Normally at this time we would be reporting on the feats of Irish show jumpers at places like Balmoral, Windsor, La Baule or Rome. But since this is now not to be, it is opportune to reflect back on glories past.

There is no better way to do that than in remembering one of our great heroes from the beginning of Irish Nations Cup jumping, Major Ged O’Dwyer in this the 25th anniversary year of his death.

My lasting impression of Ged is as a strong committed Irishman who had the bearing of a soldier and yet the gentleness of a true horse lover.

Great Russian trainer Colonel Paul Rodzianko said of him: “You can teach art to many but you cannot make an artist. O’Dwyer was an artist and natural horseman.”

In pictures of him, you could never imagine anyone looking more comfortable, poised or elegant on a horse than Ged.

Ambition

His ambition was always to work the family farm at Raheen, Co Limerick, but events and his own courageous response to challenge dictated otherwise. He and his brother Nicholas were active members of the East Limerick Flying Column during the War of Independence. So much so that their farmhouse was burned down in reprisal by the Black and Tans.

As their mother stood watching the conflagrations she turned on the Tan leader and declared: “You can burn our house but I still have my two sons.”

Ged took the Treaty side in the Civil war and was commended for “coolness under fire” as leader of the Nenagh Battalion. When peace came he was assigned to Youghal where he was able to enjoy hunting once more and also where he met his wife Bridie O’Brien.

Farming

His wish of returning to farming was again put aside when in April 1926 he was called to be part of the first Army Jumping team along with Dan Corry and Fred Aherne.

“We were hunting men and knew nothing about show jumping,” he once told me. But as usual he took the challenge and with just three months to prepare began training to face the international might of the sport in the inaugural Aga Khan Trophy at the RDS.

Over the next 12 years Ged was part of 16 Irish Nations Cup wins. One of those at London’s Olympia was a particular delight to him – “We had a disaster there the first time in 1926 but we came back to win it beautifully in 1937.”

With Limerick Lace he won the Kings Cup, and twice took the Dublin Grand Prix. They finished their careers together with a GP win in Amsterdam 1939. After World War II he did return to farming, judged jumpers and wrote the book Horsemanship.