THE Dublin Horse Show is the pinnacle of equestrian events for show jumpers, young eventers, pony owners, breeders and show horse producers in Ireland, and the dream of winning a coveted Horse Show red rosette, or indeed any colour of rosette.

Even people who have never sat on a horse recall how they were taken to the Show as a child and have been coming ever since. Many column inches have been written by journalists and much film footage has been taken by photographers of the events and personalities that graced the Show since its inception in 1864. One man in particular that has made an enormous contribution in his features on the show is Stanislaus Lynch from Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan who sadly passed away in 1983 but he has left a huge body of work in his writings and also the only one I know that has paid tribute to the Show in verse.

He was a journalist, author, poet, broadcaster, commentator and lecturer, writing for The Irish Field, The Irish Times, the Irish Tourist Board and numerous international journals. He was unique also in so far as he was awarded two Olympic medals for verse, at the London Olympics in 1948 and Helsinki in 1952. He published a number of books including, Rhymes of an Irish Huntsman, Hoof-prints on Parchment, Echoes of the Irish Hunting Horn, From Foal to Tally-Ho, Hounds are Running and A Hunting-man’s Rambles.

This he combined with producing and showing Irish Draught horses and Connemara ponies at rural shows and the Dublin Horse Show.

The following verses by Lynch on the Dublin Horse Show gives one a real feel for the background preparation and the atmosphere in the showgrounds.

Preparations

Owner’s fretting, strappers sweating

Tailors working overtime;

Saddlers sewing, blacksmiths shoeing,

Don’t’ be dense – next week’s ‘The Show’.

Stanislaus Lynch's the only writer in the world awarded an Olympic Diploma and Medal for The Literature of the Chase at The Helsinki Olympics in 1952

The Master Mind

(Of the Royal Dublin Show)

Huge programme! Perfected by careful revision,

By accurate timing, and clockwork precision,

Some thousand-odd horses, and each in its class-

Industrial Ireland housed under glass.

Throngs marshalled by freedom; the numerous bands;

The Art Exhibition; the gaily decked stands;

The rearranged fences; the catering halls;

The first-aid arrangements; immaculate stalls;

The new Hunter Sale Ring; the catalogued lots;

A class for all riders (the tiniest tots

Are given their chances); the hunting parade;

International jumping; all efforts are made

To prove Dublin Horse Show the prince of its kind.

It owes its success to the masterly mind

Of one who has spared not his muscle or brain.

The laurels are yours, Doctor Edward Bohane!*

The World’s Most Charming Fair

Dublin, Ireland honours you! I hope you comprehend

The honour Ireland does you when her sons and daughters send

The finest horseflesh in the world to grace your Ballsbridge grounds;

Send you hunters that could lead the field with any pack of hounds,

And bloodstock fit for Nationals, for Derby’s, and for Oaks.

Your city’s heart should lighten to the jaunty-rhythmed strokes

Of well-shod hooves on quiet streets. What memories they bring!

And Dublin, see those quiet men who stroll from ring to ring

Inspecting Ireland’s horses. Each some foreign connoisseur

Who likes to buy his horseflesh at the world’s most charming Fair.

*There is a reference to Dr Edward Bohane in the poem ‘Mastermind’. He was director of the RDS from 1921-’36 and together with Judge William Wylie, who was Vice-President of the RDS from 1926 and President from 1938-41, they became the main promoters of the show as we know it today.

They are also remembered in particular for their support of the founding of the Army Equitation School and Wylie went ahead with the purchase of suitable show jumpers for the riding officers.

Readers can read further poems by Stanislaus Lynch in his book ‘Hounds are Running’ which was published in 1937 and is a collector’s item now but copies are sometimes are available from equestrian journalist, commentator and author Michael Slavin in his Old Tara Bookshop on the ancient Hill of Tara in Co Meath.