Former Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh died last Saturday night at Cork University Hospital following a short illness. Joe is best known to horse breeders and producers as former Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) chairman and a racing enthusiast.

Within the sport horse sector, Joe will be remembered as a unifier. In 1992 as Minister for Agriculture he took great care to bring the sport horse breeding community together in the new Horse Board Cooperative so that they could take ownership of their sector. His desire was to have a single umbrella body with which the government could deal with – the result was the birth of HSI.

“Joe Walsh did an outstanding job as chairman of HSI. He got the organisation up and running despite the ecomonic crisis and the subsequent decline in Government funding,” said Damian McDonald, HSI chief executive, “He worked tirelessly for the betterment of the sector. He believed in structures and governance. The changes he made in replacing selection committees with team managers and professional coaches were fundamental in transforming the fortunes of our equestrian teams. He had a forensic interest in breeding and drove the establishment of the CapallOir online database convincing the FEI, SJI, EI and AIRC to provide links to their database.”

Our thoughts and sympathies are with Marie and the family at this time.