Remembering Ronan Lawlor *

Ronan Lawlor image: irishracing.com

RACING at Gowran Park on Saturday was about so much more than Cheltenham clues or having winners, important as they are. It was about celebrating the life of a young man who died doing what he loved.

Ronan Lawlor was just 21 when he died tragically on 16 February 2010 and his life and memory were celebrated by his family and friends in the Ronan Lawlor Memorial Pro Am Flat Race.  The idea of having a race in Ronan’s memory at his local track came from his friends.

Patrick Mullins, who approached Margaret Fogarty of Gowran Park, explains why Ronan’s friends wanted to remember him on this day. “Myself, Emmet Mullins, Gavin Shiels, Conor Fahy and William Morrissey wanted to do something to remember Ronan and we thought of having the race. The accident happened on the Tuesday and we had all been racing in Gowran on Red Mills Day. His last day racing was that Saturday and that’s why we wanted to have the race on Red Mills Day.

“He was a fantastic friend. No one ever said a bad word about Ronan. He got on with everyone. He was just a very rare person and we were all very lucky to know him. We just want to keep his memory alive,” said Patrick.

“Me and Ronan went to primary school together in Leighlinbridge and we were best friends from first class the whole way up through primary school.”

Ronan regularly went racing with the Mullins family growing up and was a lucky charm for their great chaser, Florida Pearl, on his triumphant days at Leopardstown. Patrick and the Mullins family have some treasured memories of Ronan’s time with them.

“He went racing with us and he was there for all of Florida Pearl’s Hennessy’s. It was a bit of a tradition. We have a picture of myself, Emmet and Ronan with the Hennessy Gold Cup after Florida Pearl won it in 2002. Ronan was part of the team.”

Patrick explains how his friend came to be a jump jockey. “Eventually he learned to ride and he started to ride out in Pat Fahy’s up the road. He was great friends with Pat’s son Connor. He rode out there for a couple of years during school and then he went down to David Wachman’s to become an apprentice. He rode 20 or 30 races for David Wachman but he got too tall and heavy so he came back to Pat’s with a view to becoming a jump jockey.”

Ronan was also a talented footballer and hurler. He played for Leighlinbridge and Naomh Bríd. He was part of the minor football panel which made history by reaching the Leinster final in 2007 and Ronan proudest day in the Carlow colours was when he scored 1-2 in a victory over MEath.

Last year was the first ever Ronan Lawlor Memorial Race. It was a beginners’ chase and had a very apt and poignant winner. Tawaagg, the winner, was trained by Willie Mullins. Winning owner, Eamonn Duignan, has also helped to remember Ronan.

“We were very lucky our own horse won the race last year. It was great to win it. Eamonn Duignan, who owned Tawaag, very kindly donated a perpetual trophy. He bought it for this year’s race. We are very grateful to Eamon and to Margaret Fogarty, general manger of Gowran Park.”

They decided to change the race to a bumper this year because Conor and Patrick are both amateur jockeys and would like to ride in it. Patrick didn’t get the chance this year but Conor came fourth on Busty Brown, trained by his father Pat.

In the freezing glow of the setting winter’s sun, Ronan’s family and friends gathered under the trees in Gowran’s winners’ enclosure to present the connections of Kilcrea with the silver trophy. The race is a fitting tribute to the memory of a wonderful friend who died following his dream. “We are hoping to keep the race there for as long as we are alive. We would like to keep his memory alive,” added Patrick.

*This article first appeared in The Nationalist on 21 February 2012