The Life And Times of Bernard Dillon: ‘The Narie that Won the Derby’

This book has got it all. Love, hate, theatrical glamour, violence and sporting heroism. The story could make novel, but it is actually a true story of a young man from the rural west of Ireland who found fame and fortune as a dazzling Edwardian jockey too soon, became a toy-boy to an international super-star then disappeared. He was hated by the British establishment which undoubtedly aided his downfall but the lead-up to the finish makes compelling reading. This was a bittersweet read for me as a grand-niece of the subject, Bernard Dillon who was born in the Strand Road area of Tralee. I am very happy however that Tralee born journalist Stephen Fernane’s detective skills sniffed out his fellow townsman and picked up his story. Bernard had little unbiased information written about him as a person, even horse racing books that should have credited his brilliance cite dubious sources but using Bernard’s memoirs and records from the British Newspaper archives Stephen challenged the biographers of Bernard’s Music-Hall, megastar wife Marie Lloyd and finally put his story into context, which has never been done before. This book begins with Bernard’s birth in 19th century Tralee, and ends with a quote “Dillon was the genius of the lot…but uncontrollable,” which should tell you something.
If you have an interest in horse racing you will get an idea of how the sport in post-famine Ireland became a national pastime and demonstrates how Ireland produced some of the greatest jockeys in history; in this case some of them in one family who emigrated to England during one of Irelands most tumultuous periods.
Bernard was a highly complex, flawed character and this book doesn’t gloss over any of that, but it does record in great detail the glittering career Bernard enjoyed before he met his wife; this is something that seems to have been forgotten so far and yet it should be the biggest story of all. Why no-one has dared to write his honest biography before is puzzling because it is a fascinating read. It is entirely true that Bernard and his wife had a tempestuous and violent relationship and Stephen Fernane makes no bones about that. At no time does Stephen protect Bernard because of some neighbourly loyalty, instead he tells it as it is; a story about a boy who is a brilliant horseman and using a huge amount of courage leaves the safety of his hometown at the age of thirteen to pursue his dream in another country, a country that is politically alien to Ireland at that time. Bernard does it with style and Stephen tells us all about it.
The reader should not be under any illusions, Bernard was not born bad, he was one of the most talented Edwardian jockeys who went bad because of a multitude of circumstances.
Reading about Bernard’s rise to fame and his plummet into obscurity is a roller-coaster, you wonder how it can possibly get worse but there is no happy-ending, however, I know that there was a different side to Bernard when it came to his brothers and their children.
For anyone who is interested in Irish history, horse-racing, Edwardian theatre, the problems surrounding childhood stardom or just someone who wants to learn about someone with a huge character from Kerry should read this great story. It just goes to show how the story of adolescent fame, fortune and media scrutiny is not a twenty-first-century phenomenon.