THE Riding Club community lost one of its great characters with the death on February 3rd of Eddie Hannigan, a longtime member of Cheval and breeder, with his wife Sandra, of thoroughbreds, Irish Draughts, sport horses and Connemaras at their Yukon Stud in Oldtown, north Co Dublin.

Eddie grew up in Coolock and Poppintree on the northern edges of Dublin city and was the middle child of seven sisters and a younger brother. According to the family, he tried his hand at many things during his life, but, having been pampered by his sisters, never managed to develop any skills as a cook!

He was driving a horse-drawn milkfloat for Premier Diaries when he first met Sandra in 1979 – at the trotting track in Portmarnock – and they were married three years later. An incident with a chainsaw had put paid to Eddie training foresters in Germany and he was working as a coalman at the time of the birth of the couple’s first child, Philip, who was followed by Jonathan and Louise. The last-named shared her father’s passion for show jumping and the pair often headed away at weekends to shows around the country.

Eddie also worked as an apprentice farrier before, in 1997, he, Sandra and Philip established their haulage business, Hannigan Freight, in Oldtown. Unknown to many who only knew him through his equine interests, he held a black belt in karate and was a champion budgie breeder.

Eddie’s interest in horses developed from his days in Premier Dairies. He bred and/or kept a lot of driving horses who, having been broken to harness, were then sold to the coalmen for their carts. One year, he had three sets of twins, two of whom were sold as driving pairs to England.

One of Eddie’s most memorable days in the saddle came at the 2013 AIRC Festival at Stradbally where he was presented with the Eddie Fowler memorial trophy having won the breed championship with Yukon Diamond. That 2009 Gortfree Hero mare, who had been purchased the previous year by Sandra as a birthday present for her husband, was also successful in heavyweight hunter classes.

Three years later, it was also in Stradbally that Eddie enjoyed one of his best days as a producer of in-hand Irish Draughts. Attending the annual show staged by the Laois Branch of the Irish Draught Horse Breeders Association, he claimed the youngstock championship with the then two-year-old Yukon Pearl, a daughter of Fast Silver.

WINNING

Eddie bred many winning Connemaras, including the show jumper Yukon Magic, while among the successful thoroughbreds bred at Yukon Stud were two who stood out, both of whom were out of the winning Indian Ridge mare Mainstream Opinion.

Different Opinion (2005 filly by Noverre) recorded six victories in Italy, where she was listed-placed, while Baby Bush (2011 filly by Holy Roman Empire) won five times in the same country after first landing two races in Britain including a six-furlong two-year-old fillies’ maiden at Newbury on her debut.

Eddie’s beloved Molly (Yukon Diamond) died two weeks before he was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016 when he learned that he had six months to live. Despite being told that his quality of life would not improve, he showed great strength of spirit to get back riding and driving the tractor.

In the 12 months before his death, Eddie got to visit his favourite places once again. These included travelling to Stradbally for the Riding Club Festival, to the Dublin Horse Show at the RDS, to Clifden for the Connemara Pony show and to various thoroughbred sales. He was also very fond of his trips to Howth for fish inevitably accompanied by a sausage and onion rings. These seaside visits would have been a daily occurrence if Eddie had his way.

As was stated by the family at Eddie’s funeral ceremony, “If you met Eddie you wouldn’t forget him in a hurry. He loved a joke and a laugh. His speech was blunt, he didn’t do subtle. But if you asked Eddie’s advice, particularly about horses, you knew he would give it to you straight. If it was a nag, he would say so and his advice was always solid.”

Eddie Hannigan is survived by his wife Sandra, sons Philip and Jonathan, daughter Louise and grandchildren William and Jack.