60 years since ground-breaking Irish team won the Aga Khan Trophy

Skryne's Diana Conolly-Carew was first woman on Irish team

Sixty years ago, Ireland won the Aga Khan Trophy at the RDS Dublin Horse Show, its first in 14 years. It was a groundbreaking year, as it was the first time that civilian riders had been allowed compete on the team, normally made up of Army riders.

However, the Second World War and the lean years following meant that the Army Equitation School could not afford the quality of horse necessary, and with civilian riders achieving great success in international competition, it was finally decided to allow them compete on the Aga Khan team.

This decision also saw a female member of the team for the first time ever – with Diana Conolly-Carew, a trailblazer for women in sport. The decision to bring civilians on board was immediately shown to be the right one - the Irish team won that Aga Khan trophy, with Conolly-Carew, later Diana Wrangel of Skryne, making history.

To mark that sixtieth anniversary, there have been celebrations in her original family home, Castletown House in Celbridge, which is hosting an exhibition on her life, and her win in 1963 also features in an exhibition currently running in the RDS library.

Now 83, Diana is looking forward to attending this year’s horse show, planning to attend on Saturday when the hunter championships are on in the main arena.

She has been attending the Dublin Horse Show since she first competed there as a young child of eight years old, on a pony, Mickbenimble, which all the Conolly-Carew children of Castletown rode.

"My mother used to buy young animals, and we would show them and jump them," she recalls.

They hosted pony clubs and competitions at Castletown, where her paternal grandmother’s family, the Conollys, had lived in for generations, built by the famous Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, William Conolly, in the 1700s.

"So I first rode in the horse show on my little pony, then bigger ponies, then horses," Diana explains.

"Then, our groom, named King, retired to Cork and found a five-year-old grey running with a band of horses in a Cork field."

Knowing that the then 17-year-old Diana was in need of a good horse to train and progress her already promising career, he wrote to her mother, Lady Carew, and she bought it for £240.

This horse was to become her 1960s star, Barrymore, taking part in the 1968 Olympics as well as many international shows.

"He was a magic horse to ride," she says of the 15.3hh grey gelding. Over a 10-year period, the pair competed together in 14 countries, won in 10, and at times came within single fences or split seconds of taking some of the world’s most prestigious trophies.

Diana recalls being in Toronto in 1963, when they heard the dreadful news that President Kennedy has been assassinated.

"We were at lunch, and all immediately went up to our televisions to watch the news."

While there, she was invited to take part in shows in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and her family was a big hit there as the area is named after her maternal grandmother, the Countess of Lauderdale in Scotland.

It was her grandmother who bought her a second horse after she got a call up to ride in America, as Diana had given her own number two, Pepsi, to her brother, Patrick, who was competing in cross country three-day eventing, when she got the international call-up. Errigal, "half a pony" was bought from film director John Huston’s wife, who had been using it for hunting and some jumping.

"The horse won in Florida, and there was great excitement," Diana recalls. "And it was very funny. They wanted to fly the Irish flag, but the best they could do was an Italian flag, which was a terrible insult in those days as the Italians were beating the Irish. And they wanted the anthem, but the best they could do was ‘When you are jumping over a four-leaf clover’."

Errigal had a bad back, and Diana rode him for a year and a half, before she leant him to an up and coming young Paul Darragh, who had much success with him.

At Horse Show 1963, neither Tommy Brennan’s nor Ned Campion’s mounts were on form, so the team selected by Colonel Bill Rea for the Aga Khan competition was Seamus Hayes on Goodbye, Diana-Connolly Carew on Barrymore, Billy Ringrose on Loch an Easpaig, and Tommy Wade on Dundrum. They were up against top teams from Switzerland, Italy, Britain and Germany.

Following a first round four faults, Diana and Barrymore coped with the pressure to come up with a clear in the second round that set up an exciting first Irish win in the cup since 1949.

In his book, Showjumping Legends, former equestrian broadcaster, Michael Slavin from Tara says that this 1963 win was a true high point in the history of Irish showjumping.

"And it bore fruit," he wrote. "The heroes of that moment were like pop stars when they visited local shows around the country."

Diana and Barrymore competed in five Hickstead Derbies. They placed second in two and were fifth in another. In 1965, they were in a two-way jump off with Nelson Pessoa on Gran Geste. The following year they were clear all the way to the last fence, but after knocking that, they were second once more.

There were also Grand Prix wind at Dublin and Enschede. The duo won a Puissance in Portugal, were twice second in the Queen’s Cup, won the Princess Grace Trophy in Monaco, had a podium finish in the New York Grand Prix and came second in the North American Championship in Toronto.

Three years later, Diana and Barrymore jumped the only clear to win the 1966 Dublin Grand Prix. In 1968, they were named on a three-member team for the Mexico Olympics. They jumped one good round there, but then the Irish side suffered elimination. While there, Barrymore burst a blood vessel and cracked a pedal bone that ended his international career.

With Diana as chef d’equipe, the Irish Junior Team, including Paul Darragh on Errigal, became European Champions in the late 1970s.

In 1985, Diana married Baron Alexis Wrangel, son of the last White Russian Army General, who with the help of European Allies, rescued 144,000 civilians and led into safety almost 100,000 of the remaining soldiers of the White Russian Army, in full battle order. He also rescued the top priests of the Russian Church, who were being robbed and murdered by the Red Army, with many of their treasures.

Alexis had come to Ireland through his connections with the former Ambassador and Italian Army showjumper, Amedeo Guillet, who lived in Kentstown. He had followed his elder sister to America, and became an American citizen during World War II, joining the air force. He later served in the diplomatic corp, working in Argentina.

"I met him through hunting," Diana explains. "He had bought a place in Kentstown with his wife. They were only here two years when she died. He was a lovely man, very lonely on his own."

The Wrangels shared 20 years together at their Oberstown, Tara, home, hunting four days a week with their two horses, before Alexis' death in 2005.

Meanwhile, the upkeep of Castletown had become immense. By 1964, an estimate to repair the roof and rewire of £150,000 meant that decisive action was required.

In May 1965, the house and 580 acres were sold for £166,000.

"You wouldn’t get a cottage for that now," Diana says.

She is looking forward to this week’s horse show and the competitions on Saturday as it brings back memories of her own many achievements in the arenas and rings of the hallowed Ballsbridge venue.