TO lose a good friend and contemporary is always a telling blow. So it was as his family, many friends and colleagues gathered at Emly church to say their final farewell to Philip Purcell. Always known as Phil, he was well known and highly respected in the auctioneering profession.

Born in Emly 73 years ago to a strong hunting and farming family, the love of all things equestrian passed on to him by his father is something that never left him and he hunted well past his 70th birthday.

Indeed it was through hunting, Phil met his wife Maura who had been brought up hunting with the Ward Union from her home in North Co. Dublin. The couple met at what was then Ballsbridge sales, where Phil was one of the first auctioneers. He invited Maura to have a day’s hunting with the Scarteen Black and Tans from a meet at Knockane. On the day Maura was not found wanting nor was she for the succeeding 40 years or so when both of them hunted with Scarteen and further afield. Phil would always precede short family speeches by saying the best thing he had ever done was to have married Maura!

Educated at Castleknock College, he had a brief sojourn in the Veterinary College and as assistant trainer to the great PP Hogan before he decided that auctioneering might be more to his liking. He started in New Ross with the firm of PN O’Gorman where he sold everything from farms to bicycles. While in New Ross, Phil kept a couple of horses in training and had a couple of rides in bumpers.

He loved New Ross but when his father fell ill. he came home to take over the family farm. However full-time farming was never for Phil and very soon a job became available in the then fledgling mart Golden Vale in nearby Kilmallock. It was a role he never left and in due course, he became property manager and the company blossomed. His unending store of sound common sense combined with an unshakable integrity made him an integral part of the property scene in Co Limerick. He became auctioneer to the Charolais Society and conducted their sales in Tullamore for many years.

However it was on Tattersalls’ rostrum that he really shone. A keen judge of a horse but an even better judge of his bidders, Phil had that ability to get the last bid possible in the ring for his vendors. He was acutely aware of the position of trust held by an auctioneer to his clients who might well be dependent on getting a decent price for the survival of their family business. He frequently acted as guest auctioneer in the UK and more than once, sold horses that belonged to Queen Elizabeth II.

In the hunting field he was really in his element. In the very early days of the Hunt Chase, the brain child of Thady Ryan, he and I were on the very first Scarteen team to compete at the RDS and went on to represent Irish hunting at the Royal Show in Stoneleigh. This gave rise to many hunting trips to Leicestershire and the Beaufort and Wynstay with both this author and his good friend Dr Matt Corcoran.

An all round sportsman, Phil was also a keen tennis player and when he hung up his hunting boots, he took to ballroom dancing for which he received many awards.

Over the years, hehad many horses in training – the last of whom was the very useful Granny Maura, trained by Liam Burke. His love of hunting he passed on to his family. His daughter Sonia is the secretary of the Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association while son Kenneth and his wife Mel run a hunting yard from Phil’s old family home at Farran. His son Nigel, now living in France, hunts both in France and on trips home with most of the leading Irish packs.

Phil’s eulogy included lines from Will Ogilvie’s famous hunting poem The Veteran:

“His eyes are somewhat dimmer than they were in days of yore,

A blind fence now might trap him where it never trapped before;

But when the rails stand clean and high, the banks stand big and bare,

There’s no man rides so boldly as there’s no man rides so fair.

“Here’s luck! Oh! Good, grey sportsman! May Time be long defied

By careful seat and Cunning hand and health and heart to ride,

And when that direful day become that surely shall befall,

We’ll know you still unbeaten, save by Time that beats us all!”

Sadly for Phil that ‘direful day’ did come. He died at home surrounded by his family, looking out over the land he love. He is now on the celestial rostrum selling pieces of paradise and hunting in Elysian Fields.

D &C P