Maurice Harty

Maurice Harty was killed at Baldoyle on Tuesday, 18 September 1906 when falling from the 6-4 favourite Island Chief in the Coolock Plate.

The ambulance was brought immediately after he fell and Maurice was still breathing when lifted into it, but before it reached the stand house, and medical aid could be procured, Maurice had died. Surgeon McCardle and Dr. Donoghue were speedily in attendance, but although artificial respiration was resorted to, it was of no avail.

But should Maurice have been riding at all?

He had recently been a patient at St Vincent's Hospital, suffering from injury to the brain and, at an inquest later, conducted by County Coroner Christopher Friery, his cause of death was given as fracture to the base of the skull and that 'a previous injury almost certainly accelerated death'. After the inquest, his body was taken to his native town of Co Limerick for interment.

Maurice, described as a 'well-conducted lad' served his apprenticeship with Captain Dewhurst and, so far that season, had ridden seven winners. The first of those was on Duckey in the Regulation Chase at Baldoyle on 16 March 1904.

Aged twenty-three, Maurice was one of the finest cross-country jockeys in Ireland, and his untimely death came as a great shock to his many friends.