Obituary: Jonathan Irwin, gentle giant of Irish society whose work helped thousands
Children's Ann O'neill/coalesce Picture: Jonathan Jack Their Death The Infant Foundation Wife Jack Established Shane The His Mary Of Following Son Irwin With & Jill
Jonathan Irwin, the charismatic bloodstock agent and philanthropist who died last week aged 82, leaves behind not just an admirable professional legacy, but a charity in the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation that continues to help hundreds of Irish families.
Mr Irwin established the foundation with his wife Mary Ann following the death of their infant son Jack in 1997. In doing so, he gave voice to thousands of vulnerable families who, when faced with the devastating prospect of caring for a seriously ill child, may not have had the means nor ability to advocate for themselves.
Speaking on RTÉ News last week, Jack and Jill chief executive Carmel Doyle said that the default position of Mr Irwin was always simply: “The answer is yes, now what's the question?”
Similar testimonials were given by many throughout the racing industry, where he was seen as a firebrand and a visionary.
Mr Irwin was responsible for the Cartier Million, Europe’s richest race, and the first £1m sports event in Europe, an event that was a catalyst for establishing Ireland as a world leader in horse racing.
Born in the Worcestershire town of Malvern in 1941 to actors John Irwin and Phillipa Hiatt, Mr Irwin was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Dublin.
After Trinity, he went to work for what would later become British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) Ltd. During his time there he introduced the Irish Stallion Incentive Scheme, an initiative so successful it evolved into the European Breeders Fund. In the same period Mr Irwin launched the magazine, which was eventually sold to the . His amiable personality and ability to network helped attract international interest in Irish bloodstock sales and horse racing.
Following a successful stint at the BBA, Mr Irwin turned heads when at the age of just 33, he was appointed MD of the Goffs Sales company in 1975.
He joined Goffs when the company was at a crossroads, on the verge of eviction from its home in the RDS in Ballsbridge, and with no alternative premises identified.
By the time he formally accepted the role of managing director, his first major task was overseeing the construction of the world's first purpose-built bloodstock sales complex in Kill, Co, Kildare. Over the next 15 years, Mr Irwin was a huge factor in both modernising and making accessible a previously elitist industry. A compulsive innovator, he introduced revolutions in bidding and marketing that were immediately mimicked by the big auction houses in London, such as Sothebys and Christies.
European records for sales were regularly broken under Mr Irwin’s leadership, with Goff’s and Ireland establishing itself as a world leader in the bloodstock trade.
After Mr Irwin's departure from Goff’s in 1989, there followed a brief stint at Ryanair as marketing director. His role as supremo of the ill-fated Phoenix Park racecourse was dogged by battles with the turf club.
Mr Irwin was later appointed CEO of the Dublin International Sports Council (DISC) under the chairmanship of Dr Tony O'Reilly. The DISC was established to raise Dublin's profile as a potential host venue for international sports events, and to lobby the government to build and refurbish existing sports facilities to an international standard.
Projects included the 1994 Women's Hockey World Cup, the 1995 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship, the 1996 Notre Dame vs US Naval Academy football game, and the first three stages of the 1998 Tour de France in Dublin. DISC also produced a research document for Dublin to bid for the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.
If his role as a sporting visionary had thrust him into the glare of public life, it would be his philanthropy that will see Irwin remembered as a gentle giant of Irish society.
Along with his wife Mary Ann O'Brien, Mr Irwin set up the Jack & Jill foundation in 1997 following the death of their young son Jack at 22 months.
Following complications after his birth, Jack developed severe brain damage, which left him without sight or hearing, and unable to swallow. Dealing with the tragedy of Jack's illness exposed the couple to the wholly inadequate options available to guardians of seriously-ill children in Ireland at the time. With no provision for suitable home care for their son, the parents privately recruited retired nurses to help Jack.
Despite the trauma of losing their son, they decided to help others in similar situations.
As the foundation became the main effort of Mr Irwin’s life, he applied the same entrepreneurial gusto to raising money for his charity as he previously had to business. Exploiting a gap in the market, he encouraged people to hand in items such as old mobile phones, ink cartridges, crutches, and walking aids, so the foundation could raise funds through recycling them.
Special donation bins were deposited at local shops and pubs around the country for people to donate the items. The ubiquity of the scheme undoubtedly boosted the profile of the charity, helping to raise tens of thousands of euros in the process.
Following his death, the foundation stated that its home nursing-care model has supported almost 3,000 children across Ireland over the last 26 years, without what it called “any means test, red tape, or waiting list”. His advocacy stretched beyond the children and their parents, to the carers themselves.
Just as he made the bloodstock industry more democratic and accessible, Mr Irwin reshaped the charity landscape in Ireland, dedicating his later life to helping the most vulnerable people in society.
Jonathan Irwin is survived by his wife Mary Ann O’Brien and their children Lily, Phonsie, and Molly, and predeceased by his sons Jack and John. He is also missed by his first wife Mikaela and their children Pirate, Jago, and Luke, and predeceased by his son Sam.