IN the late John Healy’s sublime book, No One Shouted Stop: Death of an Irish town, the Mayo writer charted changing times in rural Ireland.

His masterpiece was published in 1968, just before sporting legend Eddie Macken and the ‘Dream Team’ era brought national pride to a country that was starting to reap the economic benefits of joining the European Union.

Irish towns have changed from Healy’s work of art; pass through a town today and the typical landscape is one of chain supermarkets on the outskirts, a handful of family businesses holding their Main Street ground, in between mobile phone, vape and charity shops, hair salons, nail bars and a couple of pubs.

The recent heatwave over, it’s an overcast Saturday as we gather in one of Granard’s famous landmarks; the Boomerang Bar to talk about the county’s upcoming agricultural shows and the town’s famous son, Eddie Macken.

Once the Macken family’s butcher shop, the Boomerang Bar is one of some 2,000 Irish pubs that have closed over the past 20 years. However, Fiona Macken, who runs her busy beauty salon upstairs, has kindly opened the door of this treasure trove as the setting to meet her cousin Lizzie Donohoe, Granard Show’s Gerry Tully and Hazel McVeigh and Longford Show’s Charlie Murphy and Bernie Whyte.

Holy grail

Many Irish country pubs have their local sporting heroes’ photos framed on the walls and the Boomerang Bar is no different: black and white photos of a young Eddie on a farm pony pictured on the street outside, at his first show at Longford and several photos of the distinctive pair of he and Boomerang in action in international arenas.

Then Fiona returns from the lounge section with more, “Here’s another photo”... the iconic pair pictured descending the Hickstead Bank - the very one that Pat Murphy, son of Boomerang’s late breeder Jimmy, had been searching years for.

The Hickstead Press Office team were exceptionally helpful, but their pre-digital era archives didn’t contain this particular image - here it is in Granard, 48 hours after the Grangemockler visit.

There’s nothing else for it but to ring Pat (who featured in the Horse of a Lifetime feature about Boomerang), with the good news that the ‘holy grail’ has been found and to put him on speakerphone to introduce the Grangemockler man to the Longford team.

Had the pub been open for business, we could have raised a glass to the late Anne Gormley whose funeral service had taken place the previous day.

In her former antique jewellery shop up the street, now the Lus na Gréine family resource centre, there’s a lovely photo and tribute to Anne placed in the window.

She and her veterinary surgeon husband Brian ran a riding school, just at the edge of Granard and it is thanks to them - Brian ferrying Eddie to his earlier shows with his pony and recommending the precociously talented young Macken to Iris Kellett - that the Macken legend took off.

“Grandad [Jimmy] had hoped that Eddie would stay at home and run the butcher shop, but he was mad into horses and the Gormley’s persuaded Grandad to let him go to Kellett’s.

"But as a way of dissuading him, Grandad said, ‘You’ll be mucking out for the rest of your life’. And then Eddie said, ‘I don’t mind, I like the smell!’” said Lizzie, who has a striking physical resemblance to her uncle.

At the heart of community: a tribute to the late Anne Gormley in the window of her former antique jewellery business \ Susan Finnerty

Tullys taxi

“My mother Doris is Eddie’s elder sister. I grew up in Granard, but didn’t really get into horses until I was about 15 or 16. It was always something that I wanted to do, but my parents both ran small businesses in the town.

“There were four of us, so it was a busy house and there wasn’t really much time for the ponies. But once I started working for my uncle Johnny [Fiona’s father] in the petrol station and making my own few pounds, I started getting lessons.

“And I was really lucky that Gerry and Tom [Tully] would take me off to the shows every weekend. I lived for Sundays with the Tullys!”

“Lizzie would plait and get them ready for shows,” confirmed Gerry. “There was one chesnut mare with four white socks that everybody loved, she was the favourite.”

Nor was Macken’s niece the only extra passenger on board the Tully lorry.

“One of our holidays was to Ballinasloe Horse Fair. We were heading out the road with a lorryload of horses and garsúns aboard and there was a lad from the town named Alex Small, Turbo we called him, looking for a lift but he had a companion beside him…”

Turbo and his donkey loaded up, the Tully lorryload continued to Ballinasloe.

Immensely proud

Granard, like so many Irish towns, had its own horse fair. Near the Garda station, there’s a horse head monument to mark the event. “There’s still a horse sale on here every month, at the mart beside the Showgrounds,” Gerry explained on a walking tour around the town. Down a sidestreet, there’s one of the town’s former forges. “Ger Flynn was the farrier there, he just used to appear out of the smoke!”

And then there’s the two closed premises: the Greville Arms Hotel with its links to Michael Collins’ fiancée Kitty Kiernan and J Keegan’s time capsule butcher shop, complete with a decades-worn wooden block, weighing scales and a St Brigid’s cross and 2012 calendar still on the wall.

Back to the Mackens premises, what was it like being from Granard and related to one of the world’s most famous show jumpers?

“It wasn’t something that the family would have promoted, to be honest, but we are just immensely proud of him,” Lizzie answered. “You know, we’re all just so proud of his achievements and of the person that he is. We’re a very close family growing up, great interaction with all of our uncles and aunts.

“I’m touching 40 now and still when you go to places and people ask you where you’re from and I say Granard... ‘Do you know the Mackens?’”

“I suppose it was like Granard’s version of the Olympics, watching the Aga Khan on the Horse Show Friday. We had a connection to it. Everybody wanted to be Eddie Macken, everybody wanted to have Boomerang or to have been lucky enough like Jimmy Murphy to have bred him,” said Gerry.

“From what I’ve heard, I think Granard pretty much closed down when the Aga Khan was on. There was one incident when my older brothers were pretending to be Eddie and Paul Darragh and David had to be brought to Doctor Donahoe to get stitches in his head because they were jumping from one bed to the other,” added Lizzie. “Unfortunately, David missed a stride and met the wall, so that was the end of his show jumping career!”

Magnificent mentors

Would we have had the Eddie Macken story without the Gormleys?

“In a word, no, we wouldn’t. My grandfather was always hugely interested in horses. He rode point-to-points, he jumped, he showed mares at shows. He was passionate about horses and that’s where Eddie got his passion from,” said his niece.

“Eddie had a pony from a very young age and hunted with the Longford Harriers. I think a local farmer came into my grandfather’s butcher shop one day, out of concern for little Eddie.

“He said, ‘He’s riding a pony that’s far too small for him, Jimmy. You’re going to have to do something about it or he’s going to jump the fences with the pony on his back!’

“So it was time for Eddie to get a bigger pony at that stage and then, when Brian and Anne Gormley came into his life, they just nurtured him. They saw the talent, they nurtured it and it was only through their persuasion, that Grandad was willing to let a young Eddie go off to Iris Kellett.

“I think Iris Kellett’s line on This Is Your Life [the BBC series featured Eddie in 1984] was how this green young fellow from a country town landed up in Mespil Road - his boots were probably flapping on him and his britches were too big - but very quickly, she realised that there was a real talent there.”

Lizzie later worked for Shane and Chloe Breen. What was it like to have walked daily on the site of her uncle’s unmatched four Hickstead Derby wins with Boomerang?

“It was quite emotional, to be honest, just walking in under that arch and standing there. It was magic. You have Hickstead, Dublin, Aachen and Spruce Meadows, they’re the places everyone wants to go and I was privileged to have worked there.”

Getting the best out

She also worked for her uncle at his former New Kells Farm in Langley, scene of Ireland’s recent Nations Cup win.

“We travelled down to California, did the HITS desert circuit down there back in 2008, when Tedechine Sept was his good horse at the time. Very talented, very temperamental, very well minded!” she added about the Belgian-bred mare.

“He had a lovely string of horses. Eddie could get the best out of those horses, something different happens when he’s in the saddle.

“Even at that stage, when I suppose he was coming to the end of his competition career, he never just hopped up on the horse. They’d be waiting ready, tacked up for him each morning, but he’d always check them first. He just had a great connection with them.

“Of course there’s a lot of money involved now in show jumping, there’s the competitive spirit and all the rest of it. But I think the genuine love of horses is still there and never left him.

“Eddie is officially retired now and living up in Whistler, enjoying a bit of golf!”

And the occasional visits home, including one famous birthday party in the Boomerang Bar and to visit family and the Gormleys. “Eddie was home about six months ago. I remember as children, one of the biggest things for us was to get into the pocket at Dublin. It was just hectic for Eddie the last time we were there, about 20 years ago. Everyone wanted him, but as children to get into the RDS pocket was just amazing,” Fiona recalled.

Show day reinvention

Next month is the 75th anniversary of Macken’s hometown show and, while nostalgia is wonderful, the reality of running agricultural and jumping shows is a world apart from his boyhood.

All set for the 75th anniversary of Eddie Macken’s hometown show \ Susan Finnerty

“Eddie did jump at Granard, Longford and at the Midland Cub Hunters shows later on, which Anne and Brian Gormley would have set up.

“You would have the Army, Paul Darragh, James Kernan all jumping here originally. It was famous for a small town, an honour to have them,” said Gerry, who has followed in his late father Tommy’s footsteps as Granard Show chairman.

There’s a great rapport between the neighbouring shows of Granard and Longford - the last two agricultural shows standing in O’Farrell County - with both teams pitching in on each other’s show day.

Then there’s Ballinalee Pony Show, which took place last Sunday. “It’s dedicated completely to Connemaras, a lot of entries from the west. Years ago, we would also have had a gymkhana in Ballinalee and that was another big day. As a child, you’d go to the gymkhana and see all these big names that you’d never have the opportunity of seeing otherwise,” said Hazel, who is from this nearby village, halfway between Granard and Longford.

A recently-qualified ISA horse judge, Hazel is the Granard Show secretary and, like Bernie, is well familiar with the grind of producing schedules, taking entries, tracking down the show’s silverware for the next year’s prize winners and 1001 other tasks.

Plus, one extra in looking after the famous Hickstead Derby trophy which is on display on show day in the secretary’s office for Instagrammable-worthy selfies for showgoers.

This unique addition is arranged by Lizzie, who also helps out with the cattle classes.

Michael Ring, the agricultural shows’ saviour and, like Healy, a champion for the west of Ireland, mentioned at Westport how shows need to broaden their appeal to the public.

The same cluster of fans will watch regular showing and show jumping crowds all day, but it’s how to attract more footfall from spectators and families.

Another famous Granard native is country and western singer, the late Larry Cunningham and live music has proved a crowd-puller for several shows, Longford included.

Charlie Murphy is well familiar with these changes, having been involved in Longford Show for over 50 years. Both he and equine secretary Bernie have their own claims to fame as Charlie once owned the Army Equitation School’s great servant Mostrim.

As for the Whyte family, they also had a famous horse in their yard: Ardagh Highlight, Sam Watson’s team silver medallist horse at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon.

Special guest

Longford’s 121st anniversary show takes place on Sunday, July 6th, preceding the two-day Granard Show, which has showing classes on the Saturday (July 19th). Sunday (20th) is devoted completely to show jumping.

“When we got involved in the agricultural show, the jumping show had kind of ran its course and when I took chairmanship, I said I’d love to get the jumping back,” said Gerry.

“So we got it going again. We reintroduced the six-bar class and we have it on our jumping show on the Sunday.”

The original six-bar class was Brian Gormley’s suggestion. “Brian was out at a foreign show and came across this competition with its six fences in a row that went up with every round. That was Brian’s favourite competition of all and you wouldn’t hear a pin drop while it’s going on.

“It’s just like something you’d almost never see any more and it’s a great privilege to be involved in the show,” he added.

The late Ado Kenny was another who ‘thought outside the showring’ by putting up the prize of a car for the Grand Prix winner at Strokestown Show.

When Eddie Macken won, he gifted it to his father Jimmy.

“It was a white Hillman Hunter with a horse on the front of it and had a black felt roof. Grandad drove that car for years!” Fiona said, with a smile.

Burning the candle at both ends by running two businesses, one which involved late nights, wasn’t sustainable. However, by retaining the Boomerang Bar’s Macken memorabilia, Fiona has done show jumping fans - and Pat Murphy - a great service.

And then a lightbulb moment by the Granard team: “Why don’t we invite Pat Murphy to the 75th anniversary show next month? The son of Boomerang’s breeder in Granard! That would be something else.”

Indeed it would and will, as invite issued/invite accepted by a delighted Pat Murphy who will travel up from Grangemockler for Sunday’s show jumping.

A really special day in store.

Next week: Last two standing