WHEN Joe Flynn arrived at Cavan Equestrian Centre during the 2019 stallion inspections, he came armed with a prized scrapbook full mostly of The Irish Field and Irish Farmers Journalcuttings. All about Ardcolum Duke, the international show jumper, bred by Flynn, a Roscommon farmer and former coal miner.

Ardcolum Duke’s recent loss is the end of a remarkable chapter, recorded in those cuttings of a horse, bred by an ‘ordinary breeder,’ that achieved notable worldwide success.