A former jockey who partnered more than 60 winners on British racecourses has been named as the man who died six days after an alleged assault at a house in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. Patrick “Paddy” Donaghy, 39, died at a hospital on Sunday, September 13, 2026, after an incident on Monday, September 7 at a home on Stratheden Heights, in the town around 10 miles east of Belfast.
His older brother, Joseph Donaghy, 46, faces a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm over what happened.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced the investigation on Monday, September 14, saying detectives were examining the circumstances surrounding the death of a man in his 30s who had died at a hospital the previous day after an incident at a house in Stratheden Heights.
Brother Charged With Grievous Bodily Harm
Joseph Donaghy appeared at Newtownards Magistrates’ Court facing the grievous bodily harm charge. The court heard there had been a physical altercation between the brothers after they returned from a funeral that day.
A defense lawyer for Joseph Donaghy said his client had made admissions in what the defense team called a one-punch case, and relayed a message from him that he was grief-stricken by what had happened. The case was adjourned to September 23.
A Decade in British Flat Racing
Donaghy rode on the Flat in Britain for a decade, from 2005 to 2014, riding 63 winners in a career built largely in the north of England. He was a regular presence for trainers Pat Haslam and Jedd O’Keeffe, partnering 15 winners for Haslam and eight for the Leyburn-based O’Keeffe.
The strongest year of that career was 2008, when he rode 18 winners and banked £87,810 — the biggest prize-money haul he would record. The last of his winners came aboard Hamble at Lingfield in June 2014, and his final ride followed at Wolverhampton that October.
Donaghy also spent part of his riding career in Bahrain, where he rode several winners. Bahrain Racing posted that he had been a much-loved and respected member of the racing community there.
Tributes From Fellow Riders
Tributes came from across the sport. “So sad RIP paddy gone way to soon,” former jockey and ITV pundit Adele Mulrennan said.
Jockey Paul Mulrennan, who was apprenticed to Pat Haslam and got to know Donaghy when he first arrived at the yard, said he was saddened by the news. “I feel for his little boy Lennon, who’s only five, and the whole family,” Paul Mulrennan told the Racing Post.
He remembered a capable rider who, like many young jockeys, fought the scales throughout his career, and who remained funny, quick-witted and well-liked even though the job never unfolded the way he had wanted.
Death Notice and Funeral Arrangements
A death notice published on Funeral Times described Donaghy as the son of John and Sarah Donaghy, a brother to Joseph, Brona and her husband Simon, and Sarah, a devoted father to Lennon and an uncle to many nieces and nephews. It said he had died peacefully at a hospital and gave his address as Stratheden Heights, Newtownards.
The notice set a funeral service for Friday, September 18, at 11 a.m. at St. Patrick’s Parish Church on North Street in Newtownards, to be followed by committal in Movilla Cemetery, and asked that the house remain strictly private to family. The family requested family flowers only and invited donations to the intensive care unit at Ulster Hospital, made either online through the funeral director or by check.
Among the tributes from relatives, Donaghy’s cousin Gerard Donaghy posted on Facebook on Tuesday, September 15, writing that his heart ached in a way he could not really put into words.
How a 39-year-old father came to die after an incident at a house on his own street remains the subject of a police investigation and a criminal case at the local magistrates’ court. As of September 16, officers had given no account of what led to the incident or how Donaghy ended up at a hospital, saying only that detectives were working to establish the circumstances and that there were no further details at that stage.