A businessman and bloodstock breeder, Mr Jack Vard, has died aged 72. Mr Vard was a major shareholder in Doreen Holdings, a Dublin manufacturer of women's clothes which he set up in 1946 with his brothers, Cecil and Leslie, in 1946.
At the age of 12 he played two Russian chess masters in Dublin and drew both games. He was a champion wrestler and one of the Irish wrestling team at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. He maintained a keen interest in the Olympic movement, and Doreen manufactured the jackets for Irish women participating in the games.
His brother, Leslie, said yesterday he died after a long struggle with cancer.