In his capacity as director-general of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland, Mr Tony Kelly was the most senior member of the association's staff and, until his dramatic departure at lunchtime yesterday, was responsible for the day-to-day running of the SJAI's Dublin headquarters.
The association, which governs the sport of showjumping, was formed in 1954, and there are now almost 7,000 members and over 500,000 horses and ponies registered on its books. Last year's fixture list boasted 600 show days, a reduction on the record figure of 650 for the previous 12-month period.
It is almost 20 years since the association underwent a complete restructuring and became a limited company. The national chairman is elected for a two-year term of office and presides over a 20-member board of directors made up of five representatives from each of the four regions.
Ms Bernie Brennan of Galway was elected to the national chair in December last year to become the first female to chair the association. She is a former chairwoman of the SJAI's Connacht region and the Galway County Show and served on the national executive committee for a number of years.
The current board of directors is made up of Leinster representatives Michael Hutchinson, Brian Gormley, Jack Doyle, Gilly Beare and Barry O'Connor; Munster's Norman Wheeler, Tommy Wade, Tom Meagher, Tony Hurley and Michael Hennessy; Connacht's Ado Kenny, Harry Farrell, Paul Duffy, Seamus Kavanagh and Oliver Conway; and the northern region's George Devlin, Harold Lusk, Leonard Cave, Eamonn Rice and Liz Pottie.
The national vice-chairman is the traditional successor to the national chair and Leinster region chairman Mr Michael Hutchinson is already earmarked to follow Ms Bernie Brennan's after her term of office.
The body also includes an international affairs committee responsible for senior team selection, as well as committees to oversee ponies, judges, course-builders, national training and competitions, veterinary matters and amateur riders.
The SJAI has six representatives on the Equestrian Federation of Ireland, the umbrella organisation which receives Irish Sports Council funding that is then disbursed among the 14 national equestrian disciplines.
Mr Kelly was himself a former chairman of the Leinster region, taking over as national chairman in 1992. When he was employed by the association as director-general in April of that year he resigned the national chair, passing it to a Co Longford veterinary surgeon, Mr Brian Gormley.
But Mr Kelly's links with the SJAI go back as far as 1972, when he began working in a voluntary capacity as a judge and, subsequently, a commentator, roles which he still fills today.