The Story of Bricky  Article courtesy of Irish Times.
Noel Marshall was born on 6th May 1975. He grew up on a small farm near Ballygarvan county Cork, Noel is the 2nd from a family of 5 children their childhood was a far cry from the play station age that has engulfed our current generation of kids. From the age of 5 or 6 before school he would be out at 6am helping conduct the chores around the farm these jobs included milking 3 cows by hand, rearing calves, pigs and hens. With everything done by 8am Noel his older brother and three younger sisters walked 2 miles to their local school. His father combined the farm work with holding down a full time job as a builder with the county council.
Noels creativity became evident from an early age often making his own toys from wood. He was always engrossed during construction work conducted on the farm. At school Noel could only engage on practical subjects but he excelled in these woodwork, maths and science. From the age of 11 he worked during the summer holidays at the local concrete paving yard producing slabs and laying patios. His senior colleagues were astonished at the kid’s ability to work; his practicality and speed became legendary in the locality. Victor Kelly his boss as this time remarks “He started here at the age of 10 or 11 starting work at 8am and would gladly work until 11 at night if there was overtime going, this was on top of cycling 6 miles to and from here every day. On his 2nd or 3rd summer here he could work on par with any of us seniors, he was still quite a small kid but processed remarkable strength speed and stamina and just always knew what to do. He brought an incredible energy to the place. Everyone adored him and we all had that sense he’d do great things. His inventions are testament to the guy’s practicality and drive they are so simple yet brilliant. All our wishes are behind him” Victor Kelly – Ballygarvan Concrete Products
 Noel Left School before his final year and joined the army as an apprentice carpenter. He naturally excelled at the practicality of the carpentry but struggled with conforming to the other facets of army life. Geared for productivity, Noel was now spending days preparing for inspections and drills which frustrated him to the point of utter boredom. This lead him to take up endurance running which he excelled at, going on to represent Ireland at international level he trained hard with aspirations to qualify for the Olympic marathon however the combination of consistent injury and overtraining eventually ended this quest.
“I entered the sport late and failed not from a lack of effort; for six years I trained flat out twice a day seven days a week. I just didn’t quite have enough natural ability to hit that exceptional Olympic standard. Competitive sport is a very grounding experience you think you’re great but your competitors ensure you need to push yourself to the limits of human endeavour to reach a high level” Noel Marshall - PB’s include 24:58 for 5 miles and 51:32 for 10 miles.
Noel had 6 months left
on his army contract when he produced the first Bricky prototype. He
bid his time, the rest is now history. The Masons Mate and
Pro-pointer were later additions to his invention portfolio.
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