TWO stories of major but diverse significance made repeated appearances in these pages throughout 2024, as they had done the previous year, both doing so for the first time on the same page in the issue of Saturday, January 20th.

Under the headline ‘Passport backlogs an ongoing concern’, Lesley Hunter-Nolan wrote ‘The issue of passport delays returned to the Oireachtas agenda recently with both Paul Kehoe TD and Michael Fitzmaurice TD raising questions on the matter.’

On the lower half of the page, the headline read ‘Women in Simpson murder case admit cover up roles’. Here, Tanya Fowles reported from Laganside Crown Court on a review of the Katie Simpson murder case for which the accused, Jonathan Creswell, was due to be tried in April.

We thought we had read the last of that tragic and distressing case in the issue of April 27th. ‘Jonathan Creswell, the former show jumper and jockey who went on trial on Tuesday for the murder of Katie Simpson almost four years ago, was found dead on Wednesday.’

That wasn’t the end of the matter however as, on June 8th, the headline ‘Sentencing adjourned in Simpson case’ topped this paragraph: ‘Three women who admitted their roles in the Katie Simpson murder cover-up have been released on bail ahead of sentencing next week’ with a judge warning: “That should not in any way be taken as an indication of how I intend to sentence”.’

We are sure to hear more of the case in the future as on Saturday, November 16th we learned ‘Creswell probe was ‘flawed’’.

Passport saga

Passports or otherwise, Horse Sport Ireland was rarely out of the news pages.

‘HSI changes appointment process’ we read on February 10th, while, on March 2nd, it was ‘HSI Board plans to proceed without Olympic bodies’ and, at the end of that month, ‘HSI welcomes €1.07m in Core funding’.

Battle lines with one affiliate body were being drawn in early April according to Lesley Hunter-Nolan’s report under the heading ‘SJI and HSI clash over studbook series change’ but, hold on, seven days later we read ‘HSI backtracks on studbook move’.

Not what breeders wanted to learn, but one had to read the first paragraph of Hunter-Nolan’s news story of April 20th ‘Passport prices set to skyrocket’ for mention of you know who. ‘Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) has introduced hefty changes to the cost of registering foals in 2024, along with heralding the introduction of its new e-passport system.’

Battle engaged was more or less the news in the Irish Horse World of April 27th. ‘Industry alliance demands HSI overhaul’ as, without the input of several major affiliate groups, ‘HSI presses ahead with new forums’. Following a very brief respite, the next headline to catch the eye was ‘Stallion group slams HSI on passports’ while, on the same page we read, ‘Horse Sport Ireland has congratulated 16 equestrian organisations, which have received State funding under the latest round of the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP)’.

On Saturday, May 25th, former Irish Horse World editor Catriona Morrissey, now deputy editor of the Irish Farmers Journal, reported on a public meeting held in Co Laois, which resulted in the headlines ‘HSI boss vows new system won’t blow up’ and ‘Stallion covering certs to be obsolete – HSI’.

On June 28th: ‘200 HSI foal passports outstanding from 2023’, ‘HSI appoint three board members’ and, in her editorial, under the headline, ‘Divisions only getting deeper’, editor Judith Faherty wrote: ‘Once again, divisions between Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) and a number of their affiliated bodies threaten to get in the way of the industry really moving forward’.

We’re getting somewhere we thought, when reading Faherty’s main news piece on July 20th, ‘Duggan gives breeders passport commitment’, this headline being further strengthened when you turned over a few pages and saw ‘Horse Source system aims to streamline breeding services’.

All well and good, if you didn’t read Faherty’s article on the very same page under the heading ‘Divisions deepen further between HSI and affiliates’.

Better news for the governing body in the issue of August 31st: ‘HSI accounts show modest profit for 2023’.

As recorded under ‘Move afoot to create HSI ‘V2’’ on September 14th, things had tipped in the other direction again according to LHN. ‘A move toward creating an alternative governing body for the horse sport sector in Ireland is understood to be imminent now the Dublin Horse Show and Olympic and Paralympic Games are complete.

‘The move is being spearheaded by a group of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) affiliates and stakeholders, who claim changes HSI made to its memorandum and articles in January constitute a move to exclude affiliates and downgrade grassroots representation.’

Dáil

HSI continued to provide the news stories. ‘Ministers consider HSI board positions’ (September 21st); ‘HSI board members named’ and ‘HSI rift on agenda at Dáil Eireann’ (September 28th).

As reported by LHN, speaking at a joint committee meeting on Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Dáil Eireann the following Wednesday, ‘Mayo TD Michael Ring has expressed his disappointment at ongoing rows within the horse sport industry, taking aim at those in positions of power, who “don’t know a horse from a bull”’.

That story ran in the issue of October 5th, when we also read the headline ‘Passport delivery ‘breakdown’’ and, just under that story, ‘Horse Sport Ireland issues defence over passport processing’. Seven days later, it was quite obvious that the news short ‘HSI begin appointment-only system’ had to do with HSI, but so too did ‘Meeting highlights funding discontent’ as Showjumping Ireland sought to ‘clear up a suggestion that they had not paid a High Performance levy due to Horse Sport Ireland’.

The year started on the subject of passports and, on October 19th, they’re still front and centre – ‘Minister monitoring passport situation’; ‘Petition over passports gains traction’ and ‘Dr Pamela Byrne appointed to HSI board’ (October 26th); and ‘Fears passport glitch could damage breed’ (November 2nd).

‘Carberry lobbying HSI on passports’, ‘HSI blames ‘huge surge’ on delays’ and ‘An own goal by Horse Sport Ireland?’ took over the entire first news page of the Irish Horse World of November 9th; a week later we learned that the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue wasn’t happy ‘Passport delays ‘not good enough’’.

‘Breeder calls for HSI’s licence to be withdrawn’ (November 23rd); ‘34% of passports issued to date’ (November 30th); ‘Move to push out HSI gains traction’ and ‘HSI: 366 new foal passports issued this week’ (December 7th); plus ‘HSI searching for eventing manager’ (December 14th).

What would have filled the news pages without HSI? At least, there were far, far fewer animal welfare issues covered this year.

For fear of upsetting someone if I left anyone out, it’s not possible to list all those whose deaths were mentioned in these pages throughout 2024 and sadly, there were a lot of them.