What does it mean to be Irish?... AP McCoy

Published: Wed 16 Mar 2022, 5:23 PM

I grew up in the small Catholic village of Moneyglass in County Antrim, one of two counties in Ireland with a Protestant majority. I considered myself Irish then, still do and always will. That is not to say that we were sectarian or hostile to the Unionists of the surrounding area. In fact, one of the most influential people in my young life and career as a jockey was a local Protestant horse trainer, Billy Rock. It was through Billy that my love of horses began and was nourished. I was so obsessed with horses that Billy’s religion didn’t matter to me at all. What Billy told me about horses was more important to me at that time than what I heard at mass on Sundays.

In 2002, I passed Gordon Richards’ total of race wins and afterwards I received an invitation from the Home Office to receive an MBE at Buckingham Palace. I rang my mother and talked it over with her. She was a woman who had strong Republican views, and she understood the complexities of the invitation. Having thought it over, she eventually advised me to accept it, saying that I had lived in England a long time, was rearing my family there and that it was the right thing to do. But on every invitation date that was sent to me for going to Buckingham Palace I was busy racing.

Then in 2010 I won the Grand National and received another letter from the Home Office to award me an OBE. So, I said to myself, I had better attend this time. I went up and stood in front of the Queen and my jaw dropped when she said, ‘it’s nice of you to show up this time’. I made an apology about my racing schedule, and she smiled and said, ‘You don’t have to apologise to me. I read the Racing Post every day, I knew exactly where you were’.

When I retired in 2015, I got the news that I had been awarded a Knighthood. I rang my mother who, upon hearing this, said: ‘I’m going to have to go into hiding around here now!’