Marguerite (Gita) Weld (b. 1914)

Track 1: Following her marriage to Charlie Weld, the couple moved to England for two years, where Charlie trained horses. The family background of her parents and grandparents. Track 2: Returned to Ireland, living near the Phoenix Park, where they trained horses. Memories of travelling to the horse sales in Newmarket in the 1950s, with Dermot, her young son. Track 3: The logistics of moving home and horses to Rosewell Stud in the 1950s; building up the business of horse breeding; the owners for whom her husband trained horses. Track 4: The owners and trainers in the Curragh area; her patrons over the years; getting involved in breeding horses with her father, and later her brother; the jockeys the family retained over the years. Track 5: With prompting from Dermot, recalled the early days of sending horses overseas to race meetings, and hearing race results on Michéal Ó hEithir’s radio programme. Memories also of Dermot’s first win as an amateur jockey, when he was fifteen. Track 6: The stable hands, the yard men and the grooms who worked for the Welds over the years. The days of transporting horses to race meetings by CIÉ, parading them from the train stations and through the town to the racecourse. Track 7: The business of breeding and selling horses; the purchase of Glen Vale Stud in Tipperary and later Piper’s Hill Stud in Naas and finally Spring Bank in the Curragh. Track 8: The importance of planning and choosing the appropriate race for a horse to fulfil its potential. Anecdote of the origins of her nickname Gita.