Two Connemara ponies will spend their summer horsing around Áras an Uachtaráin, swapping Kylemore Abbey for pastures new in the Phoenix Park.
Connemara mare Ruby and her foal Peaceful Pippa – who was born around Easter – will spend the summer welcoming visitors and international dignitaries as “living ambassadors from Connemara”.
They will stay there until around October, something Conor Coyne, the chief executive of Kylemore Abbey in Co Galway, said makes sense as that is when the foal is weaned from the mother.
Coyne joked: “Hopefully the foal isn’t speaking with a Dublin accent” when she returns to the abbey.
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Connemara ponies first paid a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin in 2021. Coyne said President Catherine Connolly, who is from Galway, wanted to “reignite this relationship again” when she visited Kylemore Abbey earlier this year.
While there, she named a foal that was born a few days earlier “Peaceful Áras”, as each foal born at the abbey carries the “Peaceful” prefix.
He said it was a full circle moment for Ruby who was gifted to Kylemore Abbey from Connemara National Park and is descended from a herd of ponies that former president Erskine Childers sent from Áras an Uachtaráin to the national park.
He explained this was part of the reason why Ruby and her foal were chosen to spend the summer in the Phoenix Park, as well as her being “very gentle and docile”.
Connolly said visitors to Áras an Uachtaráin over the remainder of the summer “will treasure the opportunity of being close to our only native pony breed”.
The first herd of Connemara ponies was introduced to the abbey, which is home to a Benedictine community of nuns, in 2019.
Coyne said the abbey had to ensure the ponies were “not overweight” before coming to Dublin as the grass there “would not be something they’re particularly used to, coming from the west of Ireland”.
He described them as very sure-footed, very calm and very tough creatures given their origins on the mountains and hillsides in Connemara.
The ponies will stay in a paddock opposite the main entrance. The grass has been cut and bailed into hay in advance of their arrival.
“They’re there really as a showcase for the national breed for all the dignitaries and foreign leaders and whoever may come over the next three or four months,” said Coyne.
“They’re a domestic, indigenous breed, so, from a biodiversity perspective, it makes sense,” he said. “They’ll be able to make sure that the natural flora and fauna will be able to flourish there and they can be there in unison with that.”
Coyne said Kylemore Abbey has had a “very good summer so far” and is “trending better than last year”, which was their busiest year when they welcomed more than half a million visitors from 84 countries.
“We’re delighted to say that actually we’re having a very successful year ... we continue to be getting people from all over the world.”
