BACK in 1979, the Irish team of the late David Foster and Alan Lillingston plus John Watson and Helen Cantillon (O’Keeffe) won team gold at the European eventing championships at Luhmühlen, where they were staged for the sixth time last week.

Also on the squad 40 years ago, competing as an individual, was Co Cork’s Edmond Cogan who, with his wife Suzanne and son Edmond, was among the Irish supporters at the German venue for the 2019 renewal.

When the first two horses out on Saturday’s cross-country course failed to complete, Edmond was quick to relate that he was the first to finish in 1979 when he had been sixth to leave the start box with Rennex.

The Cogan family flew back to Ireland from Hamburg on the same flight as the official Irish contingent and their support teams with Cathal Daniels kindly placing his individual bronze medal around Edmond junior’s neck for a memorable photograph.