During the early 1960s, when I was 13, I went to work in the school holidays at the home of our local MP in County Fermanagh. One day Lord Brookeborough, the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and a figure on the international stage, arrived at the house on horseback. Suddenly the horse he was riding bolted off towards the border with the Republic of Ireland. Of course, at that time, it would not have been safe for the Prime Minister to gallop across the border. Lord Brookeborough managed to get off the horse before reaching the border and a man called Pat Chapman ran across the border to rescue his horse. In return, Lord Brookeborough gave Pat half a crown. During the escapade the horse lost a shoe and Pat put the money on a wooden board with the shoe. He later gave me the memento. Contributed by Florence Creighton during the AHOW event at Enniskillen Library.
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