She was joint-master of the North Galway hunt for 38 years, from 1946 until she retired in 1984. She remained honorary master for the rest of her life.
Her fine horsemanship combined with a natural flamboyance made her a national figure in the drab Ireland of the 1940s. Whatever the poet of order and high courtesy might have made of her legendary abrasiveness, he would certainly have been immensely proud of her unassailable spirit. Amid the “hard- riding country gentlemen” and to the echo of “porter-drinker’s randy laughter”, she epitomised Yeats’s “indomitable Irishry”. With no relegation this season, the news comes as a major boost to Bristol and London Irish, who currently occupy the bottom two positions in Premiership One.. MOLLY CUSACK SMITH was for several decades living proof that the world of Somerville and Ross was not yet dead in Ireland.

“We were all very impressed by the professional and persuasive arguments made by the Ital- ians both on and off the field.”The deserving Italians will be the first Five Nations newcomers since France, who were granted a place in 1910.England’s top clubs reached agreement with the Rugby Football Union yesterday over plans to extend Allied Dunbar Premiership One by two clubs to 14 next season. France, Ireland and Scotland, all of whom had recently been beaten by Italy, confirmed their support at a meeting in January, as did Wales, who secured a narrow three-point victory over the new boys only a fortnight ago.
Vernon Pugh, a Five Nations Comittee member, congratulated Giancarlo Dondi, the president of the Italian Rugby Union “This must be a very proud day for him,” said Pugh. IT TOOK them far too long to get round to it, but England finally fell in line with the rest of northern hemisphere rugby yesterday by officially inviting Italy to the Five Nations party. The oldest international championship in the game will become the Six Nations from the spring of the year 2000 – a new tournament for a new millenium. Rugby Football Union council members agreed unanimously to extend the competition.

And to his credit, the man also gives the impression he would carry on interviewing if someone set his trousers on fire. He also contributes to the Irish television station RTE and has his name on a premium-rate tipping line.His made his debut with a microphone at the age of 15, while still at Guisborough Grammar School, when he called the runners home at his local Cleveland point-to-point.After he left school at 17, he gained first-hand experience of horses, working for periods of six months each for the Bishop Auckland trainer Denys Smith and Pierre Sanoner at Chantilly, and rode in several amateur races on the Flat and over jumps, famously beating the Prince Of Wales in a close finish at Plumpton in 1980 for his only victory.. In his book, the show must go on.Thompson earns his living as a TV presenter, as a commentator for Satellite Information Services (the service which shows live racing in betting shops) and at Nad El Sheba racecourse in Dubai. The goat, a racehorse’s companion, is to blame for the latter as viewers were informed: “Oh look, it’s doing a pooh.”"Tommoballs” are legion, and Lester Piggott, never one to waste words, apparently told him to “F*** off” in front of a worldwide audience of hundreds of millions on Derby Day in 1983.He undoubtedly enjoys the celebrity status that TV exposure has given him, but then an ego of a certain size is not uncommon in visual media work. Many, however, know him as “The Nodding Dog”, a reference to the constant head-bobbing that accompanies many interviews, or “Toilet” Thompson. He tends to be given the lightweight, off-beat spots on Channel 4 and aims for populist appeal, but he is by no means everyone’s cup of tea.The biographical blurb on the inside flap of the cover of his recently published book Tommo’s Year gives his nickname as “The Master of the Microphone”. The Welsh have no second row in the same universe – indeed, they have no one as good as Garath Archer, either – and knife-edge Tests are usually won by the side capitalising on the odd area of clear superiority.Unless Johnson and Archer help secure the English scrummage, Dallaglio and his extravagantly equipped back-row confreres will be sitting ducks for the second time in as many matches.

He told the court: “I don’t want to repeat this in open court, which is why I’ve tried to stop it coming to open court because it was said to me in confidence. I was asking `What happened with Top Cees this afternoon as I thought he would win’ and Kieren’s words were, `Yes, I thought the horse would win as well but when I got into the paddock Jack told me to stop it.’”It might have been said flippantly, he might have had a couple too many. I am just repeating what he said to me one night in the pub.”Thompson said that he mentioned the conversation to a couple of people at the next morning’s Channel Four production meeting and suggested it might be worth interviewing Fallon, as Top Cees’ failure to win was a major racing story.”Kieren was obviously quite reluctant. he was being hounded by the press, if that’s the right word, so I said: `It will do you good to talk about it.’”I did say that what was said last night in The Plough will not come out and I will look after you.” He added: “I knew Kieren as a very good jockey, although not socially. I admired him greatly as a super horseman.”He said he was reluctant to become involved in the case because he had no desire to get involved with litigation between people he knew on both sides “It’s as simple as that. I did not want this to come out.”Patrick Milmo QC, for the Ramsdens and Fallon, opened his cross-examination by saying: “What you have just told the court about Kieren Fallon is an outrageous lie – that’s right, is it not?”Thompson: “If you think so, that’s up to you. But no, it’s not.”Milmo: “I’m putting that to you, Mr Thompson, I want you to face it.