A SERVICE of thanksgiving was held in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on Wednesday, January 10th, to celebrate the life of Pat (Patricia May) MacKean, who died on December 3rd at the age of 94.

Predeceased by her husband Major George MacKean and daughter Claudia, Pat is survived by her children Curzon, Muir, Shane and Georgia, 11 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and her year-older sister Diana, who travelled over from London for the service.

Readers of these pages will recall Pat as a breeder and owner of Connemaras, sport horses and thoroughbreds, a landowner and event host and as someone who filled a variety of volunteer roles in support of eventing. However, there was a lot more to the life of this woman who, born in 1929, grew up mainly in London as the second youngest of eight children of Melita and Maurice Hely-Hutchinson, a banker and financier.

Holidays were spent in the country, when ponies were hired locally for the duration. In 1937, as eight and nine-year-olds, she and Diana rode and walked their crepe paper-bedecked pony from Rockley Manor into Marlborough to attend the festivities for the coronation of King George VI.

Over the years of World War II, Pat and her siblings moved schools on numerous occasions, starting on the south coast of England and finishing in Scotland; she thought there were nine schools but wasn’t sure! After the war, she worked in France as an au pair and in London at Elizabeth Arden. She was working as a nanny in Scotland when she first met George MacKean, who she married in 1950 and moved to Loughanmore with.

Hospice founder

Pat helped to get the Northern Ireland Hospice started, both as a volunteer and board member, in the 80s following George’s death; the experience of caring for him during his illness had convinced her of the need for such a movement. She also spent many years on the board of the Royal Victoria Hospital and found time to get involved in politics with the Alliance Party, even standing for election as a Councillor. In 1987, she was appointed High Sheriff of County Antrim, as George had been 30 years earlier.

Pat was “a foodie before foodies were invented”, loved gardening and, as a former player, shared an interest in cricket with her son Muir and grandson Milo. The latter summed up Pat’s life in the sport’s terminology: “Granny had a fine innings. She didn’t quite make it to a ton, but boy did she try and boy did she enjoy every year of it.”

One of Pat’s great passions in life was music, particularly church music. She joined the choir of the United Parish of Templepatrick and Donegore and encouraged them to become a four-part choir, to robe and eventually affiliate to the Royal School of Church Music. She was to found, and finance, the Down and Dromore and Connor organ scholarship scheme, and one of her last outings was to attend the annual service when the scholars graduated in October.

Vivien McCullough, Mark McKinty and David Dunlop, previous graduates of the scheme, played while the congregation assembled for Pat’s thanksgiving service, where Jack Wilson, organist and master of music, directed the choir of Belfast Cathedral. The clergy in attendance were the Very Reverend Stephen Forde (Dean of Belfast), the Reverend Canon Stephen Fielding (Rector of St John’s Malone), the Reverend Cameron Mack (Deacon Intern, St Anne’s Cathedral) and Reverend Jeremy Mould (Rector of the United Parish of Templepatrick and Donegore).

Eventing passion

When Pat MacKean settled into life at Loughanmore, she was determined to own a horse or pony of her own and, on a trip to Connemara, purchased a grey mare named Rowan. Every time a new baby was expected, the mare was covered with the local thoroughbred stallion.

She particularly loved the traditional thoroughbred/Connemara cross but, most importantly to her, a horse had to be sound, sane and useful. She bred what she wanted – horses she could ride herself, ponies and horses for her children and grandchildren to ride – and no one was going to persuade her to be fashionable.

Eventing was a great passion. The one-day events at Loughanmore started in the late 1970s and culminated with the three-day event being run there from 1990 to 1994 inclusive. That last year saw the running of the Junior European Championships alongside a country fair and was a wonderful occasion.

Pat evented herself at the lower levels, but was immensely proud of her daughter Georgia competing internationally and accompanied her to events throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe and further afield. Georgia’s completions with the thoroughbred Kells at the 1985 European Championships at Burghley and the following year’s World Championships at Gawler, Australia, were highlights.

More recently, she delighted in following her granddaughter Lucca in her eventing career, particularly when riding second, third and fourth generation home-breds. Right up to the last weeks, she would interrogate Lucca every evening about her day’s work at the stud, what she had ridden, how they had gone and how they were bred. She was Eventing Ireland’s oldest member in 2023.

Both Georgia and Lucca were members of the East Antrim Pony Club, which Pat helped found in the mid-1960s and the Branch’s summer camps were held at Loughanmore for a long number of years.

Florida Pearl

Following the death of her husband George in 1983, Pat MacKean took on the farm and then decided to try to breed a really good National Hunt horse.

After taking advice from the late Brian Grassick, she purchased Florida Son to stand at Loughanmore, which ran its equestrian operation under the name Sweet Wall after her parents-in-law’s great racemare.

“Nowadays, Florida Son wouldn’t get a look in at stud, as he was only an adequate handicapper, but he had some advantages, in that he was a beautiful horse by Busted out of a Mourne mare,” recalled Pat’s daughter Georgia.

“Mares were bought specifically for him and one was a lovely model, the unraced Ice Pearl. She was by the unfashionable Flatbush, but descended from the Pearly King family. It was this mating, which produced the wonderful Florida Pearl. It goes without saying that he was the best horse mum bred; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings and photographs, which eventually ran to three volumes.”

Foaled in 1992, Florida Pearl was purchased privately from Pat by the late Tom Costello whose son, John, saddled the bay to win a four-year-old maiden at Lismore in early March 1996 on his only point-to-point start. When sold into the Willie Mullins yard, Florida Pearl ran 33 times in the colours of Violet O’Leary, winning two bumpers and 14 chases (he never ran over hurdles), nine at Grade 1 level. Eight of his victories were recorded at Leopardstown, where he won the Grade 1 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup four times.

In his tribute at Pat’s thanksgiving service, her son Muir recalled an outing to watch Florida Pearl run in the 2000 Cheltenham Gold Cup: “The family group was in the grandstand right opposite the finish line and, as the leading horses came up to the winning post, there was a moment when Florida Pearl, in second place, looked like he might kick on and win.

“It wasn’t to be; he finished second (to Looks Like Trouble), and I turned round to my mum, who was right behind me, and she was white as a sheet. She had come very close to having bred a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and it showed. But I don’t think it was a cup half-empty moment for her, I think she felt genuinely blessed to have been there to watch him run.”

Other thoroughbred stallions to stand at Sweet Wall included Posidonas, Shareef, Classic Memory, Law of the Wise and Arc Bright, while the stud was also home to the Connemaras Clonkeehan Captain Cook and Gevaudan.

Even in the mid-1980s, it was rare for a female to stand stallions and some mare owners were discomfited having to discuss the finer points of stallion and mare management with a woman. Pat took on Co Meath native Colin McKeever to help with the stud work and, as he had a licence, point-to-pointers and horses for the track were also then trained at Loughanmore.

Speaking of his former boss, McKeever commented: “Mrs MacKean was very good to me, but she kept me busy all the same! The best horses trained at the time were Peacock Royale, whose wins included the Sweet Afton (a once prestigious hunters’ chase) at Dundalk, and Trucker’s Tavern.” The latter won three races between the flags and, when sold, six on the racecourse. In 2003, he also finished second in the Cheltenham Gold Cup (to Best Mate).

Once she moved to Nettlebush, Patricia continued to follow the career of McKeever and those of David Christie and Warren Ewing, human graduates of her Loughanmore academy, who rode winners for the yard and are now successful trainers in their own right.