I’M from Hollymount and, like many western families, grew up with Irish Draughts. My father always kept a nice mare, and my first experience with an Irish Draught was hitching a lift bareback on a mare that my father brought to the first Ballinrobe Show, held in September 1950.

Later on, I emigrated to New York when I got a permanent visa, one of the very last ones given out in 1967. Gaelic football is my second religion and I even switched jobs to have Sundays off to watch matches in the Gaelic Stadium in Riverdale.