Jonathan Hiatt Nicolson Dermot Irwin (born 21 June 1941), is a former blood stock agent, auctioneer, stud owner, publisher and racetrack executive. In 1997, he founded the Jack and Jill Foundation with his wife Mary Ann O'Brien, to provide home health care to severely sick babies. It was set up as a direct response to the Irwin’s experience of caring at home for their son Jack, born with severe brain damage in 1996. Biography Family and early life Irwin was born into an Anglo-Irish family. His father, John Irwin (1913-1975), was an Irish actor, writer and a BBC producer and his mother Philippa Hiatt (b.1918), was a British stage and screen actress. He spent his early childhood in Coleshill, Buckinghamshire and later in Holland Park, London. He was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, and Trinity College, Dublin. Personal life On 22 February 1964 he married Mikaela Rawlinson (b.17 July 1941), the eldest daughter of Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, (1919-2006), and Rawlinson's first wife, Haidee Rawlinson (née Kavanagh). He and Mikaela had four children: Pirate Irwin (b.1965), Luke Irwin (b.1967), Jago Irwin (b.1971) and Samson Fortune Irwin (1982 – 2000). Irwin divorced Mikaela in 1989 after which he married Mary Ann O'Brien on 17 March 1991. With Mary Ann O'Brien, he had three sons and two daughters: Lily Irwin, Phonsie, John Irwin (died in infancy), Jack Irwin (29 February 1996 – 13 December 1997) and Molly Irwin. Career British Bloodstock Agency Irwin's interest in racing began at Eton where he shared in a school bookmaking team with William Pigott-Brown and Jonathan Sheppard, son of Jockey Club Handicapper Dan Sheppard. By his second term at Trinity, his interest in racing had begun to overshadow his studies, when a friend of his mother's, the ex-Battle of Britain pilot Wing Commander Tim Vigors, asked him to join his Dublin bloodstock agency at IR£5 a week. Vigors and his partner Tom Cooper he singles out as the main influences in his life. "Integrity and a knowledge of the business I learnt from them." When Vigors moved to England, the business was bought out by the British Blood Stock Agency and was subsequently renamed British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) Ltd, and went on to be one of the leading bloodstock agencies in the country. By his mid-twenties Irwin was to become the director and remained with the company for fifteen years until 1974. During his