Killeagh.
If there was one moment that epitomised Sheila’s love for the club and community it came when she won the club lotto. She didn’t spend a penny on herself but rather purchased a defibrillator for the club.
And the same dedication she has given to Killeagh Camogie, she also affords to her dogs. That is why we are here this evening.
Her history in the sport goes a long way back, longer than most. Sheila Creedon was born in November 1929, just two and a half years after greyhound racing was introduced to the Irish public for the first time.
Her first memory of the sport came when she was given her first dog by a neighbour at seven or eight years of age - a bitch named Springfield Gift. The red fawn daughter of Royal Tom and Coolcap Lass began what would be a lifetime in the sport. Sheila often stated that from that moment on, she could never remember a time when there was not a dog in the yard.
Sheila and her late father James would race Springfield Gift at the old Western Road, which at the time was only a couple of years old following the closure of the Showgrounds in Ballintemple in 1935.
Springfield Gift would later have pups, starting Sheila on the road to be being one of the most respected breeders in the sport.
Youghal track opened in 1948 and that really cemented Sheila’s attachment to the sport, as did her romance and marriage to John Spillane. John was a salesman for Keenans Sheds in Bagnelstown and came to price a shed for James Creedon when he spotted young Sheila in the yard. The rest is history.
The pair were wed in 1957 and moved to the towns land of Burgess where they set up kennels. They had four children Con, Norma, Shelly and Mary and were married for almost forty years until John’s passing in 1996.
It was the passing of John that saw things change as far as the dogs were concerned. A few years on, her daughter Shelly got sick and Sheila moved in with her and her husband JJ Fennelly.
As JJ says, he and Sheila, “had already thrown their lot in together” soon after John passed away. But fast forward another five or six years, JJ set up a bigger operation in his own place in the early 2000’s and Sheila and himself were now firm partners in the dogs.
Sadly, Shelly passed away in 2012. It was a tough time. Sheila was already living with Shelly and JJ and that’s where she remained. They now sponsor the Shelly Fennelly Memorial at Cork and it has turned into a wonderful competition.
It gave Sheila a great thrill when local runner Killmacdonagh captured the 2019 renewal, not long after her success in the Sporting Press Irish Oaks before going onto reach the Derby final itself.
For any normal man, it would be very strange to share a home with your mother- in-law but they are clearly kindred spirits. When I initially made the call to JJ to get all the background information on Sheila, he joked, “You want me to say nice things about my mother in law?”
It was firmly tongue in cheek as the pair have been so, so close for a long time. During our long phone call, he warmly referred to Sheila as Nanny, told some great stories and went through her story with a real sense of responsibility.
As he speaks of his great friend, his mother-in-law and partner in the dogs, you can sense the incredible admiration and respect he feels for her.
And their partnership in the Burgess dogs has gone from strength to strength. JJ tells of how they both knew their roles. They would rear their pups in the Burgess property. As JJ says of the land that has given them their prefix, “It’s a great spot for rearing pups. There’s about 9 acres of freedom for dogs. It’s a mighty place to rear them.”
JJ admits to being a bad seller. He’d sooner keep them all but Sheila was always pragmatic until it came to a really good one. JJ tells the tale of Burgess Oscar, “There was big money being offered for him at the time. I don’t know, I can’t remember but I think it was around thirty thousand or something like that. I said to Sheila, ‘there’s phone calls coming for this fella, he looks the real deal, what’ll we do. She said ‘what do you want to do?’. I said I don’t mind at all Nan.
“’Well, look she says - I’m not sure what age she was at the time - but she was around 80. She said to me, ‘At my age, I don’t think I’ll run out of money at this stage but I might run out of time to get the winner of the Derby.’ That was how she put that one to bed. We decided that when we got a good one, we’d take our chance.”
And they certainly have taken their chance. Over the past ten years in particular, JJ and Sheila have bred, reared, trained and owned some seriously fast greyhounds. And despite JJ’s protestations at times, they have also sold some exceptional greyhounds also.
To list them all would take another twenty minutes but needless to say, they have had some truly great nights. Burgess Slippy was one of their first proper greyhounds. After getting knocked out of the Laurels and Leger at the semi-final stages, the son of Im Slippy went on to win both consolations. He also won the Paddy Stake at Youghal.
But when asked of her best night in the sport, JJ thought for a moment and said, “Obviously, going back to the great days of Youghal, we had plenty of great nights, the likes of the Paddy Stakes final nights. She loved going to Youghal and Cork, but particularly Youghal. She had a real grá for the place.
“But in my era, the best night would have been the Night of Stars in Dublin when Popeye won the 550 race. It was a good race, top class dogs in it and it gave her some lift. We were finally mixing it with the big boys.”
But JJ went on, “there was obviously finals here and there that we managed to win and they were always good nights but look, whether we won or not it didn’t make one difference to her. She was still the same woman, never came home depressed. Once the dog was in the back of the van and on all four legs, ready to go again, that’s all that mattered and if you got a few wins along the way, it was always a bonus.”
And they celebrated on many an occasion. AS JJ said, he’d have a pint or two and Sheila would enjoy a vodka and white. He describes her as “a wonderful woman, with a good sense of humour, a good appetite and would get on with anybody.”
“When we started travelling with the dogs, we never minded where we’d go. It didn’t matter where we went, there would always be a few people that would approach her and shake her hand. There were people at every track that would know her. She was almost like a celebrity.”
In recent years, the likes of Burgess Bucks, Burgess Rumble and Burgess Rapid have flown the flag for them. The first named was an exceptional young greyhound, whose career was cut short through injury. But he is now establishing himself as one of the best young sires in Ireland.
Burgess Rapid I actually racing tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the Limerick Oaks for which she is amongst the favourites. She has been in exceptional form this year and could give JJ and Sheila another few nights in Shelbourne for the Oaks next month.
But when it comes to which dog is Sheila’s favourite. You’d have to go a long way to find one she loves more than Burgess Dubh. A hugely fast and promising youngster, he was actually included in my twelve to follow in the 2017 Irish Greyhound Review. After his racing days, he moved in with Sheila and to this day is her closest ally.
JJ tells the tail of how people would ring Sheila, “Well, are you alone. No, I’m not, Jimmy is here beside me. And people would be thinking, who the hell is Jimmy like?”
Well, Jimmy is the pet-name of Burgess Dubh. JJ continued, “When she’d go for a walk, up by the paddocks to see the dogs, Jimmy would be by her side every step of the way. In recent weeks, Jimmy has been a bit lost and is looking forward to her returning home.”
What has become clear over the recent weeks, whenever I mentioned the name of Sheila to those that know her, is she is a much-loved woman. A lady that has given her time to others, has shown great love for her greyhounds and has tasted plenty of success along the way.
She has left her mark on the world, made it a better place and in anyone’s language, that’s enough to claim a place in the Hall of Fame.
Ladies and Gentleman, your 2022 Hall of Fame recipient, the legendary Sheila Spillane.