Founding members: Front row: Mrs. Mary Quinlan and Mr. Jamie O'Callaghan. Back row: (l to r) Mr. Billy Cotter, Ms. Jane Quinlan, Mr. Jerry Coakley, Ms. Sarah Quinlan and Mr. Pat Fitzgerald. Inset Mr. Michael O'Reilly

It is generally accepted that Mrs Mary Quinlan provided the inspiration and leadership that led to the foundation of the Irish Draught Horse Society. Here, Jane Quinlan shares some interesting insights into the life and thoughts of her late mother.

MARY JOYCE QUINLAN

1912-1994

Veterinary training
Mary Joyce Quinlan was born in Hampstead, London on 12 April 1912. The daughter of William Le Lacheur and Cecilia M Cox, she was reared in Littlehampton, Sussex, and educated at Hayes Court in Surrey. She later attended the Royal Veterinary College in London.

At College, Mary was mainly interested in horses and intended to specialize in them, at a time when the few girls in veterinary work were usually in small animals. As a student she kept and trained her own horse, Collingwood, a son of a Derby winner, and ran him in hurdle races. She was interested in Thoroughbred breeding and was attempting to evaluate the various stallion families in the General Stud Book into groups, like the mare taproot families has already been done.

She spent her periods of seeing practice with horse vets, and her final two years in Lincolnshire where she saw a lot of Thoroughbred studs, and also vetted about ninety Shire stallions annually on the East of England travelling circuit. She was allowed to bring her racehorse, and got a lot of help with his training.

In her final year, she was in a terrible car accident while driving to a case and was unconscious for two weeks with head and internal injuries. She took a year to recover, and found that she couldn’t continue with her studies. She would have been accepted much later, but had a young family then and fulltime study would have been impossible.

Marriage
In 1937, Mary married Maurice Quinlan, who was born in Ballydesmond, Co Cork and they had a furniture business in Steyning, Sussex until World War II when Maurice, like so many Irishmen living in Britain, joined up. After Maurice joined the army, Mary went to her mother and helped with war work as well as raising her two small children. She also found the time for some horse riding, mainly on a few retired horses belonging to friends, which hadn’t been put down at the start of war for patriotic reasons.

Life in Ireland
After the War, they decided to move to Ireland and on a visit to her mother-in-law in Cork, Mary purchased three horses which were all sold on. One was a point-to-point winner, and the others both featured in a well-known calender a few years later. The most successful became a champion hack, winning at Wembley Horse of the Year Show.

The family purchased a property at Farran, Co Cork in 1947 and Mary lived there until 1980. They had a small mixed farm and specialized in pedigree Kerry cattle, Large White pigs and Light Sussex chickens. The pigs were all from imported stock and were in demand for breeding, as well as their superior fattening qualities. The main stud bird was also imported, being bred from a hen holding a national egg-laying record, but his entry to this country was a bit unusual, as he was part of a smuggled clutch of hatching eggs. The pigs were shown locally at agricultural shows and even as far as the RDS Spring Show in Dublin. Mary was involved in the first national pig-breeders association, which organised pedigree shows and sales.

Export trade
In the late 1940s and in the 1950s, Mary was regularly exporting ponies and horses to England. She sent them to her cousin, Joan Calcutt in Hampshire, who had a ready market for nice riding ponies. The horses were only bought for special orders. The ponies went on the boat from Cork in batches of five or six, wearing their distinguishing travel sheets made by Mary. They were mostly bought privately in the East Cork area and at the many horse fairs of the time, in partnership with the late Corney Barry of Leadington, a very well-known horseman of the time. She had many tales of their dealing, and some of their more fiery encounters with sellers and occasionally each other. They were known to sometimes see a likely pony on the road, and make an offer to the surprised owner, who would agree to sell it and arrange to put it on the train for shipping . Once, the train was late with a load of ponies so the boats’ Captain waited for her, telling his Cheltenham-bound passengers that she was his best private horse client. The cheers as the ponies were eventually rushed up the gangway were very loud.

Diverse interests
When the shortage of horses in England was finally met, Mary turned to farming and family. Sadly, the marriage broke up later and Maurice lived in England until he died in 1973.

For many years, she was a member of the Cork Ministry of Healing; praying on a daily basis for sick people of all denominations, and she received great help from her religious beliefs.

She also enjoyed shows and exhibiting, including running several cat shows in Cork, and encouraging her daughters to show all sorts of livestock.

Social changes
She always had a great interest in the stallions standing at stud in Co Cork and she visited many of them, studying their pedigrees and their stock, which she could often identify without asking who the sire was. In the early 1970s, farming was modernising and on many farms the few mares kept were being sold. It was a common sight at fairs to see lovely brood mares going for meat, to the distress of the men who were obliged to sell them. As the demand was for half and three quarter-bred horses, the Irish Draught mares were not being replaced by pure-bred daughters. Many people said something should be done before it was too late and we had lost our special Irish horse, which had been so valued for centuries that their export to the Continent had been forbidden by King Henry VIII in the 16th century, as he didn’t want his soldiers to have to fight against them in war.

Traditionally, the quality of Thoroughbred stallions was very high, thanks in part to the Government policy of buying and approving stallions to be leased to studs for the use of non-Thoroughbred mares. They were also vetted and any with inherent unsoundness were supposed to be weeded out immediately.

Society is formed

Farran View, where the first meeting to form the Irish Draught Horse Society was held

One day, Mary was visiting Eugene O’ Callaghan, who stood The King of Diamonds’ brother, Slyguff Hero, and the subject of the Irish Draught mares came up again. They agreed to try to do something about saving the breed, and a number of interested people were invited to her house at Farran near Cork.

Everyone was very enthusiastic and a public meeting was planned to be held in Dunmanway, West Cork. That meeting was noisy, hot, and even more enthusiastic – the Irish Draught Horse Society was on its way.

First Secretary
Once the Cork Branch was established, Mary suggested a network of County Branches with a central governing Council. After this plan was agreed, people in the various horse breeding counties would be contacted to organise a meeting. Members from Cork would go and outline the aims of the Irish Draught Horse Society. Billy Cotter always went, so did Mary Quinlan, and there were usually four or five members in the car. Finally, a National Council was formed and Mary was the first Secretary. This involved a lot work, contacting branches, lobbying for Government support, grants and getting access to the Irish Draught Horse Register, which had been kept since 1917 by the Department of Agriculture. This Department had also been responsible for licensing all RID stallions. Once the Society was established, members attended all the annual inspections of mares and stallions for approval and entry in the stud book. Dick Jennings MRCVS was in charge at the time the Society was formed and he was highly respected and most helpful to the Committee.

Mare Championship
The first National Mare Championship was organised and a generous sponsor found in the Irish Dairy Board, with a lot of help and publicity from the Duggans at Millstreet International Horse Show, where the final was held. She was assisted by her two daughters, who were equally enthusiastic about the Irish Draught.

Mares
In the meantime Mary kept a few mares of her own and bred pure and part-bred Irish Draughts, up to 1993. She was very anxious that the smaller mare should be kept, as being typical of the breed. The Irish Draught had been a general purpose horse which could plough our light soil, draw the all the farm goods on the road and take the family to Mass on Sunday at a good trot. They also went under saddle and hunted. They were expected to live on very little food and not take up too much space. Therefore, she maintained, the big horse of over 16.2hh would have been let go as not economic on the average farm in the South and West of Ireland. The demand for big, heavy working horses was traditionally met by importing Shire and Clydesdale sires to stand near the big towns and cities like Dublin and Belfast, and their offspring were not liked in rural areas.

She wanted to see good dense bone and free movers with some knee action to cover the ground well, and none of the softness from crossing with cold blooded heavy draught breeds. She maintained that until recently the horses were farm tested, and those with unsoundness and poor temperaments were weeded out. The average owner wanted to be seen with a good sort of horse on his farm, that could be relied on to do its job and the mares often bred foals, as well as doing all the other work. We stood on a trailer at the first Millstreet Championship and it was easy to pick out the mares which had been used for work during their lives, from their stronger backs.

Genetic base
Another matter she emphasised was the need to keep a broad base of genetic material and not to concentrate on just a few successful families. From her research into TB lines, she saw that families rise to fame for a spell and then fade away, leaving breeders searching for better stock.

Special horse
She considered using the Continentals as bad as pollution. She always said the Irish horse was as special as the Irish horsemen, and neither was used to the Continental style of riding discipline. The Irish Draught was expected to be able to get itself out of trouble with its calm outlook and kindness, and to find its legs in an awkward situation without having to be told every move.

After ill-health made continuing as Secretary impossible, Mary Quinlan kept her interest in the Society and, as President, she gave out her Foal Cup at the National Broodmare finals up to her death on 9 September 1994. Her last horse was a grey daughter of Legaun Prince that bred her a couple of foals, and gave her a great interest.

Jane Quinlan

Mary Quinlan’s daughter Jane, who is also a founder member of the Irish Draught Horse Society, lives in Co Cork.

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