THE end of an era was marked last week when it was announced publicly that Eamon and Karen O’Flynn had sold their land at Kircubbin on the Ards Peninsula where they had held Eventing Ireland one-day events for 23 years.

“We really enjoyed hosting the events and dealing with the eventing people but things change,” explained Eamon who was also course builder at the Co Down venue. “We were approached to sell the land by a neighbouring farmer who milks 600 cows and decided to go for it.

“It’s sad alright to see an end to eventing at Kircubbin. This has been a great place for the sport as we could run here when other venues couldn’t and, in fact, in 2017 we held four Eventing Ireland one-days, three within a three-week period. We also held Riding Club and Pony Club events and hosted the Riding Club eventing championship about five years ago.

“We aren’t retiring entirely from eventing,” continued Eamon. “We will be volunteering as usual at Northern Region events while our daughter Hollie, who had our first grandchild, Harry Conor Woods, just four weeks ago, has her horse back in work.

“Last Saturday, we were at Tyrella for the two-phase competition where Karen was riding Osmo, a six-year-old, in the senior 85/90cms class. The horse was full of himself before the show jumping started and bucked Karen off but they were re-united and had one fence down show jumping but were clear across the country.”

The Irish Field would like to wish the O’Flynns all the best for the future.

Many thanks to them for hosting the events at Kircubbin for so many years – and for the great après event sessions in the kitchen!