MY first encounter with John Clarke was in March or April 1976, just months before my Leaving Certificate examinations.

I was invited to Dublin to be interviewed by Michael Opperman for a position as pedigree compiler for the then Ballsbridge International Bloodstock Sales.

While I was there, I spent time in a small office with John and the company’s accountant. John sat with a copy of Ruff’s Guide To The Turf, an annual publication packed with all you needed to know about racing and the bloodstock industry.

I was quizzed at length on a variety of topics, but stumbled when asked to predict the likely leading first season sire for 1976. Fortunately, my father was standing a horse at Waterloo House Stud which he managed, and who had his first crop of two-year-olds, probably less than a dozen in total.

I claimed a bias, and named him. When I got the role, John told me that he knew I was stumped by the question, but he was impressed by how I retrieved the situation.

My final encounter with John, though he was not present, was to attend his funeral mass on Wednesday at the Church of the Assumption in Dalkey, where family, friends and colleagues from his many areas of work over half a century gathered to say farewell.

John’s body was, as he wished, donated to his alma mater, University College Dublin, and their School of Medicine.

John and his wife Monica’s only child, their son Jonathan, spoke movingly about his father, and recounted his career.

John grew up in Athboy, the eldest of five boys. He spent his formative years boarding in Castleknock College, where classmates and schoolmates included John Fagan, Bobby Donworth, Brendan Hayes and Bert Kerr, before going on to study agricultural science in UCD.

His weekends and holidays were spent back on the farm in Meath.

Professional career

His professional career started with Ballsbridge Sales, later to become Tattersalls Ireland, where he was bloodstock manager. It also coincided with meeting Monica, and the couple married in 1980.

Two years later they moved to Kildare, providing an opportunity for me to take over his role in the sales company. This was when John was appointed to the position of CEO at the Irish National Stud in Tully, a role that was to encompass the majority of his professional life, some three decades.

Over that 30-year career, John was involved with some of the great names in the Irish thoroughbred industry, by dent of his overseeing their world-famous stud management course, and the management of stallions such as Ahonoora, Indian Ridge and Invincible Spirit.

While Ahonoora was sold, John played a pivotal role in making sure than Invincible Spirit is still on the stallion roster there.

John was also to come across Sea The Stars, a horse with whom he continued to be associated up to his death on June 1st at the Blackrock Hospice.

A third part of John’s professional life began with his retirement from the Irish National Stud, and he and Monica moved to Dalkey. He continued to act as a bloodstock consultant, and worked even more closely with Ling Tsui, her son Christopher and their family.

During his time at Tully, John developed close friendships and working relationships with many people, including Miss Pat O’Kelly.

Greatest joy

Two and a half years ago, Jonathan and his wife Sinéad provided John with one of the greatest joys of his life, following the birth of Lottie. Known as ‘Gaga’ to his granddaughter, it also described how besotted John was about her, and she provided him with much joy throughout his long illness.

I will use Jonathan’s own words to describe what followed. “A year and a half ago, Dad was faced with a diagnosis that we knew would be both life-changing and life-limiting.

“He faced into these changes with a stoic positivity and fortitude that those of us close to him could only sit back and admire. He tolerated a level of pain and sickness that was at times almost unimaginable, never losing his good humour and positivity, despite it all.

“He is a man who continued to surprise me right up until his final days. As I said at the beginning, Dad was many things to many people, but to me he was simply Dad, in all that that involved; caring, supportive, proud, and forgiving.”

John is survived by his wife Monica, who read an excerpt from The Prophet, by Kahil Gibran, at the mass, by Jonathan, Sinéad and Lottie, his brothers David, Peter, Mark and Gregory, by Declan and Cora, and by many extended family members and friends.

The family ask that donations, if desired, be made to the Irish Cancer Society or the Irish Hospice Foundation.

L.P.