MADAM,

It was with great sadness that I read in The Irish Field that Dessie Gibson had passed away and the loss of a man whose judgement of a foal or a young horse will never be matched. He was the best I ever saw.

He will be missed by everybody in every sales yard and I’d say next week’s Goresbridge Sales is not going to be the same without him. He was always there and I’d look forward to going to Goresbridge to meet him.

I knew, from years of reading in The Irish Field, what Dessie Gibson had won in the showring. He won championships all over Ireland and I thought he was an exceptional man.

To even see him look at my foals at the sales was a privilege in itself, just as it was to see the photo of Cushinstown Special on the lovely tributes pages.

My sympathy to the Gibson family and Dessie’s many countrywide friends.

Simon McCarthy,

Cushinstown,

New Ross,

Co Wexford