Raise a glass to Sláinte – a horse with a secret

LIAM O’Neill’s mare will never win a race, especially not with a bellyful of whiskey, but she might help to get injured jockeys back on their feet.

Standing seven foot tall to the tips of her ears, ‘Sláinte’ has an imposing presence in the centre of Liam’s studio in The Colony and he says he knew from the first moment he saw her that she wanted to be a racehorse – even if she is made of plastic.

Sláinte is one of 20 horses that were stabled with prominent artists from across Ireland. They arrived in gleaming white, with the sole instruction that they could become whatever the individual artist’s inspiration would make of them. Some are now adorned with flowers or celtic designs; but Liam looked Sláinte in the eye and felt that, in her plastic heart, she wanted to be a racehorse.

So he simply painted her as a chestnut mare and, with the help of Monza Heidtke, enlisted Elaine Waters of Uisce Saddlery in Holy Ground to make a bridle while Karen Nicholson sourced a racing saddle and stirrups. Liam also added a twist to the tale by getting his friend Walter Castellezzo, who has a house in Inch but works as a cabinet maker in London, to insert a finely crafted mini-bar, stocked with single malt Dingle Whiskey, under Sláinte’s saddle cloth.

A selection of the artwork horses will be auctioned at Irish Derby day in the Curragh in June to raise money for the Injured Jockeys’ Fund. If Liam’s horse makes it to the parade ring what she has under the saddle will add greatly to her value because one of the bottles of whiskey is first batch Dingle single malt, adorned with Liam’s painting of the Ballyferriter men’s 2016 march over the Conor Pass to commemorate the centenary of a famous march to Tralee by West Kerry Volunteers. A similar bottle sold recently for €2,000, so with the pure drop under her saddle there’s no doubt but that Sláinte could well be the dark horse in the race.

Photos by Declan Malone Liam O’Neill in his studio on The Colony with leather worker Elaine Waters and a horse called ‘Sláinte’. INSET: The secret is out from under Sláinte’s saddle.