MADAM,

IT was with great sadness that I read of the loss of the Tattersalls International Horse Trials held every year at Fairyhouse in memory of the late George Mernagh.

I was lucky enough to have seen George competing on horses for Dollanstown back in the day and he was a lovely talented rider as well as being a gentleman. Please express my thanks to all those sponsors, committee members, organisers and volunteers who did their very best to keep the event running for all those years. Unfortunately once an event is lost it appears to be lost forever as we have seen with Blarney Castle, Punchestown, Kilcooley, Necarne Castle, Ballinlough Castle among those to fall victim to the huge costs of running an event.

Tattersalls International was the pinnacle of eventing for so many riders and will leave a huge void in the eventing calendar as it was so popular and well supported by not only our own riders but also internationally by so many top riders.

William Fox-Pitt to name but one who always came over to compete and brought horses for almost every class, as well as those up and coming riders who honed their craft at such a prestigious event.

It was a showcase for the Irish Horse and will be an enormous loss to those in the business of buying and selling future event horses. It is such a pity that the costs of running it finally caught up with everyone who all worked so hard to keep the show on the road.

I feel very sorry that ordinary people like myself won’t get to see those fabulous athletes (both riders and horses) competing again at the venue. It was a true showcase for the country in general and nothing will make up for the loss now to both eventing as well as to the hospitality sector and airline industry.

We are certainly living in very strange times but I hope there may be some light at the end of this awful tunnel we are in currently and that we don’t suffer the loss of any of our other internationally acclaimed venues like Ballindenisk, Camphire, Millstreet, or Kilguikey to mention but a few of them.

Many thanks to everyone in The Irish Field - I love the paper! It’s like my Bible every week and I so enjoy the variety and articles which are of great interest as well as the Parrot Mouth column which gives a bit of ‘gossip’ from time to time!

You have all done extraordinary work in keeping the paper going especially during Covid-19 and thanks for that. Please keep up the good work.

Yours etc

Johanna Teague

Celbridge,

Co Kildare