John Nicholson inherited Balrath House, BalrathBury, Kells, Co. Meath sometime in the 60’s. The house was a large period country house, with all that went with those large period houses of the time, cattle yard, stable yard, coach yard, workshops etc.
 
It also had a deer park of approx 50 acres with Fallow Deer.
Because of the Deer he joined the IDS and we had many IDS outings & field days there in the early 1970’s, we had deer tagging days there for many years.

 Dr Salman and Liam McGarry

These tagging sessions were very popular and great family days with opportunities for photographs etc.

John then became National Chairman of the IDS for a number of years.
On the deer farm the numbers of deer built up and as I was very friendly with him he requested advice on the management of the herd. The IDS also used the deer park for demonstrating on groloching, shot reaction & field work for the IDS hunting & management courses.
 
John liked his deer so much he wanted to keep as many as possible in the park sometimes too many. Management advice was always that the park should have no more than 50 animals. At one stage they were allowed to increase to over 150.

 John was National Chairman at this time and while the branches were wealthy the National body was poor and we organised a cull and arranged to sell the carcases to a game dealer from England who was in Ireland to collect animals from the forest service and other parks.

 John gave a large percentage of the money to the IDS which got the National Council back on its feet again.
 
Around this time John was in Dublin (weirs of Grafton St) and saw a deer casting and bought it and contacted me saying that he wanted to present it to the IDS.

At this time we were also involved with the British Deer Society and I was aware of a BDS similar trophy (Balfour Brown Award) which was awarded to a Forester each year for work on Deer and so the John Nicholson Trophy was born.

The conditions agreed with John at the time are as printed in the rules. and are as follows: 

• The John Nicholson trophy has been presented to the Irish Deer Society by Mr. John Nicholson
• The trophy is to be awarded annually for meritorious service in the welfare, conservation and protection of deer in Ireland whether the deer are wild, feral or park
• The recipient can be any person or a corporate body. The trophy will be presented at the AGM of the Irish Deer Society
• The recipient will be selected by the national council at the last but one council meeting before the AGM. from names of suitable persons or bodies, which will be submitted to the council for consideration by the various branches of the Irish Deer Society
• If in the opinion of the council no suitable person or body has been nominated the trophy will not be awarded
• If the trophy has not been awarded it will be retained in the position of the President protem of the Irish Deer Society.

Recipients in the past included Billy Duggan secretary Dept of Lands, Andy Morrissey founder IDS, Fr, Kissane founder Kerry Deer Society, NI Forest Service, Coillte, Charlie Haughey, Michael Dowling Kerry DS, Dan Cronin Kerry DS, Franz Graf Waldburg, Dr. Kevin Dodd. John McCullen Phoenix Park.

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Mr Liam McGarry