When I was a child my father used to tell me this story about his young days.
Apparently as a young man he courted for some time a young lady from county Cork called Anne(Nancy) Sullivan.
She afterwards married the Duke of Westminster, and became the very proud owner of Arkle, one of the finest racehorses of all time.

My father used to tell me earnestly, that if he had married Nancy Sullivan, instead of my mother, that I would have grown up to be a Duke.
In my innocence I of course believed him, and saw myself, but for a tiny accident of birth, clothed in Ermine.

A long time afterwards my brother Ted’s horse won a race in Fairyhouse. He was presented with the cup by none other than the Duchess herself.
When Ted probed her gently to find out if my Father’s stories were true, her reply was;
“Ah John Dwyer, of course I remember him well”

So my Father spoke the truth, I could have been a Duke after all.

Brother Ted gets his cup from the Duchess

Post Scriptum on 25th May 2006

I just got a letter from my brother Ted gently telling me that I got this story quite wrong.
The truth however, as is often the case, is even better than the fiction.
Ted in fact made no connection with the Duchess on that day in Fairyhouse.
(My Father obviously had not told him the same story!)
When he got home our Mother told him that he had just been given a cup by an old flame of Dad’s.
Now Ted, like myself, is not one to let an oppurtunity for contact slip past him.
My father has a set of handwritten hunting reminiscences which he put together shortly before he died.In these he talks about all of his old hunting friends including Nancy Sullivan, as the Duchess was known then.
Ted sent a copy of these on to her with a note as to how he and she had met in Fairyhouse.
The Duchess sent a charming hand written reply. I will quote a few lines from it
“Dear Ted,
I cannot thank you enough for sending me those reminiscences of your Fathers-best present I’ve had for years. How I wish I’d known that day at Fairyhouse that it was John’s son that had beaten us , I’d have been almost pleased!
…..your Uncles Dick and Jack were two of my dearest friends, as indeed was your father-even more so!” (her exclamation mark!)

Doesn’t she come across as a charmer! I don’t blame the Da or indeed the Duke for being smitten.
But she does establish byond all doubt that my father and herself did indeed have a wee tangle in the twenties.
I don’t know how you feel about it Ted but I am polishing up my Coronet!
.