TODAY marks the 20th anniversary of show jumping star Paul Darragh, who passed away at his home in Co Meath on January 3rd, 2005 aged 51.

In an international career that spanned a quarter of a century, he joined with Eddie Macken, Captain Con Power and James Kernan on the outstanding Irish team that won the Aga Khan three years in a row from 1977 to 1979.

A full 20 years after the first of those successes, Darragh was on the team that won the trophy again in 1997, his last major win on an Irish team. Other highlights included wins in the Hickstead Derby and the Dublin Grand Prix.

Small in stature but large in character, he is probably best remembered for his special partnership with Jimmy Flynn’s great little mare Heather Honey, whose determination was matched only by Paul’s. The chesnut firecracker with the swishing tail won numerous classes and formed the backbone of Darragh’s string of horses, when both he and Eddie Macken were sponsored by tobacco company PJ Carroll & Son in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was with the horse PJ Carroll that Paul became the rider to beat against the clock across the globe. “I believe he still holds the Aachen record for 20 wins including three Speed Grand Prix classes,” Darragh recalled in a 1996 interview.

Early talent

Born in Dublin in April 1953 to Dr Austin Darragh and his wife Terry, Paul swiftly made an impression in the pony show jumping ranks, winning many classes with his pony Peggy Sue.

Trained by the legendary Iris Kellett, Darragh’s graduation onto horses was marked with an individual silver medal at the 1969 junior European championships in Dinard, France. Twelve months later, he was part of Ireland’s bronze medal-winning team and the following year won team gold at the junior championships in Hickstead. In a jump-off for the individual title, he missed double gold by a mere 10th of a second.

Debut

Darragh made his Nations Cup debut in 1972 and went on to represent his country a further 53 times on Nations Cup teams. Few things meant more to him than carrying the tricolour in a team event, his fellow riders said.

Darragh said in an interview in the nineties that luck had played a huge part in his life and that he owed a great deal to his early trainer, Kellett, with whom he began lessons when he was 10. Kellett provided some of his best pony rides and allowed Paul to compete her two top horses, Syringa and Morning Light, as he emerged into the senior ranks when he partnered Diana Connolly-Carew’s Errigal.

When he was 18, he was selected on a panel of riders to compete horses for the original Irish Horse Board, Bord na gCapall, and was teamed up with Water Lily for that 1972 Nations Cup debut, alongside Eddie Macken and army riders, Ned Campion and Larry Kiely.

Aga Khan hat-trick winning team (l to r) Paul Darragh, Capt Con Power, James Kernan and Eddie Macken

Two years later, he snapped up the opportunity when offered a job in Yorkshire with Harvey Smith, with whom he remained for six months before moving on for a further nine months to horse-dealer Trevor Banks.

He was targeting the American Fall circuit with some of Banks’s string when his father, Dr Austin Darragh, insisted he return home to attend college and prepare his way for the future.

Reluctantly, he came back to Ireland, but he refused to give up horses and, at the age of 21, rented a yard at Mount Armstrong in Donadea. Fortune was to favour him again, as Eddie Macken left Iris Kellett’s to go to Germany and her two stars, Pele and Olympic Light, came Paul’s way.

Before long, there were 14 horses in his yard, and he won the Hickstead Derby with Pele in 1975 at the age of 25.

Meath bound

In 1979, he married Jane McDougald and moved to Waterside Stud in Tara, Co Meath. Throughout the ‘80s, he enjoyed further success with horses like Young Diamond, who became a Puissance specialist; Carroll’s Trigger, with whom he won the Dublin Grand Prix in 1987; For Sure, who he rode in the Seoul Olympic Games; the ill-fated Killylea, who sadly died travelling home from Barcelona; the super-stallion Cruising, and John Simonovich’s True Grit.

His career looked to be on the wane when, in December 1994, the young Princess Haya, daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, came to his yard to learn the trade.

She brought with her a great string of horses, including Scandal and Cera, and Paul’s career enjoyed a real renaissance over the next few years, as he clocked up yet more superb results with his student’s horses. He won a World Cup Qualifier with Cera in December 1996, by which time he had developed a sixth sense for the shortest route home with mounts like Smokey Heather, Dancing Lady and Peggy Sue.

Teacher

Having established a big reputation as a trainer, he concentrated on teaching in latter times, including reigning world champion Dermott Lennon and rising star Marie Burke amongst his top pupils.

Paul has been remembered for lots of things, including his passion for flashy cars, the immaculate way both he and his horses were always turned out and his way of mounting his horses - none of that namby-pamby put-your-foot-in-the-stirrup stuff for him, he just vaulted straight on from the ground, much to the amazement of children, who used to line up at shows to watch.

“I don’t know anyone who had such a long, ongoing chapter in their sporting life encompassing several generations. Paul played a huge part in the history of show jumping and the best tribute that can be given to him is for Ireland to continue to take pride in the sport at which so many Irish people excel,” Princess Haya said of her trainer.

Paul is survived by his wife Jane, daughters Linda and Amy and son Andrew. Speaking to The Irish Field this week, Jane said her husband would be extremely proud of his children.

“Our daughter Amy is in Formula 1. She works for a company called CrowdStrike – they sponsored Lewis Hamilton when he was at Mercedes. She’s all over the world. She said she’s like her dad, never home!

“Linda is an international make-up artist and our son Andrew is in finance, he works for a big Canadian company. So, they are all doing really, really well and he would be very proud of them all.

“Andrew was only 15 when his father died. He and his wife welcomed a second baby boy at the beginning of November, so we’ve got two grandchildren now.”