OBITUARY: Patricia (Paddy) Lowry A lady of many talents

March 16 1929 – April 07 2024

THE death took place on April 7th of Paddy (Patricia) Lowry who was born on March 16th 1929, the youngest child of Robert (Bob) and Florence Agnew of Portglenone.

Her father was a well known horseman in Co Antrim while her eldest brother John, a veterinary surgeon, was a successful amateur rider in the 1940s and 1950s and was an INHS steward. She had two other broth ers and two sisters.

In 1941, Paddy went to Ballymena Academy, becoming Head Girl in 1946. She was the first girl from the Academy to go to Oxford having won a place at Lady Margaret Hall. She graduated with an Honours degree in French language and literature in 1950. That year, she also married Dr Charles Lowry, who she had met at a tennis party in 1949, and came to live in Bellaghy.

Always involved with horses, Paddy jumped at the Dublin Horse Show at the age of 12 and was a frequent winner as a child and teenager with her well known pony Rose Marie in both showing and show jumping classes at all the major shows in Northern Ireland.

She also won ridden classes at shows, including Dublin, on horses owned by her father.

Master of Harriers

After her marriage, she became Master of the newly-formed South Derry Harriers for the 10 years of the pack’s duration (1950 to 1960).

She started riding in point-to-point races in the 1950s and partnered several winners on horses owned and trained by her husband and her father. She and Charles bred from a small band of broodmares and showed their youngstock.

Paddy returned to showing properly in the early 1970s. She learned to ride side saddle and won the ladies hunter championship at the RDS in 1976. At the request of the English Side Saddle Association, she was responsible for the formation of the Northern Ireland Side Saddle Association in 1980, acting as Area representative for 13 years before retiring in 1993, having won the equitation championship twice.

During these years she was asked to judge ridden hunters at most shows in the North. She won at Dublin again in 1979 on her own horse, Highway Queen, and was placed several times in the ladies’ side saddle classes on horses for other people including that master showman Michael Hickey.

With her home-bred Castle Buck she won many side saddle equitation and show classes throughout the region, winning the overall riders’ championship title in 1980 and 1982.

Paddy judged ridden hunters, breeding and young stock classes, ponies and side saddle equitation classes for many years at shows all over Ireland.

Following the formation of the NISSA, the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society – whose show was in those days held at Balmoral – revived its side saddle class and invited her to be its first judge.

She was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in her mid-forties and over the years it gradually curtailed her physical activities until, by the mid 1990s, she was forced to stop riding. She and her husband continued to breed in a small way and kept a horse in training most years up until 2010.

Great loves

One of Paddy’s great loves was the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. She started the local branch in 1955 and remained its chairman until 2019, collecting annually for 55 years.

She was awarded a Bronze badge, a Silver badge, and a Gold Badge by the RNLI, the last of which was presented to her by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne in London and finally she was given the top award from the RNLI, a Bar to her Gold Badge in 2005.

She was also involved with the local branch of the USPCA, the South Derry Cystic Fibrosis Committee, the local Multiple Sclerosis Association, the local the Red Cross, Meals on Wheels in Magherafelt and helped the Blood Transfusion service when it came to Bellaghy.

More recently she was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Bellaghy Historical Society while music was something which also gave her great pleasure and she sang in choirs all her life.

Paddy Lowry, who was predeceased by her husband Charles in 2012 and son Rob in 2019, is survived by her daughter Jan and son Mark to whom we in The Irish Field would like to extend our condolences.