Human Dignity award for Barney Curley

Ireland’s most famous gambler who has raised millions of euro for schools and hospitals in Africa will receive a special award from the Ceann Comhairle, Sean Barrett, at a ceremony on 3rd December.

Barney Curley from Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh is the 2015 recipient of the ‘Human Life, Human Rights and Human Dignity Award’ presented by the Oireachtas Human Dignity Group. He will share the award with DAFA (Direct Aid for Africa), the charity he co-founded in 1997.

Curley is of course famous for his betting coup with Yellow Sam at Bellewstown Racecourse forty years ago this summer.

“Barney Curley is in many ways an unlikely hero,” said Mr Barrett. “Not many gamblers get nominated for awards. But here is a man who is transforming countless lives through tireless fundraising for some of the world’s most underprivileged people. That deserves to be celebrated and honoured.”

Curley co-founded DAFA in 1997 after the death of his son Charlie in a car crash led him to visit Zambia to see the work being done in missionary-run schools and hospitals.

The charity, which benefits hugely from Curley’s role and from money sourced from his contacts in racing, has contributed over €2.7 million to various humanitarian projects, mainly in Zambia. Major figures in racing, including Sheikh Mohammed, have donated thanks to Curley’s intervention.

Curley and DAFA were nominated for the award at the October meeting of the Oireachtas Human Dignity Group, following a proposal from Senator Rónán Mullen.

“Barney Curley is long overdue an award for his creative approach to work and his single-minded dedication to the least fortunate people in the world,” said Senator Mullen. “He has used his unusual and intriguing talent for the most noble of purposes – helping others. We are grateful to him.”

Curley is currently in Zambia where DAFA has recently been working to get the Kavu Health Centre in a rural area of the country upgraded to hospital status. He said: “It shouldn’t really be me receiving this award but all those people out there - the nuns and priests and all the workers. They’re something else. But if the award gets DAFA known by more people, that can only be good.”

He added: “I have been granted a great privilege to be able to do this. Few people get that privilege. When I receive the award I’ll be thinking of all the people working out there.”

The Oireachtas Human Dignity Group was established to promote discussion in Leinster House about the importance of respecting human dignity at all stages of life. Membership is informal, and the Group’s activities are open to all members of the Oireachtas and MEPs who share its aims and are interested in participating.

Curley is only the second recipient of the honour. Last year’s inaugural award was presented to Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary’s Meals, in December.

He is most famous for his successful gambling exploits, tireless fund-raising and generous philanthropy. He rose to prominence after pulling off one of Ireland’s most famous betting coups at Bellewstown racecourse on the 26th June 1975. That afternoon, Yellow Sam won at 20-1, and Barney and his friends netted around IR£300,000 — over €3.1 million in today’s terms. Bellewstown recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of this event by staging a specially commissioned play, Yellow Sam, at this year’s race meeting.

A coup staged by Curley in 2010 amassed total winnings of €5.2 million, and members of his family successfully challenged the Gibraltar government when its regulatory authority sanctioned the refusal to pay out on winnings by a number of British online betting operators registered there. The case was settled in February 2012. It has since led to the so-called ‘Curley Tax’ on off-shore betting.

Described by one racing industry analyst as ‘by far and away the most intriguing man in racing,’ Curley made further headlines last year when four horses linked to him won in races across the U.K. on the same day, reportedly costing bookmakers millions. Paddy Power colourfully described it as ‘one of the blackest days in the history of bookmaking.’

More recently, Barney has challenged David Cameron’s policy concerning the refugee crisis, taking a very public stand on the issue by erecting a banner outside his Newmarket stud urging Mr. Cameron to do more for those fleeing violence in the Middle East. He has also volunteered to take refugees into his own home.

Barney is married to Maureen, whom he met at Killarney racecourse. He has been based in England since 1982, and currently lives near Newmarket. Although he retired from training in 2013, he continues to help the underprivileged through DAFA (Direct Aid for Africa), a charity he co-founded after the death of his son, Charlie, in 1995.

Hailed by many in the horse racing community as a ‘Robin Hood’ figure who steals from the rich to give to the poor (The Economist, December 2014), his creative approach to work and single-minded dedication to helping the world’s most underprivileged people makes him a deserving recipient of the 2015 Oireachtas Human Life, Human Rights and Human Dignity Award.