Jonathan Irwin

Jonathan Hiatt Nicolson Dermot Irwin (21 June 1941 – 10 December 2023) was a British-Irish bloodstock agent, auctioneer, stud owner, publisher, racetrack executive and charity founder. In 1997, he founded the Jack and Jill Foundation with his wife Mary Ann O'Brien, to provide home health care to severely sick babies. It was set up as a direct response to the couple's experience of caring at home for their son Jack, born with severe brain damage in 1996.

Biography

Early life and education Jonathan Hiatt Nicolson Dermot Irwin was born into an Anglo-Irish family. His father, John Irwin, was an Irish actor, writer and a BBC producer and his mother Philippa Hiatt, was a British stage and screen actress. He spent his early childhood in Coleshill, Buckinghamshire and later in Holland Park, London. He was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, and Trinity College Dublin.

Personal life and death On 22 February 1964, he married Mikaela Rawlinson, the eldest daughter of Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell and Rawlinson's first wife, Haidee Rawlinson (née Kavanagh). He and Mikaela had four children.

Irwin divorced Mikaela after which he married Mary Ann O'Brien on 17 March 1991. With Mary Ann O'Brien, he had three sons and two daughters.

Jonathan Irwin died on 10 December 2023, at the age of 82.

Career

British Bloodstock Agency Irwin's interest in racing began at Eton where he shared in a school bookmaking team with William Pigott-Brown and Jonathan Sheppard, son of Jockey Club Handicapper Dan Sheppard. By his second term at Trinity, his interest in racing had begun to overshadow his studies, when a friend of his mother's, the ex-Battle of Britain pilot Wing Commander Tim Vigors, asked him to join his Dublin bloodstock agency at IR£5 a week. Vigors and his partner Tom Cooper he singles out as the main influences in his life. "Integrity and a knowledge of the business I learnt from them." When Vigors moved to England, the business was bought out by the British Bloodstock Agency and was subsequently renamed British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) Ltd, and went on to be one of the leading bloodstock agencies in the country.

By his mid-twenties, Irwin had become the director and remained with the company for fifteen years until 1974. During his time with British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) Limited, he introduced the Irish Stallion Incentive Scheme which was so successful that it morphed into the European Breeders Fund.

In 1974 Irwin was approached by the Irish senator and racing patron Paddy McGrath to manage Goffs, then a small private company on the verge of bankruptcy. According to Irwin he didn't want merely the most modern and best equipped sales complex, he also wanted a whole new approach to business within the horse industry. He was mortified "that class distinction should still be so rampant. It is difficult for an outsider to learn even how to buy a horse at a sale. Younger people just have to be attracted and to them and to everybody else my door will always be open."

The family suffered significant trauma, and encountered a series of bureaucratic obstacles before an offer of help from a retired nurse provided a catalyst which sustained them through the remaining months of their son's short life. Other nurses became involved with Jack's care, and out of the seeds of family anguish, fresh hopes grew for others. Irwin's wife Mary Ann O'Brien, already a senator, had already joined the party and publicly declared she would stand for the party in the 2016 Irish general election.