But his disappearance remains a mystery. Hes dead.. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Well, I would say, somebody knows. In February 1983, at the height of The Troubles, Ireland faced a truly mysterious crime that remains virtually unsolved. More are on the way. Now is the time to bet like men, he famously counselled. I dont think this is a good thing, I cant stand the thought of overpaying for something I could have afforded with a little planning, Homobesity: How one overweight, gay, middleaged man learned to be comfortable in his skin, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in May. Conspiracy theories soon abounded over who had kidnapped the horse. A gate leading to the stud was unguarded and unlocked when the gunmen arrived at 8.30 on Tuesday night. He seemed unbeatable - until the St Leger, when he trailed in fourth after starting a hot favourite. They warned Mr Fitzgerald not to inform the police and said they would be in touch at noon yesterday with more details. The body has never been found. Shergar was just five years old when he was snatched in the middle of the night from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare. One said it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was believed Shergar valued at 10m was taken by the IRA, which was short of money and looking for new sources of funding. It was a very bloody death.. On Monday, August 8, 2022, an inmate in the Polk County Detention Center led the Polk County Sheriffs Office to skeletal remains in a shallow grave west of It was left to each member to insure his own share. One idea is that the horse did have some sort of accident while in a frenzy, and the men killed him because they couldnt handle his crazed manner. Shergar became a father for the first time a week ago when a bay colt [pictured top left on the newspaper page above] who looks remarkably like him was born at the Irish stud. Rutgers is studying the fragments to determine exactly what was found on the site of long-abandoned church. During his first season he "covered" 35 mares, with owners paying up to 80,000 a time for the privilege of having a colt or filly by Shergar. Eventually, he walked to the next village and rang his brother. Members of the 34-share syndicate could face huge losses if he is damaged. "After the 1981 hunger strikes, the IRA had increased in strength and support, but desperately needed more funds. He knew that I was really just trying to tell the story, Alison Millar says of how she persuaded Stan Cosgrove to speak openly about a painful episode in his life. He was thought to have a long and distinguished stud career ahead of him. Fitzgerald was then forced into their car at gunpoint. There was a lot of shrugging and shaking of heads, while Martin Kenny, a Sinn Fein councillor for the town, said: "I have never heard anyone say they knew where Shergar was buried or what happened to him.". Discover the real Ireland, how you can travel slow around the island, Dubliner adopted to New York at birth reunites with Irish family 63 years later, Catholic Church launches initiative encouraging young Irish men to consider priesthood, Killarney National Park in "terrible state" after years of neglect, conference hears, Great Famine Voices 2023 Launch New Season of Films, Ireland of the Welcomes' hot hotel: The Savoy Hotel Limerick, WATCH: 1916 Easter Rising footage featured in British Path online archives, Mustard and herb lamb chops with honey dressing recipe. Secretariat was buried in a 6 by 6-foot oak casket lined with orange silk, the color used by Claibornes racing stables. Mr Foley said the remains were hidden in a sack at the bottom of a ditch. Shergar, a beloved thoroughbred "Thirty-five years after the horse was taken from its stable in Kildare, I wanted to do my own documentary, and the letters proved invaluable in pointing me in certain directions. Shergars body was never found, and the case remains a mystery. Shergar was stolen from Ballymany Stud in Co Kildare on the night of February 9th, 1983. They are hardly being bumped off in such a fashion all over Ireland, are they?". But no contact was made. By now there were up to eight gunmen on the scene. Win a traditional Aran Sweater for Him & Her from Aran Woollen Mills, The Irish guests who'll attend Joe Biden's State of the Union Address tonight, Cork school group thankful after narrowly avoided Turkey earthquake. He was stolen at night along with his groom, who was held at gunpoint in the horse van before being released 20 miles away. In February 1983, The Irish Sea Helped The Late Late Show ran a special on emigration before Christmas. Fitzpatrick was forced to identify Shergar and was then driven in a van for about half an hour before he was released in the village of Kilcock. He received a rapturous welcome on his homecoming to the Curragh for the Irish Derby. Derby winner Shergar was kidnapped by an IRA gang from a stud in Co Kildare 17 years ago. The remains of a Cherry Hill man reported missing by his family earlier this year were found by a hunter this week in a state park, authorities said.. Peter Myers, 68, "Shergar was a grand horse and he deserved better. Shergar and Mr Fitzgerald were put inside. Love Irish history? And when he was released, he spent two of three weeks with us.". the gang and the Aga Khan. "I would love to see this mystery resolved so that we all knew what happened to the horse's remains. All sorts of thoughts were racing through my head about what they might do to me. He was bred by the Aga Khan and sold for 10 million to an international syndicate when he was retired from racing. One of them, with the revolver, was very aggressive," Mr. Fitzgerald told the Telegraph about his ride in the kidnappers car. The source said that the two handlers, one clutching a machine gun, went into the remote stable where the horse was being held and opened fire. Epsom was wreathed in flowers and goodwill and a delight among the crowd at witnessing racing aristocracy: a rare champion, as much vision as animal. Then, pointing their guns at 58-year-old Mr Fitzgerald, they marched him across the road to the luxurious stud. A series of phone calls was made, ultimately to Stan Cosgrove, the renowned equine vet and a shareholder in Shergar and to Alan Dukes, the Kildare TD and then minister for finance. Someone has daubed "PIRA [Provisional IRA]" in purple crayon on his white garden wall. The Sunday Telegraph has been told that four days after Shergar was seized, and following extensive stalling by the Aga Khan's representative, the Army Council realised their equine "property" was worthless and told the gang to release the horse. Then, after the Shergar fiasco, another supermarket boss, Don Tidey, was also kidnapped and a ransom demanded. An Irish councillor claims he had discovered the head of horse racing legend Shergar. Swinburn was suspended, because of an infringement. Shergar was hailed as the greatest racehorse of all time when he won the 1981 Epsom Derby. And she further uncovered a piece of evidence hitherto unknown to the public - that the kidnap gang dropped a magazine from a sub-machine-gun when fleeing from the stud farm. Even though the Troubles ended a decade ago we were advised "not to spend more than an hour there if you are asking awkward questions". Speculation is that they were unable to handle the stallion and shot him before he ran wild on them. Capt Berry's work and home phone lines were tapped, with his knowledge, by the Dublin police after his association put up a 100,000 reward for information leading to Shergar's safe return. I do. A convicted killer from Co. Tyrone, he eventually became part of IRA folklore after shooting his way out of one prison and being lifted by helicopter from another. Along with triple Grand National winner Red Rum, it remains probably the most famous horse to come out of Europe in the last century. On the racecourse, as a two- and three-year-old, Shergar had been nothing short of sensational, winning the 1981 Derby by 10 lengths, a record distance that century for Britain's biggest flat race. This vivid image of how Shergar died confirmed the worst fears of one of the most senior figures in Irish racing. It is speculated that he is likely buried on the property of an IRA veteran, which would make gaining approval or permission to dig for remains almost impossible. Ive made some really hard films. Doreen Swinburn cant remember the precise date, but Walter Swinburn did, at least, get another chance to say hello to Shergar far away from the thrilling crowds. He flew to Belfast to negotiate at the Europa Hotel. From 31 crops to race, First Down Dash has sired 1,462 winners, which includes 258 stakes winners. A former IRA member told the Sunday Telegraph: "Shergar was machine-gunned to death. Family history, family mystery - where did my Irish great-grandfather end up? In February 1983, Shergar was kidnapped from his stable in Kildare, held for ransom, and brutally killed by his captors who havent been identified. By then, a silence had begun about Shergar that would stretch for four decades. It is 25 years since a world-famous racehorse was kidnapped by the IRA, never to be seen again. of Shergar. And Shergar wouldnt let his jacket go.. Here is Shergar winning the Epsom Derby in 1981: Discover the real Ireland, how you can travel slow around the island, Dubliner adopted to New York at birth reunites with Irish family 63 years later, Catholic Church launches initiative encouraging young Irish men to consider priesthood, Killarney National Park in "terrible state" after years of neglect, conference hears, Great Famine Voices 2023 Launch New Season of Films, Ireland of the Welcomes' hot hotel: The Savoy Hotel Limerick, WATCH: 1916 Easter Rising footage featured in British Path online archives, Mustard and herb lamb chops with honey dressing recipe. There was lots of cussin' and swearin' because the horse wouldn't die. In a rare and exclusive interview last week, Mr Fitzgerald, now 78, frail and with a full head of white hair, quietly recalled the most terrifying moment of his life, as he was driven away from the stud by three armed men. He said he had long suspected that the horse, in the hands of non-experts, had met a lingering death "crazed with pain". He found his way to a telephone and rang his brother - this phone call led to a series of phone calls between Shergars shareholders, his vet, racing associates and several Irish Ministers. In February 1983, Shergar was kidnapped from his stable in Kildare, held for ransom, and brutally killed by his captors who havent been identified. While there was a massive hunt for the horse and several different ransom requests were made, the horse was never seen or heard from again. We do not even know what kind of accents they spoke with.". (In a bitter twist, Stan Cosgrove would discover that his did not). Once back home, Mr Fitzgerald found his family unharmed. They have narrowed the field, in a manner of speaking, down to a small townland called Aughrasheeling, not far from Ballinamore, and less than 10 miles from the Northern Ireland border. There was no pressure. The mystery man who went to Ireland to disappear. Sadly still hasn't been found today just guessing. And he came up to Walter and he grabbed his jacket. Millars research brought her to Leitrim and the wild landscape outside Ballinamore. A gorgeous few minutes of television interview exists with Walter Swinburn, utterly unflappable and just 19 when he rode Shergar to victory. He rang the stud manager, Ghislain Drion, who then phoned Shergar's vet, Stan Cosgrove, who had also bought a share in the horse. Even then, the consensus was that if a ransom were paid, every racehorse in the country would become a potential target. A quarter of a century ago, the Ballymany Stud was shielded from the outside world by a five-bar wooden gate with a latch. In many ways I wanted to call the film the Ghost of Shergar. We want $3 million for him.". The IRA has privately tried to blame renegade members for the kidnap, but Kevin O'Connor, a historian and journalist with top Republican contacts, dismisses this idea. His reluctance to talk is understandable. But I couldnt understand why the way we talk about silence and fear in relation to the past on this island extended to this horse. Many sources and investigators believe that he must be buried near Aughnasheelin, near Ballinamore, County Leitrim. Shergar, a beloved thoroughbred racehorse worth over $15 million, was kidnapped from his stable in County Kildare by a gang of machine gun-wielding men in balaclavas. And they would go: yes, somebody knows, but we have to move on, love, we dont want to talk about it. Stan Cosgrove presented himself but with the hotel heavily staked by plain clothes police officers, no kidnappers appeared. Scientific tests on a skull of a horse found in Ireland have ruled out the possibility that it was the remains of kidnapped racehorse Shergar. The odds shrank to 8/1: Baerlein warned that those odds would again halve if Shergar triumphed at the Chester Vase. The horse was the easiest modern-day winner of the Epsom Derby. I love to think about how Secretariat is Ruffians uncle. Police were When she spoke with people, she found them friendly but reticent Kidnapped racehorse Shergar was the centre of a 2 million ransom mystery last night. . (modern). Shergar was born in Kildare, Ireland in 1978. His peerless season, remember, coincided with the dark, muggy summer of the Hunger Strikes. And so, the greatest racehorse of the century was butchered in the same way that the IRA killed many of its human enemies. Why Does My Horse Bob Is Head When I Put His Bridle On? But Prime has become a playground obsession, Belfast celebrates Deaf Awareness week with new production Expecting, Comedian Hal Cruttenden on using divorce from Derry wife as show inspiration: I did run it past her. From revolutionaries to royalty, Toby covers the They all suffered in some way. "The police from Dublin told me not to tell Murphy anything," Capt Berry said. "When I saw the names he mentioned, I knew right away that what he was saying in the letters was right," she says. But even around the area where the horses remains are alleged to be . The groom was blindfolded and forced to lie on the floor as the gang drove away. Shergar wins the Derby - and you need a telescope to see the rest. - Peter Bromley, BBC Radio, June 3rd, 1981. Red Rum died on 18 October 1995, aged 30. Millars film is a forensic portrayal of Shergars kidnapping and contains definitive interviews with Cosgrove and Fitzgerald, both of whom died in the years afterwards. File photograph: The Irish Times. And there is a separate sadness, too, in that Swinburn, after coming through the vicissitudes of flat racing, would die from injuries sustained from an accidental fall at his home in London, in 2016. Another would not cause any attention. When contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, he refused to discuss the case. That summer was one of coronation for Shergar. By far the most popular set of events is that the horse, worth 10million in 1983, was taken for ransom by the IRA thinking it was owned by the fabulously wealthy Aga Khan who would pay a fortune to get the champion back. I could hardly see it for tears, Doreen Swinburn, Walters mother, remembers of her joy when we speak by telephone. He opened it to find two men wearing balaclavas wielding guns - one of them said, We have come for Shergar. Police have now passed the skull to the Garda team at Naas, in Co Kildare, which is responsible for the By David Remnick. When I was making the Disappeared with Darragh McIntyre, there was a genuine fear about things from the past. The question you have to ask is: why else would anyone use a pistol to shoot a racehorse? But having established beyond doubt that the horse was killed by the IRA - though Alison is unable to confirm some reports which said that it was machine-gunned to death after breaking a leg and becoming unmanageable - there remained the question posed by the title of the documentary, Searching for Shergar. He was astonished to find it was pierced by two bullet holes. With an intense garda hunt taking place across the country and the ransom process now a shambles, a decision was made to end the operation. Taking Shergar, the first title in the new series, Horses in History, examines this oft-discussed mystery in a new way. Although there was some dissent, the members of the syndicate owning shares in Shergar refused to countenance paying over any money and, shortly afterwards, all contact was ended and the mystery deepened. Years later, there were still whispers that Shergar was alive and secretly producing foals whose breeding lines could never be divulged. But Richard Baerlein, the canny racing correspondent, was so convinced after witnessing Shergar and Swinburn cruise to a 10-length victory at Sandown in April 1981 that he urged punters to get in while the going was good. During the 18 days Cleo sMITH spent being held in a home in Carnarvon in Western Australia, her hair had been completely changed by her abductor. Inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2011, First Down Dash is arguably the greatest race sire of all time. In June 1981 he threw his stable lad and bolted during a workout at Newmarket. He had a lot of confidence in Shergar. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Already, however, there were problems: the kidnappers mistakenly believed that Shergar belonged solely to the Aga Khan when, in fact, the horse was owned by 34 members of the syndicate, who had to agree tactics. Last night police chief Mr Murphy appealed to the gang to return Shergar unharmed. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. John Waynes Monument Valley Horseback Ride, Wyatt Earps Vendetta Ride Tombstone Arizona Territory. Were William Butler Yeats alive, his passion for Celtic myth and legend would seize upon the story of Shergar. Remains were never With a distinctive white blaze on his face, four white "socks" and his unusual racing style - he ran with his tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth - Shergar quickly captured the imagination of the British and Irish public. Of course, the world kept turning and Ireland was beset by problems more profound than a disappeared horse. He refused to entertain the idea of bowing to the kidnappers' demands. It was shortly after 8 pm when the son of Jim Fitzgerald, Shergars head groom that lived at the stud, heard a knock at the door. Now, however, an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph to mark the 25th anniversary of the horse's kidnapping finally solves the puzzle of Shergar's final hours, why his remains have never been found and how the Garda, the Irish police, bungled their investigation. The kidnap strategy was divided into three parts. "I can still remember that night in that car with them lads. Shergar was five years old and preparing for his second season as a breeding stallion when he was snatched from the Ballymany Stud in Co Kildare - just a stone's throw from The Curragh racetrack - on a foggy winter's evening. One of the central figures in the documentary is former equine vet Stan Cosgrove, who was also a shareholder in Shergar. Predictably, the residents claimed to know nothing about Shergar's whereabouts before or after he was killed. She says: "He would have been in the middle of it.". But this turned out to be an elaborate hoax and the real negotiations were going on between. The men never reached an agreement. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Mallon is described by those who know him, including former paramilitaries, as a "head case". Shergar was so far out of sight that John Matthias, riding the second-placed Glint of Gold, admitted that in the tumult he was convinced hed won the race. When the news broke, media from around the world descended on the Republic and three leading racing journalists were asked to come to Northern Ireland in a phone call apparently from the kidnappers. WebShergar has never been found. But no.. The sinister end to a beautiful episode in Irish sport; the freakish clash of paramilitarism and high-end horse breeding and the abrupt and sudden silence has made Shergar seem like a symbol of everything that was warped about Ireland on both sides of the Border. Some said it was the Mafia in retaliation for a horse deal with the Aga Khan that had gone wrong. All of this was reported by an international media fascinated by the lead investigator, Superintendent Jim Murphy, a trilby-wearing veteran with a laconic and highly quotable manner: They must be running into the 50 now, he said drily of the clairvoyants and physics who offered leads and dreams. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Seven of the most famous ranch and quarter horse bloodlines are Doc Bar, Driftwood, Two Eyed Jack, Joe Hancock, Playgun, Old Sorrel, and Peppy San Badger. The plot, hairbrained as it turned out, was to gain a ransom for the record-breaking Epsom Derby winner. Police were checking on reports that a car and horsebox were seen heading towards the Ulster border at dawn yesterday. Several owners are understood to have failed to win insurance payouts because, with no body ever found, there was no proof that the stallion was dead. It is then believed, and the claim is repeated in a documentary on BBC One in Northern Ireland on Thursday night, that the remains were buried in a bog. Capt Berry, now 78, who at the time was the chairman of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, revealed last week that he had been working with senior police officers from Dublin on the case - and those officers felt themselves to be in direct competition with the local police in Co Kildare.
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