I was blessed with a wonderful childhood, brought up in Shraugh, Louisburgh, by my grandaunt, a stern but wonderful woman, affectionately known as Granny Bennett.

After attending Louisburgh Primary School, I received a scholarship from Mayo County Council to attend secondary school and went off to Kings Hospital in Dublin. When I left in 1967, I worked in England for a summer before joining the RAF. I had an interest in aeroplanes, I wanted to travel and was looking for something different.

I really enjoyed my 23 years in the RAF, spending my time based in England, Scotland, Germany, Cyprus and Goose Bay, right up at the top end of Canada. I spent two years with the Red Arrows aerobatic team and then eight years teaching for British Aerospace in Saudi Arabia.

I met Sue, a Yorkshire lass who was also in the RAF, when I came back from Goose Bay and we got married in 1992. We moved back to Shraugh and Sue’s first introduction to our horse world here was when our good neighbour, the late Patrick J. O’Reilly, or P.J., arrived to the house one afternoon.

Great mentor

I remember as a young kid sitting up behind him on the mudguard of his new Ferguson 20 tractor. A great mentor about horses, I worked in the yard with him and we travelled to sales or England when he was buying stallions. Great times, and Patrick was like a father to me in my life. Wonderful neighbours, he and his lovely wife Monica.

Patrick was an excellent stallion man. There’d be 20 mares in the field, just below my house, to be covered by King Elvis, Prince Ragusa, Certingo or Grosvenor Lad, to name a few. Everything that he ever had had manners.

His stallion owner’s instinct for only covering a mare at the right time saved owners a lot of money. He’d say, ‘You won’t see that mare again until she’s back next year with her foal,’ and he’d be right.

Ned O’Flynn would call to scan maybe 35 or 40 mares. Invariably you’d have one or two not in foal, the rest all were.

Back to 1992 when Patrick said, “Tommy, we have to go see this filly.” There was a choice of two King Elvis-Ginger Dick fillies belonging to Michael Gibbons, a lovely man and I chose the yearling. She was a good choice as she bred 17 foals. King Elvis bred wonderful broodmares.

I’ve gone full circle as my mare - Nova’s Pride (Gortfree Hero x Grosvenor Lad) - is in foal to King Elvis I, a son of King Elvis. She’s due to foal in April and I’m hoping for a filly.

House fire

We lost our home last March in a house fire but most importantly, Sue, our daughter Georgina and myself escaped. It was a terrible shock. The silver lining was the support we got. We will never, ever forget the kindness, practical help and generosity of people, near and far, who raised €40,000. A Swinford company - Big Red Barn - has installed a replacement modular house and we’d hope to be moved in by St. Patrick’s Day.

Community spirit is a blessing. We’ve always had a great relationship with the parish. I’ve been involved with local committees such as the agricultural show, the water scheme and I’ve been doing funerals for over 20 years now with local undertaker, Peter Sweeney.

Covid was a horrible experience. It’s engrained in us to show a family support by attending funerals and that all changed during lockdown. Another big change was the night out in the pub after a show. Down in Joe McNamara’s pub, you’d have the sheep men in one corner, the horse men in another and next door was nicknamed the ‘Charolais bar’, all discussing how the day went. That’s gone completely, it never came back. Covid stopped people of my age going out.

Show revival

Louisburgh Show was revived in 2007 after a conversation in Joe Mc’s one night. We started from scratch, local tradesmen made our show jumps and year on year, we’ve improved the show. Pat Joyce runs the sheep section and Sue organises the dog show.

Even a small show like ours costs between €20,000 to €22,000 to run. Michael Ring said during his opening speech at the 2017 show that he’d look at funding for agricultural shows and fair play to him, he delivered.

Michael Ring and Paddy Joe Foy were guests at our show dinner dance last night and today, we’ve the North Mayo Harriers in Louisburgh on a route that will finish up near Carrowmore Beach.

Michael Grady and Tom Burke will give me a hand stewarding. They’re very great friends; Dublin, Cavan, shows, we travel everywhere together, continuing that tradition of Patrick O’Reilly.

Patrick said to me once, ‘You’re the luckiest young lad the day you landed to Granny Bennett,’ and he was right. Louisburgh is home.