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29cm x 36cm. Dublin Famous picture during The Greatest's visit to Ireland of Muhammad Ali play fighting with two members of An Garda Siochana.Some memory for those officers to tell their grandchildren about ! July 19, 1972, Muhammad Ali fought Al 'Blue' Lewis at Croke Park in Dublin, causing quite a stir in Ireland.Decades later, an Irish documentary recounting the epic fight not only won awards but also won the approval of Ali's daughter Jamilah Ali. "When Ali Came to Ireland" is an Irish documentary that details Muhammad Ali's trip to Dublin for a fight against Al 'Blue' Lewis at Croke Park. In 2013 the film was screened at the Chicago film festival, where Jamilah Ali was in attendance. TheJournal.ie reported that following the screening, Jamilah said "I've seen so much footage of my father over the years but the amazing thing about watching this film was that I had seen none of the footage of him in Ireland... I loved the film from the beginning to the end." The film highlights a moment in Ali's career where he was set to stage a world comeback. He had been recently released from prison after refusing to join the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector. His opponent Al Lewis had also just been released on parole after serving time in Detroit for a murder charge, and he intended to use his boxing career as "a path to a new life." The movie that won an IFTA in 2013 documents the spectacle in Croke Park, Ali's presence in Ireland and how the public reacted to his being there. It also demonstrates how Ali came to be in Dublin for a fight in the first place, highlighting the involvement of "former Kerry strongman"Michael "Butty" Sugrue. Sugrue's story also proved to be revelatory to his family- in a quote from Ross Whittaker, co-director of the film, he speaks about how Sugrue's grandchildren had never had the chance to meet him. "We were amazed when we screened the film in London to find that Butty Sugrue's granddaughters had never heard their grandfather speak. He had died before they were born and they'd never seen footage of him in which he had spoken." After their 1972 meeting, however, Sugrue and Ali's fortunes took two divergent paths. Ali returned to the ring in America to further glories and fanfare before his retirement, while Sugrue lost a small fortune on the Dublin fight and after dying in London was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in his hometown of Killorglin, Co Kerry. The Louisville Lip was also incredibly proud of his County Clare roots. Today we recall the man's star quality and his Irish ancestry. The death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali at 74 in June 2016, from Parkinson’s, would have brought back many glorious memories of the greatest athlete of our times. At the height of his career, Ali was the most graceful, talented, and brilliant heavyweight boxer who ever stepped inside the ropes. I remember seeing him enter the room at the American Ireland Fund dinner in 2011 and grown men, including the Irish leader Enda Kenny, were simply awestruck that they were in the presence of the greatest living legend. Ali was more than a boxer, of course, he was a fighter who refused to become cannon fodder in the Vietnam War, the greatest mistaken war America entered until the invasion of Iraq. He was also a poet, a showman, a lover of many women, a devout Muslim, and simply a legend. Ali's stance to end the Vietnam War when he refused to be drafted cost us the best years of his sporting life. He came back still a brilliant boxer, but the man who could float like a butterfly could never quite recover that greatness. Still, the fights with Joe Frazier, the rope-a-dope that saw him defeat George Foreman in Zaire in the "Rumble in the Jungle" will forever enshrine his name in history. -
Framed Guinness ephemera -these are Guinnessentials- a guide to publicans selling the Black Stuff ! Dimensions : 43cm x 36cm Dublin Arthur Guinness started brewing ales in 1759 at the St James Gate Brewery,Dublin.On 31st December 1759 he signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.Ten years later, on 19 May 1769, Guinness first exported his ale: he shipped six-and-a-half barrels to Great Britain before he started selling the dark beer porter in 1778. The first Guinness beers to use the term were Single Stout and Double Stout in the 1840s.Throughout the bulk of its history, Guinness produced only three variations of a single beer type: porter or single stout, double or extra and foreign stout for export. “Stout” originally referred to a beer’s strength, but eventually shifted meaning toward body and colour.Porter was also referred to as “plain”, as mentioned in the famous refrain of Flann O’Brien‘s poem “The Workman’s Friend”: “A pint of plain is your only man.” Already one of the top-three British and Irish brewers, Guinness’s sales soared from 350,000 barrels in 1868 to 779,000 barrels in 1876.In October 1886 Guinness became a public company, and was averaging sales of 1,138,000 barrels a year. This was despite the brewery’s refusal to either advertise or offer its beer at a discount. Even though Guinness owned no public houses, the company was valued at £6 million and shares were twenty times oversubscribed, with share prices rising to a 60 per cent premium on the first day of trading. The breweries pioneered several quality control efforts. The brewery hired the statistician William Sealy Gosset in 1899, who achieved lasting fame under the pseudonym “Student” for techniques developed for Guinness, particularly Student’s t-distribution and the even more commonly known Student’s t-test. By 1900 the brewery was operating unparalleled welfare schemes for its 5,000 employees. By 1907 the welfare schemes were costing the brewery £40,000 a year, which was one-fifth of the total wages bill. The improvements were suggested and supervised by Sir John Lumsden. By 1914, Guinness was producing 2,652,000 barrels of beer a year, which was more than double that of its nearest competitor Bass, and was supplying more than 10 per cent of the total UK beer market. In the 1930s, Guinness became the seventh largest company in the world. Before 1939, if a Guinness brewer wished to marry a Catholic, his resignation was requested. According to Thomas Molloy, writing in the Irish Independent, “It had no qualms about selling drink to Catholics but it did everything it could to avoid employing them until the 1960s.” Guinness thought they brewed their last porter in 1973. In the 1970s, following declining sales, the decision was taken to make Guinness Extra Stout more “drinkable”. The gravity was subsequently reduced, and the brand was relaunched in 1981. Pale malt was used for the first time, and isomerized hop extract began to be used. In 2014, two new porters were introduced: West Indies Porter and Dublin Porter. Guinness acquired the Distillers Company in 1986.This led to a scandal and criminal trialconcerning the artificial inflation of the Guinness share price during the takeover bid engineered by the chairman, Ernest Saunders. A subsequent £5.2 million success fee paid to an American lawyer and Guinness director, Tom Ward, was the subject of the case Guinness plc v Saunders, in which the House of Lords declared that the payment had been invalid. In the 1980s, as the IRA’s bombing campaign spread to London and the rest of Britain, Guinness considered scrapping the Harp as its logo. The company merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997 to form Diageo. Due to controversy over the merger, the company was maintained as a separate entity within Diageo and has retained the rights to the product and all associated trademarks of Guinness.The Guinness brewery in Park Royal, London closed in 2005. The production of all Guinness sold in the UK and Ireland was moved to St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin. Guinness has also been referred to as “that black stuff”. Guinness had a fleet of ships, barges and yachts. The Irish Sunday Independent newspaper reported on 17 June 2007 that Diageo intended to close the historic St James’s Gate plant in Dublin and move to a greenfield site on the outskirts of the city.This news caused some controversy when it was announced.The following day, the Irish Daily Mail ran a follow-up story with a double page spread complete with images and a history of the plant since 1759. Initially, Diageo said that talk of a move was pure speculation but in the face of mounting speculation in the wake of the Sunday Independent article, the company confirmed that it is undertaking a “significant review of its operations”. This review was largely due to the efforts of the company’s ongoing drive to reduce the environmental impact of brewing at the St James’s Gate plant. On 23 November 2007, an article appeared in the Evening Herald, a Dublin newspaper, stating that the Dublin City Council, in the best interests of the city of Dublin, had put forward a motion to prevent planning permission ever being granted for development of the site, thus making it very difficult for Diageo to sell off the site for residential development. On 9 May 2008, Diageo announced that the St James’s Gate brewery will remain open and undergo renovations, but that breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk will be closed by 2013 when a new larger brewery is opened near Dublin. The result will be a loss of roughly 250 jobs across the entire Diageo/Guinness workforce in Ireland.Two days later, the Sunday Independent again reported that Diageo chiefs had met with Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, the deputy leader of the Government of Ireland, about moving operations to Ireland from the UK to benefit from its lower corporation tax rates. Several UK firms have made the move in order to pay Ireland’s 12.5 per cent rate rather than the UK’s 28 per cent rate. Diageo released a statement to the London stock exchange denying the report.Despite the merger that created Diageo plc in 1997, Guinness has retained its right to the Guinness brand and associated trademarks and thus continues to trade under the traditional Guinness name despite trading under the corporation name Diageo for a brief period in 1997. In November 2015 it was announced that Guinness are planning to make their beer suitable for consumption by vegetarians and vegans by the end of 2016 through the introduction of a new filtration process at their existing Guinness Brewery that avoids the need to use isinglass from fish bladders to filter out yeast particles.This went into effect in 2017, per the company’s FAQ webpage where they state: “Our new filtration process has removed the use of isinglass as a means of filtration and vegans can now enjoy a pint of Guinness. All Guinness Draught in keg format is brewed without using isinglass. Full distribution of bottle and can formats will be in place by the end of 2017, so until then, our advice to vegans is to consume the product from the keg format only for now. Guinness stout is made from water, barley, roast malt extract, hops, and brewer’s yeast. A portion of the barley is roasted to give Guinness its dark colour and characteristic taste. It is pasteurisedand filtered. Until the late 1950s Guinness was still racked into wooden casks. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Guinness ceased brewing cask-conditioned beers and developed a keg brewing system with aluminium kegs replacing the wooden casks; these were nicknamed “iron lungs”.Until 2016 the production of Guinness, as with many beers, involved the use of isinglass made from fish. Isinglass was used as a fining agent for settling out suspended matter in the vat. The isinglass was retained in the floor of the vat but it was possible that minute quantities might be carried over into the beer. Diageo announced in February 2018 that the use of isinglass in draught Guinness was to be discontinued and an alternative clarification agent would be used instead. This has made draught Guinness acceptable to vegans and vegetarians. Arguably its biggest change to date, in 1959 Guinness began using nitrogen, which changed the fundamental texture and flavour of the Guinness of the past as nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2, giving a “creamier” and “smoother” consistency over a sharper and traditional CO2 taste. This step was taken after Michael Ash – a mathematician turned brewer – discovered the mechanism to make this possible. Nitrogen is less soluble than carbon dioxide, which allows the beer to be put under high pressure without making it fizzy. High pressure of the dissolved gas is required to enable very small bubbles to be formed by forcing the draught beer through fine holes in a plate in the tap, which causes the characteristic “surge” (the widget in cans and bottles achieves the same effect). This “widget” is a small plastic ball containing the nitrogen. The perceived smoothness of draught Guinness is due to its low level of carbon dioxide and the creaminess of the head caused by the very fine bubbles that arise from the use of nitrogen and the dispensing method described above. “Foreign Extra Stout” contains more carbon dioxide, causing a more acidic taste. Contemporary Guinness Draught and Extra Stout are weaker than they were in the 19th century, when they had an original gravity of over 1.070. Foreign Extra Stout and Special Export Stout, with abv of 7.5% and 9% respectively, are perhaps closest to the original in character.Although Guinness may appear to be black, it is officially a very dark shade of ruby. The most recent change in alcohol content from the Import Stout to the Extra Stout was due to a change in distribution through North American market. Consumer complaints have influenced recent distribution and bottle changes.
The Guinness Brewery Park Royal during demolition, at its peak the largest and most productive brewery in the world.Studies claim that Guinness can be beneficial to the heart. Researchers found that “‘antioxidantcompounds’ in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.”Guinness ran an advertising campaign in the 1920s which stemmed from market research – when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan, created by Dorothy L. Sayers–”Guinness is Good for You”. Advertising for alcoholic drinks that implies improved physical performance or enhanced personal qualities is now prohibited in Ireland.Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, says: “We never make any medical claims for our drinks.” Origins : Dublin Dimensions : 43cm x 35cm
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34cm x 39cm Limerick CityThe Treaty Stone is the rock that the Treaty of Limerick was signed in 1691, marking the surrender of the city to William of Orange.King John's Castle is a 13th-century castle located on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon.Although the site dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived on the Island, the castle itself was built on the orders of King John in 1200. One of the best preserved Norman castles in Europe, the walls, towers and fortifications remain today and are visitor attractions. The remains of a Viking settlement were uncovered during archaeological excavations at the site in 1900. Thomondgate was part of the “Northern” Liberties granted to Limerick in 1216. This area was the border between Munster and Connacht until County Clare, which was created in 1565, was annexed by Munster in 1602. TheThomondgate bridge was originally built in 1185 on the orders of King John and is said to have cost the hefty sum of £30. As a result of poor workmanship the bridge collapsed in 1292 causing the deaths of 80 people. Soon after, the bridge was rebuilt with the addition of two gate towers, one at each end. It partially collapsed in 1833 as a result of bad weather and was replaced with a bridge designed by brothers James and George Pain at a cost of £10,000.Limerick is known as the Treaty City, so called after the Treaty of Limerick signed on the 3rd of October 1691 after the war between William III of England (known as William of Orange) and his Father in Law King James II. Limericks role in the successful accession of William of Orange and his wife Mary Stuart, daughter of King James II to the throne of England cannot be understated. The Treaty, according to tradition was signed on a stone in the sight of both armies at the Clare end of Thomond Bridge on the 3rd of October 1691. The stone was for some years resting on the ground opposite its present location, where the old Ennis mail coach left to travel from the Clare end of Thomond Bridge, through Cratloe woods en route to Ennis. The Treaty stone of Limerick has rested on a plinth since 1865, at the Clare end of Thomond Bridge. The pedestal was erected in May 1865 by John Richard Tinsley, mayor of the city. -
45cm x 35cm Naas Co Kildare Arkle (19 April 1957 – 31 May 1970) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse. A bay gelding by Archive out of Bright Cherry, he was the grandson of the unbeaten (in 14 races) flat racehorse and prepotent sire Nearco. Arkle was born at Ballymacoll Stud, County Meath, by Mrs Mary Alison Baker of Malahow House, near Naul, County Dublin. He was named after the mountain Arkle in Sutherland, Scotland that bordered the Duchess of Westminster’s Sutherland estate. Owned by Anne Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, he was trained by Tom Dreaper at Greenogue, Kilsallaghan in County Meath, Ireland, and ridden during his steeplechasing career by Pat Taaffe. At 212, his Timeform rating is the highest ever awarded to a steeplechaser. Only Flyingbolt, also trained by Dreaper, had a rating anywhere near his at 210. Next on their ratings are Sprinter Sacre on 192 and then Kauto Star and Mill House on 191. Despite his career being cut short by injury, Arkle won three Cheltenham Gold Cups, the Blue Riband of steeplechasing, and a host of other top prizes. On 19th April, 2014 a magnificent 1.1 scale bronze statue was unveiled in Ashbourne, County Meath in commemoration of Arkle. In the 1964 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Arkle beat Mill House (who had won the race the previous year) by five lengths to claim his first Gold Cup at odds of 7/4. It was the last time he did not start as the favourite for a race. Only two other horses entered the Gold Cup that year. The racing authorities in Ireland took the unprecedented step in the Irish Grand National of devising two weight systems — one to be used when Arkle was running and one when he was not. Arkle won the 1964 race by only one length, but he carried two and half stones more than his rivals. The following year's Gold Cup saw Arkle beat Mill House by twenty lengths at odds of 3/10. In the 1966 renewal, he was the shortest-priced favourite in history to win the Gold Cup, starting at odds of 1/10. He won the race by thirty lengths despite a mistake early in the race where he ploughed through a fence. However, it did not stop his momentum, nor did he ever look like falling. Arkle had a strange quirk in that he crossed his forelegs when jumping a fence. He went through the season 1965/66 unbeaten in five races. Arkle won 27 of his 35 starts and won at distances from 1m 6f up to 3m 5f. Legendary Racing commentator Peter O'Sullevan has called Arkle a freak of nature — something unlikely to be seen again. Besides winning three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups (1964, 1965, 1966) and the 1965 King George VI Chase, Arkle triumphed in a number of other important handicap chases, including the 1964 Irish Grand National (under 12-0), the 1964 and 1965 Hennessy Gold Cups (both times under 12-7), the 1965 Gallagher Gold Cup (conceding 16 lb to Mill House while breaking the course record by 17 seconds), and the 1965 Whitbread Gold Cup(under 12-7). In the 1966 Hennessy, he failed by only half a length to give Stalbridge Colonist 35 lb. The scale of the task Arkle faced is shown by the winner coming second and third in the two following Cheltenham Gold Cups, while in third place was the future 1969 Gold Cup winner, What A Myth. In December 1966, Arkle raced in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park but struck the guard rail with a hoof when jumping the open ditch, which resulted in a fractured pedal bone; despite this injury, he completed the race and finished second. He was in plaster for four months and, though he made a good enough recovery to go back into training, he never ran again. He was retired and ridden as a hack by his owner and then succumbed to what has been variously described as advanced arthritis or possibly brucellosis and was put down at the early age of 13. Arkle became a national legend in Ireland. His strength was jokingly claimed to come from drinking 2 pints of Guinness a day. At one point, the slogan Arkle for President was written on a wall in Dublin. The horse was often referred to simply as "Himself", and he supposedly received items of fan mail addressed to 'Himself, Ireland'. The Irish government-owned Irish National Stud, at Tully, Kildare, Co. Kildare, Ireland, has the skeleton of Arkle on display in its museum. A statue in his memory was erected in Ashbourne Co. Meath in April 2014. -
40cm x 23cm Thurles Co Tipperary The All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship was a hurling competition organized by the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland. The competition was originally contested by the second teams of the strong counties, and the first teams of the weaker counties. In the years from 1961 to 1973 and from 1997 until now, the strong counties have competed for the All-Ireland Intermediate Hurling Championship instead. The competition was then restricted to the weaker counties. The competition was discontinued after 2004 as these counties now compete for the Nicky Rackard Cup instead. From 1974 to 1982, the original format of the competition was abandoned, and the competition was incorporated in Division 3 of the National Hurling League. The original format, including the strong hurling counties was re-introduced in 1983. 1930 – TIPPERARY: Paddy Harty (Captain), Tom Harty, Willie Ryan, Tim Connolly, Mick McGann, Martin Browne, Ned Wade, Tom Ryan, Jack Dwyer, Mick Ryan, Dan Looby, Pat Furlong, Bill O’Gorman, Joe Fletcher, Sean Harrington. -
struggle for independence, this month marks the 100-year anniversary of an important moment in Irish-US relations.
In June 1919, Éamon de Valera arrived in the United States for what was to be an 18-month visit. He had recently escaped from Lincoln jail in England in sensational fashion, after a duplicate key was smuggled into the jail in a cake and he escaped dressed as a woman.
A few months later he was a stowaway aboard the SS Lapland from Liverpool bound for America.
De Valera’s plan was to secure recognition for the emerging Irish nation, tap into the huge Irish-American community for funds, and to pressurise the US government to take a stance on Irish independence. Playing on his mind was the upcoming Versailles conference where the nascent League of Nations was preparing to guarantee “existing international borders” – a provision that would imply Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom.
De Valera also had a challenge in winning over President Woodrow Wilson, who was less than sympathetic to Ireland’s cause.
De Valera’s interest in America was of course personal. He was born in New York in 1882 and his US citizenship was one of the reasons he was spared execution after the 1916 rising.
Public speeches
At first Dev kept a low profile in America. Though he was greeted by Harry Boland and others when he docked in New York, he first went to Philadelphia and stayed with Joseph McGarrity, the Tyrone-born leader of Clan na Gael and a well-known figure in Irish America. He also quietly paid a visit to his mother in Rochester, upstate New York.
De Valera’s first major engagement was on June 23rd when he was unveiled to the American public at a press conference in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. Crowds thronged the streets around the hotel, and De Valera proclaimed: “I am in America as the official head of the Republic established by the will of the Irish people in accordance with the principle of self-determination.”
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40cm x 34cm LimerickUnfashionably – even eccentrically – bred, and strangely marked, he was a two-year-old of exceptional merit, a champion sire and, despite being sub-fertile and retired early from stud duties, he wielded tremendous influence on the breed. A racehorse of blinding speed, though bred to stay extreme distances. A stallion colossus who proved the cornerstone of an everlasting host of equine celebrities from flying machines to Grand National winners. The supreme nonpareil giant of turf history known as The Tetrarch was truly a freak of nature and, in his esteemed trainer’s words, “there will never be his likes again”.THE TETRARCHEarly Years
Edward "Cub" KennedyBorn in 1911 on April 22nd at Edward “Cub” Kennedy’s Straffan Station Stud in Kildare, not far from where the present Goffs Sales complex is located. The Tetrarch was born chesnut with black “Bend Or spots” (so called after his Derby winning great-grandsire) which later transformed into his famous grey with splotches of white coat, that saddled him with the nickname “The Rocking Horse”. Every grey horse must have at least one grey parent and The Tetrarch inherited his colour from his sire. A direct line of his grey ancestors can be traced, like all grey thoroughbreds, back to one grey stallion in the original Weatherbys Stud Book named Alcocks Arabian, who was born around the turn of the 18th century and had his origins in Syria. When Cub Kennedy hastily arranged liaison of Roi Herode and Vahren in the late spring of 1910, he had been obsessed with the idea of reviving the apparently moribund male line of Herod. Could there be a more aptly named stallion for the job than Roi Herode? It was already nearly three months into the breeding season when Kennedy purchased his new stallion and he had little chance of attracting many outside mares, but he did have a couple due to foal late himself, one being Vahren. Kennedy decided to send the young Tetrarch to the 1912 Doncaster yearling sales and he knew that for make and shape there would be few to match him. Atty Persse duly had to go to 1,300gns to secure the colt for his patron Dermot McCalmont. When his jockey Steve Donoghue first saw him he described The Tetrarch as “a sort of elephant grey with big blotches, as though someone had splashed him with handfuls of wet lime”. However, once his brilliance on the racecourse became apparent, it wasn’t long before “The Rocking Horse” became “The Spotted Wonder”, a name that one hundred years on still resonates with horse racing aficionados around the world.
THE TETRARCHRacing Career
The Tetrarch winning the Woodcote Stakes at EpsomAt the age of two The Tetrarch had developed into a magnificent individual and was showing phenomenal speed on the gallops. He made his first public appearance in a novice plate at Newmarket on April 17th 1913 – just five days short of his birthday and blew his twenty rivals away to win “in a canter” by 4 lengths. His second appearance was in the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom, traditionally the first six furlong juvenile race of the season, occurred the day before suffragette Emily Davison was fatally injured in the Derby. The Tetrarch took the race in hand rounding Tattenham Corner and won easily by three lengths, according to the British Bloodstock Review, “It was generally agreed that not since the days of Pretty Polly had a two-year-old accomplished a more impressive performance.” The Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot was next, then run at five furlongs, and The Tetrarch won pulling up “with his mouth open”, his closest competitor trailed in 10 lengths behind. On July 19th to packed stands, he lined up for Britian’s richest two year old race, the National Breeders’ Produce Stakes (now the National Stakes) at Sandown. This was the only time The Tetrarch came close to defeat, scrambling home by a neck conceding 17 lbs to the runner-up. What onlookers didn’t know, as poor visibility obscured the view from the stands, was that The Tetrarch was severely hindered at the start. This is an account from jockey Steve Donoghue’s biography, “As the tapes went up, The Tetrarch got some of them tangled in his mouth, causing him to rear. On coming down he cannoned against another horse and fell to his knees. Although his plight had seemed hopeless, Steve set off in pursuit. The Tetrarch almost lifted him out of the saddle with his supercharged power as he came nearer and near his rivals with every stride”. Just twelve days later The Tetrarch stepped back up in distance to six furlongs at Glorious Goodwood for the Rous Memorial Stakes where he easily accounted for subsequent 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner Princess Dorrie (in receipt of 13 lbs). He went on winning, the Champion Breeders Foal Stakes at Derby by four lengths, and what transpired to be his swansong in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster by three lengths, where The Tetrarch treated Stornoway, his only credible rival for two-year-old honours, with contempt. Stornoway had previously won the Gimcrack and Norfolk (now Flying Childers) Stakes. His season was not meant to end there, but on the day before his intended start in the Imperial Produce Stakes at Kempton he struck into his off-fore fetlock joint, and was retired for the season. Crowned the Champion 2yo of 1913 and rated an unprecedented 10 lbs clear his nearest rival – that season’s Middle Park Stakes winner – The Tetrarch is still considered the greatest juvenile runner of all time. This view is backed by noted turf historians Tony Morris and John Randall, who rated the best juveniles of the 20th century in their book A Century of Champions, and have no doubt about which horse was top. Nearest to The Tetrarch, were Tudor Minstrel and The Tetrarch’s own son Tetratema.
THE TETRARCHStud Career
The Tetrarch was retired in 1915 to stand at his specially-built stallion box and covering shed at an initial fee of 300 guineas. However, due to the meditative state he would enter into when presented a mare, his owner eventually described the champion as “monastic in the extreme”. He only got 130 foals altogether, of which 80 were winners, but with such a dearth of opportunity, it is truly remarkable the number of brilliant racehorses The Tetrarch sired. Champion Sire in 1919, with only two crops of racing age, he was third on the list in 1920 and 1923. As might have been expected, a majority of his best progeny were outstanding two-year olds and sprinters such as: Tetratema Champion Sire and Champion Racehorse at 2, 3 & 4 years Winner of 13 races including 2,000 Guineas, Middle Park Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes and July Cup Mumtaz Mahal Champion 2yo Winner of 10 races including the Nunthorpe Stakes, King George Stakes, Champagne Stakes, Queen Mary Stakes and Molecomb Stakes (both by 10 lengths) The Satrap Champion 2yo Winner of 4 races including Chesham Stakes, July Stakes and Richmond Stakes Moti Mahal Champion 2yo Filly Winner of 6 races including the Coronation Stakes Paola Winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes and Coronation Stakes Stefan the Great Champion Broodmare Sire in Great Britain & Ireland Winner of 2 races including the Middle Park Plate
Caligula, the St. Leger winner of 1920The Tetrarch was also capable of siring top class winners over longer distances: Snow Maiden Winner of 6 races including the Irish Oaks and 3rd Irish Derby Caligula Winner of 3 races including the St. Leger, Ascot Derby (now King Edward VII Stakes) and 3rd St James’s Palace Stakes Polemarch A leading sire in Argentina with 6 Classic winners Winner of 5 races including the St. Leger, Gimcrack Stakes and 3rd Middle Park Plate Salmon Trout A leading sire in Brazil Winner of 6 races including St. Leger, Princess of Wales’s Stakes, Dewhurst Stakes and 2nd Gold Cup The Tetrarch was also the sire of : Chief Ruler Twice Champion Sire in New Zealand Tractor A leading sire in New Zealand Arch-Gift Sire of Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Double Arch Ethnarch Sire of the ancestresses of Mill Reef and Blushing Groom
Mumtaz MahalLegacy
Mumtaz MahalThe Tetrarch’s greatest legacy is undoubtedly through his daughter Mumtaz Mahal, purchased as a yearling for 9,100 guineas – the second highest price ever at the time – for the Aga Khan, such was her brilliant speed, she later became known as “The Flying Filly”. A champion 2yo on the track, she was to become one of the most influential broodmares of the 20th century. Her daughter Mumtaz Begum produced champion racehorse Nashrullah, who was a Champion sire in both Europe and the USA. His sons include Never Say Die, Nashua, Bold Ruler, Never Bend, Grey Sovereign and Red God. Her other efforts include champion 2yo filly Dodoma, who became the 4th dam of Shergar and Sun Princess, the dam of influential sire Royal Charger. Another daughter produced Abernant, champion 2yo and the greatest sprinter of modern times. Mumtaz Mahal best son was the Mirza, winner of the July and Coventry Stakes, who was seized by the Germans during invasion of Normandy in 1940, went on to numerous stakes winners including Skylarking ancestress of important sires Rahy, Singspiel and Devil’s Bag. Her other daughters Mah Mahal and Mah Iran, were also hugely influential. Mah Mahal’s son Mahmoud won the 1936 Derby in record time before being exported to America for stallion duties and becoming Champion Sire. His lasting legacy will be as the broodmare sire of Almahmoud – grandam of Northern Dancer. Her other descendants include French Champion Sire Arctic Tern, American Champion Sire Halo – sire of Japanese Champion Sire Sunday Silence, and Champion Australian and European Sire Danehill. Mah Iran was the second best two-year-old filly of 1941 and became the dam of Migoli, winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Eclipse Stakes, Champion Stakes, and second in the Derby. Migoli’s full-sister, Star of Iran produced the grey filly Petite Etoile, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks, Sussex Stakes, Champion Stakes and Coronation Cup. She is the fifth dam of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava. Other exceptional racehorses that descend directly from Mumtaz Mahal include Fillies’ Triple Crown winner Oh So Sharp, Champion Sprinter and Champion 3yo Habibti and Australian Champions Octagonal and Danewin.THE TETRARCHTetratemaLegacy
Tetratema, in his paddock at BallylinchBorn at Ballylinch in 1917, Tetratema was a winner of all his twelve starts over sprint distances but also won the 2,000 Guineas for good measure. After an incredible debut in the National Breeders’ Produce Stakes, he took in the Molecomb Stakes, Champagne Stakes, Imperial Produce Plate and Middle Park Stakes on the way to being crowned Champion 2yo. He began his 3yo career as the first grey to win the 2,000 Guineas since 1838, but failed to stay in both the Derby and Eclipse Stakes. Dropping back to sprint distances he won the (now discontinued) Fern Hill Stakes at Royal Ascot and the King George Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, where he accounted for 1,000 Guineas winner and exceptional sprinter Diadem. As a four year old he won the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, before taking the July Cup at Newmarket and repeating his win in the King George Stakes. Tetratema made his swansong in the five furlong Snailwell Stakes at Newmarket before retiring to Ballylinch in 1922 at the same initial fee as his sire, 300 guineas.THE TETRARCH
Mr. JinksIn 1929, he emulated his sire by becoming Champion Sire – the same year his daughter Tiffin became Champion 2yo and his son Mr. Jinks was the highest rated colt. In all, Tetratema was a top 7 sire on 11 occasions. Tiffin Champion 2yo Winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes and July Cup Mr Jinks Champion 2yo Colt Winner of the July Stakes, 2,000 Guineas and St. James’s Palace Stakes Myrobella Champion 2yo Winner of the Champagne Stakes, King George Stakes and July Cup Foray Champion 2yo Winner of the July Stakes, Champagne Stakes and King’s Stand Stakes Fourth Hand Winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes and Irish 2,000 Guineas Royal Minstrel Winner of the St. James’s Palace Stakes, Cork and Orrey (now Diamond Jubilee) Stakes and Eclipse Stakes Four Course Winner of the July Stakes, Richmond Stakes, Gimcrack Stakes and 1,000 Guineas Theft Five time Champion Sire in Japan Winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes and Jersey Stakes -
40cm x 34cm Limerick -
40cm x 30cm Luke Kelly (17 November 1940 – 30 January 1984) was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become involved in a folk music revival. Returning to Dublin in the 1960s, he is noted as a founding member of the band The Dubliners in 1962. Becoming known for his distinctive singing style, and sometimes political messages, the Irish Postand other commentators have regarded Kelly as one of Ireland's greatest folk singers. Early life Luke Kelly was born into a working-class family in Lattimore Cottages at 1 Sheriff Street.His maternal grandmother, who was a MacDonald from Scotland, lived with the family until her death in 1953. His father who was Irish- also named Luke- was shot and severely wounded as a child by British soldiers from the King's Own Scottish Borderers during the 1914 Bachelor's Walk massacre.His father worked all his life in Jacob's biscuit factory and enjoyed playing football. The elder Luke was a keen singer: Luke junior's brother Paddy later recalled that "he had this talent... to sing negro spirituals by people like Paul Robeson, we used to sit around and join in — that was our entertainment". After Dublin Corporation demolished Lattimore Cottages in 1942, the Kellys became the first family to move into the St. Laurence O’Toole flats, where Luke spent the bulk of his childhood, although the family were forced to move by a fire in 1953 and settled in the Whitehall area. Both Luke and Paddy played club Gaelic football and soccer as children. Kelly left school at thirteen and after a number of years of odd-jobbing, he went to England in 1958.[6] Working at steel fixing with his brother Paddy on a building site in Wolverhampton, he was apparently sacked after asking for higher pay. He worked a number of odd jobs, including a period as a vacuum cleaner salesman.Describing himself as a beatnik, he travelled Northern England in search of work, summarising his life in this period as "cleaning lavatories, cleaning windows, cleaning railways, but very rarely cleaning my face".Musical beginnings
Kelly had been interested in music during his teenage years: he regularly attended céilithe with his sister Mona and listened to American vocalists including: Fats Domino, Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He also had an interest in theatre and musicals, being involved with the staging of plays by Dublin's Marian Arts Society. The first folk club he came across was in the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne in early 1960.Having already acquired the use of a banjo, he started memorising songs. In Leeds he brought his banjo to sessions in McReady's pub. The folk revival was under way in England: at the centre of it was Ewan MacColl who scripted a radio programme called Ballads and Blues. A revival in the skiffle genre also injected a certain energy into folk singing at the time. Kelly started busking. On a trip home he went to a fleadh cheoil in Milltown Malbay on the advice of Johnny Moynihan. He listened to recordings of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. He also developed his political convictions which, as Ronnie Drew pointed out after his death, he stuck to throughout his life. As Drew also pointed out, he "learned to sing with perfect diction". Kelly befriended Sean Mulready in Birmingham and lived in his home for a period.Mulready was a teacher who was forced from his job in Dublin because of his communist beliefs. Mulready had strong music links; a sister, Kathleen Moynihan was a founder member of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and he was related by marriage to Festy Conlon, the County Galway whistle player. Mulready's brother-in-law, Ned Stapleton, taught Kelly "The Rocky Road to Dublin".During this period he studied literature and politics under the tutelage of Mulready, his wife Mollie, and Marxist classicist George Derwent Thomson: Kelly later stated that his interest in music grew parallel to his interest in politics. Kelly bought his first banjo, which had five strings and a long neck, and played it in the style of Pete Seeger and Tommy Makem. At the same time, Kelly began a habit of reading, and also began playing golf on one of Birmingham's municipal courses. He got involved in the Jug O'Punch folk club run by Ian Campbell. He befriended Dominic Behan and they performed in folk clubs and Irish pubs from London to Glasgow. In London pubs, like "The Favourite", he would hear street singer Margaret Barry and musicians in exile like Roger Sherlock, Seamus Ennis, Bobby Casey and Mairtín Byrnes. Luke Kelly was by now active in the Connolly Association, a left-wing grouping strongest among the emigres in England, and he also joined the Young Communist League: he toured Irish pubs playing his set and selling the Connolly Association's newspaper The Irish Democrat. By 1962 George Derwent Thomson had offered him the opportunity to further his educational and political development by attending university in Prague. However, Kelly turned down the offer in favour of pursuing his career in folk music. He was also to start frequenting Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's Singer Club in London.The Dubliners
In 1961 there was a folk music revival or "ballad boom", as it was later termed, in waiting in Ireland.The Abbey Tavern sessions in Howth were the forerunner to sessions in the Hollybrook, Clontarf, the International Bar and the Grafton Cinema. Luke Kelly returned to Dublin in 1962. O'Donoghue's Pub was already established as a session house and soon Kelly was singing with, among others, Ronnie Drew and Barney McKenna. Other early people playing at O'Donoghues included The Fureys, father and sons, John Keenan and Sean Og McKenna, Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine, Seamus Ennis, Willy Clancy and Mairtin Byrnes. A concert John Molloy organised in the Hibernian Hotel led to his "Ballad Tour of Ireland" with the Ronnie Drew Ballad Group (billed in one town as the Ronnie Drew Ballet Group). This tour led to the Abbey Tavern and the Royal Marine Hotel and then to jam-packed sessions in the Embankment, Tallaght. Ciarán Bourke joined the group, followed later by John Sheahan. They renamed themselves The Dubliners at Kelly's suggestion, as he was reading James Joyce's book of short stories, entitled Dubliners, at the time.Kelly was the leading vocalist for the group's eponymous debut album in 1964, which included his rendition of "The Rocky Road to Dublin". Barney McKenna later noted that Kelly was the only singer he'd heard sing it to the rhythm it was played on the fiddle. In 1964 Luke Kelly left the group for nearly two years and was replaced by Bobby Lynch and John Sheahan. Kelly went with Deirdre O'Connell, founder of the Focus Theatre, whom he was to marry the following year, back to London and became involved in Ewan MacColl's "gathering". The Critics, as it was called, was formed to explore folk traditions and help young singers. During this period he retained his political commitments, becoming increasingly active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Kelly also met and befriended Michael O'Riordan, the General Secretary of the Irish Workers' Party, and the two developed a "personal-political friendship". Kelly endorsed O'Riordan for election, and held a rally in his name during campaigning in 1965.In 1965, he sang 'The Rocky Road to Dublin' with Liam Clancy on his first, self-titled solo album. Bobby Lynch left The Dubliners, John Sheahan and Kelly rejoined. They recorded an album in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, played the Cambridge Folk Festival and recorded Irish Night Out, a live album with, among others, exiles Margaret Barry, Michael Gorman and Jimmy Powers. They also played a concert in the National Stadium in Dublin with Pete Seeger as special guest. They were on the road to success: Top Twenty hits with "Seven Drunken Nights" and "The Black Velvet Band", The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 and a tour of New Zealand and Australia. The ballad boom in Ireland was becoming increasingly commercialised with bar and pub owners building ever larger venues for pay-in performances. Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger on a visit to Dublin expressed concern to Kelly about his drinking.[citation needed] Christy Moore and Kelly became acquainted in the 1960s.During his Planxty days, Moore got to know Kelly well. In 1972 The Dubliners themselves performed in Richard's Cork Leg, based on the "incomplete works" of Brendan Behan. In 1973, Kelly took to the stage performing as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. The arrival of a new manager for The Dubliners, Derry composer Phil Coulter, resulted in a collaboration that produced three of Kelly's most notable performances: “The Town I Loved So Well”, "Hand me Down my Bible", and “Scorn Not His Simplicity”, a song about Phil's son who had Down Syndrome.Kelly had such respect for the latter song that he only performed it once for a television recording and rarely, if ever, sang it at the Dubliners' often boisterous events. His interpretations of “On Raglan Road” and "Scorn Not His Simplicity" became significant points of reference in Irish folk music.His version of "Raglan Road" came about when the poem's author, Patrick Kavanagh, heard him singing in a Dublin pub, and approached Kelly to say that he should sing the poem (which is set to the tune of “The Dawning of the Day”). Kelly remained a politically engaged musician, becoming a supporter of the movement against South African apartheid and performing at benefit concerts for the Irish Traveller community,and many of the songs he recorded dealt with social issues, the arms race and the Cold War, trade unionism and Irish republicanism, ("The Springhill Disaster", "Joe Hill", "The Button Pusher", "Alabama 1958" and "God Save Ireland" all being examples of his concerns).
Luke Kelly on stage in 1980Personal life
Luke Kelly married Deirdre O'Connell in 1965, but they separated in the early 1970s.Kelly spent the last eight years of his life living with his partner Madeleine Seiler, who is from Germany.Final years
Kelly's health deteriorated in the 1970s. Kelly himself spoke about his problems with alcohol. On 30 June 1980 during a concert in the Cork Opera House he collapsed on the stage. He had already suffered for some time from migraines and forgetfulness - including forgetting what country he was in whilst visiting Iceland - which had been ascribed to his intense schedule, alcohol consumption, and "party lifestyle". A brain tumour was diagnosed.Although Kelly toured with the Dubliners after enduring an operation, his health deteriorated further. He forgot lyrics and had to take longer breaks in concerts as he felt weak. In addition following his emergency surgery after his collapse in Cork, he became more withdrawn, preferring the company of Madeleine at home to performing.On his European tour he managed to perform with the band for most of the show in Carre for their Live in Carre album. However, in autumn 1983 he had to leave the stage in Traun, Austria and again in Mannheim, Germany. Shortly after this, he had to cancel the tour of southern Germany, and after a short stay in hospital in Heidelberg he was flown back to Dublin. After another operation he spent Christmas with his family but was taken into hospital again in the New Year, where he died on 30 January 1984.Kelly's funeral in Whitehall attracted thousands of mourners from across Ireland.His gravestone in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, bears the inscription: Luke Kelly – Dubliner. Sean Cannon took Kelly's place in The Dubliners. He had been performing with the Dubliners since 1982,due to the deterioration of Kelly's health.Legacy
Statue on South King StreetLuke Kelly's legacy and contributions to Irish music and culture have been described as "iconic" and have been captured in a number of documentaries and anthologies. The influence of his Scottish grandmother was influential in Kelly's help in preserving important traditional Scottish songs such as "Mormond Braes", the Canadian folk song "Peggy Gordon", "Robert Burns", "Parcel of Rogues", "Tibbie Dunbar", Hamish Henderson's "Freedom Come-All-Ye", and Thurso Berwick's "Scottish Breakaway". The Ballybough Bridge in the north inner city of Dublin was renamed the Luke Kelly Bridge, and in November 2004 Dublin City Council voted unanimously to erect a bronze statue of Luke Kelly. However, the Dublin Docklands Authority subsequently stated that it could no longer afford to fund the statue. In 2010, councillor Christy Burke of Dublin City Council appealed to members of the music community including Bono, Phil Coulter and Enya to help build it. Paddy Reilly recorded a tribute to Kelly entitled "The Dublin Minstrel". It featured on his Gold And Silver Years, Celtic Collections and the Essential Paddy Reilly CD's. The Dubliners recorded the song on their Live at Vicar Street DVD/CD. The song was composed by Declan O'Donoghue, the Racing Correspondent of The Irish Sun. At Christmas 2005 writer-director Michael Feeney Callan's documentary, Luke Kelly: The Performer, was released and outsold U2's latest DVD during the festive season and into 2006, acquiring platinum sales status. The documentary told Kelly's story through the words of the Dubliners, Donovan, Ralph McTell and others and featured full versions of rarely seen performances such as the early sixties' Ed Sullivan Show. A later documentary, Luke Kelly: Prince of the City, was also well received. Two statues of Kelly were unveiled in Dublin in January 2019, to mark the 35th anniversary of his death.One, a life-size seated bronze by John Coll, is on South King Street. The second sculpture, a marble portrait head by Vera Klute, is on Sheriff Street. The Klute sculpture was vandalised on several occasions in 2019 and 2020, in each case being restored by graffiti-removal specialists.
Sculpture of Luke Kelly on Sheriff Street by Vera Klute. Unveiled in 2019 -
28cm x 22cm Fascinating piece of ephemera from 1928 as Mrs Ashe Mall Dingle issued a bottle account statement of affairs to a publican customer,Jack Courtney Castlegregory Co Kerry. "The Washington Bar, more commonly known as Gene Mackin’s, was situated next door to a newspaper shop on the Falls Road opposite the Dunville Park in West Belfast. The Munster and Leinster Bank was close by. Gene and his sister Margaret were the proprietors of the bar and shop respectively. They lived on the premises and were highly thought of by their customers and the local community in general. The bar was a dark old fashioned male dominated establishment, women were not encouraged and there were no female toilet facilities anyway. Both Gene Mackin and Bobby his main barman in the early sixties were adept at sign language and this encouraged a wide spread of customers from all parts of the road. The bar was bombed in the early years of the troubles and the Mackins moved to the suburbs and slowly faded away from public life. At the start of the Swinging Sixties Gene Mackin’s Washington bar was most likely to have been the very last watering hole on the Falls Road that bottled their own Guinness. In a shed in the backyard of the bar the two day process began with the washing of the hundreds of bottles that had been carefully stacked in a very large metal tub over the previous weeks. Cold tap water was used but occasionally if the weather warranted a kettle of boiling water as added. The soaking allowed the old labels to be easily removed as a simple flour and water paste had been the original adhesive. A bottle washing brush with stiff bristles was the only tool required and the bar had an adequate supply of those. The washed bottles were left to drain upside down on a wooden board in which holes had been bored to accommodate the bottle neck. When dry they were placed on large wooden trays in readiness for the next day. The Guinness came in a large metal barrel or firkin. A tap had to be inserted into the bung hole to allow for the pouring of the liquid and this was always challenging as it was quite possible to get a soaking if it wasn’t processed correctly. It was usually accomplished with a degree of dexterity and of course judicial force. The weight of the barrel meant that it couldn’t be raised to an ideal working height so the bottler had to sit on a small stool. With practice the filling of the bottles was fast and rote; the tap was left open and using two hands, one for the empty bottle to fill and the other to carefully place the filled bottle on the large tray.
The bottle caps were the classic tin top of metal with a cork cushion and were put on using a press made especially for this task. A magnet held the top in place over the bottle and a lever was pulled forcing the cap onto the neck and thus sealing the bottle and it’s precious contents. Care had to be taken doing this because too heavy a hand could easily result in the bottle shattering.
All that now remained was the sticking on of the labels which told of the bottle contents and the name of the bar. Using a paste of flour and water and with a little practice this was accomplished quite easily. After a few days settling the new bottles of Guinness were brought into the bar to be sold."
