Irish Farrier Radio Documentary: The Sound of History

Have you ever been to Ireland? Just click on the "play" icon and you can go there, for a half-hour or so, at least. But hang on tight--you're going to go back in time.

The year was 1977, and Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE, the national broadcast service in Ireland) is interested in producing a radio documentary about farriers. It's a trade with one foot in the past and one in the future, and they select a representative group spread across the land from the city streets of Dublin to the wild western counties.

It did make it on the air, but then it went into a vault, never to be heard again. Until, of course, the Internet and the Hoof Blog came along. RTE very kindly gave permission for the entire broadcast to be mounted on the blog.

If you don't understand the very beginning, don't worry: it's in Gaelic!

About halfway through, the crew is in Dublin, where they are entertained by the well-known farrier John Boyne, who died of a heart attack two years ago. Boyne was the farrier at the Royal Dublin Show for many years, and shod the horses of the Irish showjumping team at the Army stables in Dublin. Americans might tip their hats to John; he was the farrier who trained Seamus Brady, longtime US Equestrian Team farrier, among many others.

John Boyne shod the champions like Boomerange, but he also shod the street horses in Dublin, and his was the last forge in the city. That's an important fact, since Dublin had a city ordinance that required that any horse working on the city streets had to be shod.

Thanks to this documentary, John Boyne's voice can still be heard.

The interviewer turns away from John at one point and asks questions of his lowly apprentice, Gerry. He's from the north of Ireland, County Tyrone. He represents "the future" of farriery, obviously.

Gerard Laverty, AWCF

As I listened, something in my head clicked. I knew that voice. It was Gerard Laverty, who has often been on this blog. He left Ireland and emigrated to Canada. What he learned in John Boyne's forge in Dublin has served him well; he is known head of the farrier school at Kwantlen University in British Columbia and has risen to be an Associate of the Worshipful Company of Farriers.

Back in 1977, he was handing tools to John Boyne. But one morning in November 2012, he heard his young voice bounce back at him across the years:

"I was back in Dublin, 1977. A first-year apprentice in the shop on Pearce Street, which still is in operation with his son John Jr. I even have a small part on the show.

"John was my boss for three years. He was quite a character. Looked like he’d rob you blind but had a heart of gold. Loved his family, what he did, and the connection to the past.

" He was happiest when he could help to promote an apprentice or give credit to someone just starting their business. He had a wonderful sense of humor and it goes without saying he loved to tell stories. He was an astute businessman and seemed to juggle the work of running a multi-farrier shop with several young apprentices with little fuss.

"He was a consummate horseman with a great understanding of lameness and disease. Yet he balanced that with a commonsense approach to shoeing.

"John was part of a generation of farriers that is fast disappearing. When he trained in the family shop, he was the 'floorman', one of a two-man team, the other being the 'fireman'.

"I remember him telling me when he started his business he'd go to his clients by city bus. As soon as possible, he hired a fireman and built his business from that meager start.

"While I was with John he mentioned Seamus Brady and how Seamus had come back to visit while he was in Dublin with the U.S.Equestrian Team (for the Royal Dublin Show). Other than that he laid no claim to giving Seamus his solid start.

"I guess that is John at his best, always content to stand in the shadow and celebrate success for us all.

"John Furlong was a skilled blacksmith who lived just south of Dublin, in Bray. Every time I met him, I wanted to go spend time in the shop with him. Never did. 

"I’ve forgotten the name of the other smith from the west of Ireland who made the display of corrective shoes. I think he is the fellow I was originally supposed to train with. He suffered a heart attack so instead I came to Dublin to work in the shop with John. 

"John McLauglin is still shoeing in Dublin and his younger brother, I've forgotten his name. I think it was Kevin, has worked for some of the biggest names in the Thoroughbred industry (including Coolmore).

"Hearing 'Boyner', as we all called him, transported me across a continent, an ocean and thirty-five years. Bonnie, my wife, wise woman that she is, says that, after smell, sound is the best sense to recall memories. 

"I sure felt that this morning. Sometimes to take a trip you really don’t need to leave home."

I'm sure many of the people who listen to this documentary have never been to Ireland. But maybe now their ears have.

To learn more:

Visit for the RTE page about this documentary.
Home page for RTE's archive of documentaries on all subjects.

--written by Fran Jurga

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She Strolls Through the Horse Fair on Halloween...

by Fran Jurga | 31 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog


I've been saving this picture for today. It's from a portfolio of images, mainly farriers, taken at the Smithfield Horse Market in Dublin, Ireland, one of the last urban horse sales in western Europe. The travelers bring horses and ponies and donkeys into the city the first Sunday of each month to sell or trade them. They've been doing it exactly this way, in the shadow of the Jameson's whiskey distillery, since 1665, as much as the city has tried to stop this chaotic manure-producing festivity. Dublin is one of the last cities where horses are kept within the city by private owners, many by young boys who tether them on any available greenspace.

One Dublin photographer, Teresa O'Brien, is especially taken with the farriers who skip church and show up to shoe the horses at the market before they are sold. But she only photographs their hands. I've never seen the rest of these men. Later, she moves through the crowd and her lens finds a hand on rusty hames or in this case the hand of a traveler (gypsy) matriarch's multi-ringed fingers.

Imagine this woman draped in her long dark hooded coat and leaning on her cane. She is walking among the horses on a chilly October morning. She speaks to no one. Is she buying or selling or is there something spooky going on here? Is she the ghost of horse markets past?

Click here to read a little more about and see a little more about Smithfield Horse Market.

Smithfield Horse Market and the gypsy horse fairs of Ireland and England are some of the last horse fairs. I grew up staring at a print of the painting The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur (above; the original painting is 16 feet long and hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). It is still one of my favorite paintings because there is so much going on and the horses are so well-formed.

But if you think about it, what will go on this Sunday morning at Smithfield hasn't changed much from Bonheur's basic scene, which shows the horse market in Paris in the 1800s. Someone should document the few horse fairs that still exist. I know there are still big ones in India and Mongolia--where else are they still held?

One of the (Many) Reasons I Love Ireland: Racing on the Beach

by Fran Jurga | 17 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

This video is like a quick trip to Ireland, although to these beach races. The festival you see here is at Glenbeigh on Dingle Bay in County Kerry and is held every August. I don't know how long the races are, but I'm sure it is a good distance.  Glenbeigh is near the place where, in Irish mythology, Oisin and Niamh rode the white horse shod with silver shoes into the sea to journey to that land of eternal youth known as Tir na nOg. 

To learn more: Two favorite movies set in this part of Ireland are the heart-wrenching 1970s film about Irish rebellion, Ryan's Daughter, and Into the West from the 1980s. The latter is about two Traveler ("gypsy") children who run away from the slums of Dublin with their gallant horse named Tir na nOg, who unbeknownst to them just happens to be a famous show jumper missing from the Dublin Horse Show. They are convinced that they will find cowboys and Indians, or at least the land of Tir na nOg from the Irish legend, if they ride off into the west.  

Click here to read the original legend of Tir na nOg...and why it pays to take care of your horse. There are many versions of this legend, but most include references to hooves. In one version, the white mare gets a stone caught in her silver shoe and the hero dismounts to relieve her pain...and instantly ages.

Here's to Ireland--the people and her horses!