‘THE Golden Mile.’ It’s the name dubbed along a stretch of the Askeaton-Rathkeale road, dotted with more famous Limerick horsemen: Ronnie Kelly, whose late uncle Michael bred Jessica, the Candelabra mare, who won a bronze medal at the Los Angeles Olympics for Heidi Hauri in 1984. The same year when Ronnie himself worked in her brother Max’s yard in Seon, where countless Irish-breds were sold.

Then there’s show horse producer Tony Purcell, Jodie Moran’s uncle and the late Michael Moran, another gifted supplier of young horses and show jumpers. Amongst the Royal Dublin Society silverware is a cup presented in memory of Michael to the Cruising six-year-old champion.

Andy Sheehy is one more prolific breeder and source of good horses for the home and international markets since he was a boy. Now over 80, his daughter Theresa has taken on the mantle and their current stallion is Nora’s Cruiseway after a line of others, including Ballyard Light, The Carnival, Apache Gold and Danilo.

Where The Limerick Tour Story began: Young Carol Ruttle with the Newmarket-on-Fergus starter stakes champion in 2014, Bronheulog Sunny Boy \ Susan Finnerty

Last but not least, there are the Hayes brothers, Ger and John, equally well-known in the bloodstock and sport horse worlds. The late John’s pinhooking skills saw him buy a Flemensfirth two-year-old at the Goff’s December Sale for €4,000. He sold the gelding on four years later, after an eight-length win in his first point-to-point put the promising chaser on the radar.

Trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and ridden by Paddy Brennan, the ex-Hayes protégé went on to win the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup, beating the likes of Kauto Star and Denman. The winner’s name? Imperial Commander. And waiting at the winner’s enclosure to welcome the champion home was John, who sadly passed away the following year, aged 58.

That Cheltenham win would resonate proudly in any Irish parish and particularly in West Limerick, an area that has produced a parade ring’s worth of successful jockeys. From the late trio of Martin Molony, Liam Ward and J.T. McNamara, through to Wesley Joyce, Brian Moran and brothers Conor and Emmet McNamara, who made his debut ride in the 2020 Epsom Derby a winning one aboard the Aidan O’Brien-trained Serpentine.

Their father Eric, a former national Grand Prix competitor with Nixon, is the well-known racehorse trainer based on Rathkeale’s outskirts. Amongst his winners is Real Steal, partnered by Conor to win the 2022 Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting.

We’re on the way into the town centre to visit John (Johnny) Fennell and his wife, Veronica, Michael Moran’s sister and an aunt of David and Brian. 22 years ago, Brian won the Maryland Hunt Cup on the Irish-bred Young Dubliner. Yet another of Limerick’s show jumping brigade, that baton is now passed to daughter Robyn.

A very modest man: Johnny at home in his Rathkeale stable yard \ Susan Finnerty

“No one followed him!”

John is another of the ‘quiet legends’ and great characters the horse world is fortunate to have and Liam Ruttle, a lifetime fan of the Rathkeale gentleman, explains why, as we pull up outside the house.

“John Fennell never drove a car or owned a horsebox. He has been ever-present at all things equestrian in Limerick over the last eight decades. His horses would hack to local events and transport would be arranged if the distance was too far.

“John is a lovely, quiet, humble and unassuming man and reputed to be one of Limerick’s finest horsemen. Brave and intelligent on a horse, his horses took confidence from his ability.

“I could show you a big double wall near Creeves Cross, that was pointed out to me as a child, where John and his horse jumped and left the rest of the hunting field behind. An old man recalled, ‘Johnny Fennell’s horse jumped there and he didn’t lay a leg on it. No one followed him!’”

Some achievement in this hunting country stronghold.

“Ann, his daughter, now lives near Creeves Cross as it turns out and her brother Mark works for Paul Schockemöhle. Another brother Bobby has a livery yard in the UK and is a hunt servant with the North Cotswold Hunt, while Martha recently retired from Tommy Stack’s yard after being a work rider there for years and rode in a few races in her younger years. Johnny may not mention all this. Like I said, a very modest man!”

Taking pride of place on the sitting room wall is a painting of a model show hunter Mighty Fine with Johnny’s father aboard. The chesnut was one of several Mighty-prefixed showring champions, owned by Paddy Ball from Charleville and often sold on to the UK show circuit to continue their success.

Ian Doyle presenting the Paddy Ball Cup to Annie Prendergast on board Glenn Knipe’s 2017 Charleville champion hunter Farmhill Grange of Donard and then-Cork Mayor Declan Hurley \ Susan Finnerty

The Paddy Ball Cup is now presented annually to Charleville Show’s champion hunter by his family, usually his grandson Ian Doyle or great-granddaughter Maeve Doyle, one of the original team members of UCD’s Eirsat-1 project, which launched Ireland’s first satellite into space last December.

This summer, the two neighbouring shows - Newcastle West (Sunday, June 23rd) and Charleville, one of the few remaining two-day agricultural shows (June 29th-30th) - take place on consecutive weekends. Another of the Golden Vale’s major shows is Limerick.

“It was originally held in the old Greenpark racecourse in Ballinacurra in the city,” recalled John, before the conversation turned to another development in the city: the $1 billion investment by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly into a state-of-the-art manufacturing site, which will employ 300 people when completed.

The horsey link here involves Colorado Blue’s breeder and philanthropist Kate Jarvey, a niece of Ruth Lilly, whose great-grandfather Eli Lilly was the company founder. Both Austin O’Connor’s Maryland International five-star winner and another Tokyo Olympics veteran, Ballaghmor Class were bred in the Treaty County.

A 99-year-old bible

From one acorn-to-oak story to another. “Did you know the horse was only the size of a dog at one time, over 60 million years ago?” enquired Rathkeale’s horse seanchaí.

Candelabra was a famous local stallion that stood outside Rathkeale with Captain Lysley. “His grandson is W.J. (Billy) Lee, the Group 1 flat-winning jockey,” Liam noted.

Another stallion provided a valuable lesson for Johnny. “There was this horse, they were all talking about him before the English Derby, but he was only fourth.

“I lost 30 quid on him and I never backed a horse since! Although I got a few quid back off him afterwards, because I bought foals by him and he got no end of jumpers. He stood in Abbeyfeale with Jack Leahy. That was Renwood,” he revealed, about Seamus Hayes’ Goodbye and Harvey Smith’s Olympic Star’s sire.

Veronica, who was busy baking a batch of scones, added another nugget. “Do you remember Paddy Lynch at the top of Church Street? He used to keep good stallions. He was the father of the famous tenor singer Christy Lynch, who was signed up by Count John McCormack.”

Christy Lynch was a forerunner to Ronan Tynan. A regular on the “Voice of Firestone” radio and TV shows from the late 1940s onwards, he criss-crossed America on concert tours and once sang in front of a 3,000-strong audience in Carnegie Hall.

“I got to know the man when I was 13 or 14. In his lifetime, Paddy had four stallions and they all won the stallion championship in Dublin. I’ve a book here, with all the thoroughbred stallions in Ireland in 1925, see there? Patrick Lynch, Sea Flier,” said John, producing a 99-year-old equine bible, titled ‘Register of Thoroughbred Stallions, 1925.”

Another earmarked page includes an entry for Polemic, owned by P.J. Howard, MRCVS in Cushnahouna, Ennis.

“Dr Howard… when the first Irish Horse Board started up... he was the vet. In the springtime, he’d get the train, hire a bike and cycle out to see whatever stallions were in the area. He’d gallop them for their wind and, if they were lame, they wouldn’t pass. He’d buy young horses too out of all the places he would go to.”

Dick Johnson, who for many years was the voice on the Charleville Show PA system, is another well-known vet in the Limerick area and, according to Liam, John Fennell is rated by many as an equivalent in P.J. Howard and Dick Johnson’s profession.

Dick Johnson, the voice of Charleville Show for many years, pictured at the 2015 event \ Susan Finnerty

“John is a fantastic judge of a horse. He has been involved in the buying and selling of the best of horses to markets all over the world, as his opinion is valued by so many.

“Long before x-rays and five-stage vettings, John would cast his eye over a horse and approve it after his own methods. This is a dying art, as we are now so dependent on vets.”

Down the alleyway is a yard with ‘room for 30 horses’, as the spry 80-something horseman leads us to one stable. “The Byerley Turk, that was said to be his,” said Johnny, pointing to the corner manger, about the reputed feed trough of Captain Byerley’s charger at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Plenty of heads appear over stable doors and John’s daughter Ann is a constant presence, helping out around the yard.

Street access is through an arched entrance. “All the bedding, feed and manure came through the archway and the cornerstones have evidence of the many loads that passed through by horse and carts that were only slightly narrower than the opening itself. Many a load got stuck on its way in or out through that arch!” said Liam, pointing to the battle-scarred cornerstones as we left.

An alternative shopping list

Our courteous host has walked us to the archway door and, while taking a photo of the pair in conversation, you realise a real Kodak Moment scene has just been captured: the respect and affection between the giant ex-Garda and the wise elder horseman.

It’s a scene of community policing at its finest and, afterwards, Liam fills in the details of his 30 years’ service.

Garda Patrol: Liam, who retired from An Garda Síochána in February after 30 years’ service, checks in with Garda John O’Halloran (left) and Sergeant Mark Daly on duty at Charleville Show \ Susan Finnerty

“My Garda career started in 1993; Templemore, then Bridewell, Dublin, for four years, five years community policing in Watercourse Road, Cork, and 22 years as a detective in Charleville. I retired in February.

“I was always very involved with people, preferred being out and about, I was never one for computers.

“A lot of funny things happened through the years. Once I bought a pony while on the beat at Smithfield Horse Fair and during Covid had to source dog toothpaste as a part of a shopping list for an elderly lady who was isolating!

“Another time, I was told by a man that he had fully confidential [comprehensive] insurance for his car. All I could do was walk away and smile.”

Having met Liam’s parents, Mike and Mary, earlier, it’s easy to join the dots and see where this character, commonsense and courtesy were instilled. Mary has a stack of Easter eggs lined up to give their grandchildren on the following Easter Sunday and Mike was in the same class at Rathkeale National School as Michael Hourigan, as they recall Michael starting his training business from a similar property to John Fennell’s at Well Lane and the familiar sight in the town of his racehorses being hacked up the street to the gallops.

There’s something familiar about Ruttle’s kitchen; the corner bench and kitchen dresser decor - both could be part of a typical German kitchen.

And then the family history emerges about the unusual surname. Ruttle is of German origin and Liam explains about a chapter in both the history of the Rhine Valley’s Palatine region and West Limerick.

“The Palatines were persecuted by their French neighbours in war-torn Europe. Mass migration to London took place, via Rotterdam, as Queen Anne promised to place these Protestant German natives in America. Her offer was oversubscribed and many were left on streets and parks of London.”

“Queen Anne transferred some to Ireland and they waited at Collins Barrack in Dublin to be transferred to their new homes, mainly in Limerick, Tipperary or Wexford. The marching square in Collins Barracks is known today as Palatine Square, named that in honour of the many Palatine people that once waited there.”

One of the cause’s champions was Sir Thomas Southwell of Castle Matrix, near Rathkeale, who settled some 130 families on his lands in 1714.

“The Palatine people were mainly skilled workers or farmers, they survived the famine in Ireland, as they grew vegetables other than potatoes. Sauerkraut, or fermented cabbage, was not affected by the blight that killed the potatoes.

“Palatinate surnames to be found in and around Rathkeale and Adare in Limerick were: Baker, Bovanizer, Bowen, Doube, Delmege, Gillard, Latchford, Ligier, Millar, Lodwig, Modlar, Pyper, Reynard, Ruttle, Shire, Stark, and Switzer, as with the department store.

“My grandfather Willie Ruttle was a 100% Palatine descendant. His mother was Barbara Millar and Edward, one of my four brothers, now owns Millars farm at Coolybrown, Ardagh.

“The refugees of today have a lot in common with times past.”

Munster magnets

If faith can move mountains, it can also move buildings. Just on Rathkeale’s outskirts is the town’s former railway station, rebuilt, stone by stone, in its new location metres away.

Built in 1867, the fine limestone building now houses the Irish Palatine Heritage Centre and, amongst its collections, are a host of letters and paperwork Mike Ruttle discovered in the attic of the ancestral home and donated to the Centre.

Alongside the Heritage Centre is the Limerick Greenway, which runs for 40km from Rathkeale to Abbeyfeale on the Kerry border, following the route of the old Limerick-Tralee railway line, which closed in 1978.

The 9km Rathkeale to Ardagh section passes over the River Deel, with glimpses of Castle Matrix in the distance and, aside from its obvious visitor attraction potential, was a valuable asset for locals getting out for a walk during the pandemic.

Another magnet is the much-lauded Mustard Seed Country House Hotel in nearby Ballingarry. Diners drive down from Dublin on the M7 just to sample head chef Angel Pirev’s menus and worldwide guests arrive to recharge in the cosy, boutique-style rooms.

The Mustard Seed restaurant began in nearby Adare and, when owner Dan Mullane acquired Echo Lodge in Ballingarry, the restaurant moved out to the Limerick countryside in 1995. The original Echo Lodge was a thatched dwelling and stopping point for Daniel O’Connell, during his political life, on his journey from Derrynane to Dublin.

The current building, a former parochial house, was sold by Rev Timothy Ryan Shanahan to the Mercy Order for the princely sum of one penny and ran as a school until the 1970s. Then, in 2016, longtime manager and Clifden native, John Edward Joyce bought the premises from Dan.

“I’m from the very end of Sky Road,” said this ebullient character before proving true the fact that you are rarely more than one degree from a horseman in Ireland, by adding, “Caillin Conneely, who has Connemara ponies, is my cousin.”

“He is just the best in the business,” said Liam in admiration.

Next week: Show business