Remembering two of the greats of Irish jump racing history

Being of a certain age, it has become routine for life to be marked by the death of a personality whose name resonates with a distant childhood and adolescence. The passing of such a person, whether from the world of sport, entertainment or wider public life, can unleash a wave of nostalgia and stir memories of particular moments or feats, sometimes only half-remembered, occasionally embellished by the passage of time.

In the sporting arena it can be hard to distinguish between what one actually remembers from what one knows from the record books. That said, I have a clear sense of what I remember from childhood about two great figures of Irish racing we have lost recently, Martin Molony and Tommy Carberry.

It is a testament to Molony's reputation that I recall how his name featured regularly in conversation at home, despite the fact he rode for the last time almost a decade before I was born. When I began to acquire my own jump-racing heroes, my father would often say something like, "a pity you never saw Martin Molony, it will be a long time before you see a jockey like him".