DR Jack Murphy of Dolmen Sport Horses, New Ross, Co Wexford died on Tuesday. A former Director of both Horse Sport Ireland and the Irish Horse Board, Jack was also a distinguished equine business lecturer and accomplished sport horse breeder, who made collaborative contributions to Irish breeding policy and governance over more than a decade of dedicated service.

Following his appointment by the Minister for Agriculture to the Irish Horse Board in 2013, Jack progressed from Director to Chairman from 2017 to 2021. He steered the organisation through significant policy reforms and stakeholder engagement initiatives, and he continued to serve as a director from 2021 until his passing.

Jack’s influence on equestrian governance in Ireland was both extensive and impactful. He served as a Director of HSI from 2014 to 2016, and in 2017 he was appointed Chairman of HSI’s Breeding Sub-Board, where he played a pivotal role in breeding policy development. His terms on these boards enhanced the strategic direction for Ireland’s equestrian sector, with particular focus on breeding standards and industry sustainability.

Jack combined this industry involvement with a strong academic background through his role as a lecturer in the School of Business at Maynooth University, where he taught on the BBS Equine Business programme. His students benefited from his ability to link commercial principles with the realities of starting-up and running equine enterprises, and many of them have since progressed into roles across the Irish and international horse industry.

From his base in New Ross, Jack and his family built Dolmen Sport Horses into a recognisable name in sport horse breeding. Together with his wife Dr Karen Hennessy and children Molly and Hannah, the Dolmen prefix became associated with athletic, marketable horses. Horses such as Dolmen DeVito, Dolmen Stellor Design and Dolmen Cooley exemplify the quality of the programme, competing successfully on the international eventing circuit with leading riders. Their performances underscored his belief in breeding horses for modern sport, while retaining the toughness and rideability for which Irish horses are known.

Jack enjoyed further success as a breeder when Dolmen Decision Time, owned by Donnacha Anhold, won the three-year-old loose jumping fillies championship at the Dublin Horse Show last year.

What distinguished Jack was the way he integrated all strands of his life. As a breeder, he understood first-hand the practical and financial realities facing Irish producers. As an academic, he analysed the structural and policy forces shaping the sector. As a Director and Chairman, he brought both perspectives to the Board table, helping to ensure that policy decisions were grounded in experience as well as in principle. As a family man, he understood the practicalities and the realistic challenges that family business faced every day. This combination of insight and credibility meant his views carried considerable weight with colleagues, officials, industry stakeholders and friends.

Jack leaves a legacy that will endure in the policies he helped shape, the horses he bred and the people he mentored. The sport horse industry has lost a committed director, a thoughtful educator and a dedicated breeder.