THE East Galway Foxhounds meet at Timmy Broderick’s Pub in Kilconnell was just proof of the popularity of the hunt, but sadly, the hunt has lost two of their very popular former masters this season, Chantal Deon and Vincent Shields.
The weather has been very unkind and the going has been at best ‘yielding’, but really ‘soft’ in the hunt country. So a busy day’s hunting takes its toll on horses. But hunt staff and followers know when to call it a day as there is always the next day, and horses are much the better for it.
The hunt is very well managed with their spectacular new kennels in Laurencetown, designed and built by joint-master Joe Cavanagh. Seldom will you see such an imposing and cleverly designed and comfortable home for hounds. The hunt is fortunate that the chairman Tom Fahy, many of the masters, the huntsman and the whippers-in are all landowners and come from a hunting tradition working as a team which provides the experience of managing the hunt country.
Secondly, the great atmosphere and friendliness before, during, and particularly after a hunt! And finally, the number of families and particularly the high number of young riders following that don’t just stop when hunting is finished but get ready for the showjumping and eventing season.
Many of them follow the great tradition of hurling in East Galway, and enjoyed the homecoming last year when both the senior and minor teams were victors in both All Ireland Finals. East Galway has produced many talented showjumpers like Tom Slattery who rode the Grand Prix horse and national champion stallion Coille Mor Hill who, they said, although a pure Irish Draught thought like a thoroughbred! Ralph Conroy trained many young showjumpers, and I remember racehorse trainer Ado McGuinness and his sister Nuala when they were teenagers riding an outstanding pony on the Irish international showjumping team named Kylecrow, purchased in East Galway from the Larkin family.
The huntsman Liam McAlinden’s wife Dorothy is a daughter of legendary field-master of the Galway Blazers Willie Leahy, who was hosting a lawn meet for the Blazers at Aille Cross on the day. Of course, Willie is the largest breeder of Connemara Ponies probably in the world, and his Dartfield Horse Museum & Park host two of the Blazers point-to-points, and his Connemara Trail, which has beautiful views over Dogs Bay in Roundstone, is a big hit with tourists. Willie’s hunter hirelings are known all over the world and the Blazers hunt over his land at least four times in the season.
His son Justin and his wife Lindley have a Trail Ride consisting of valleys, beaches and vineyards in Western Oregon on the Pacific North West of the USA. Dorothy competed in her younger days in the 148cms pony jumping in Dublin on the Connemara stallion Grange Finn Sparrow, later sold to America. Her daughter Rachel won the 14.2hh Pony National Championship at Coilog Equestrian Centre last year, and their son Daniel, who is on the Young Riders Academy, spent time in Germany with Alex Duffy, and won the National Young Rider 1.20 Championship and an International Class in the 1.30m in Millstreet, and qualified four years in a row for the Dublin Horse Show in the 1.30m class on Knockash Galanta. Other East Galway young showjumpers are Ronan Fahy, Niall Horan, Olive Clarke and Damian Griffin.
Ready for the action were Thomas Fahy and his son Ronan with Darragh and Niall Horan. Marie Leahy was out for the first time this season with her daughter Niamh. Carol Spain, who I met last in Kildare, was schooling some of master Joe Cavanagh’s horses as he likes them biddable. He produced the Badminton eventer Comanche who completed Badminton nine times, the last time at 19 years of age and represented Britain in the European Championships in 2001, ridden by James Robinson. Fellow master Pascal Conroy is looking forward to hunting a horse by Grange Bouncer out of a Master Imp mare he purchased from Robert Prendergast in Gowran.
Joint-master Olive Broderick of Kylemore Stud, where she stands a number of jumping stallions, was absent. However, honorary secretary Kathleen Ward was hunting, as was Marie Dunne, Emer Dolly, Regina Power, Wendy Donnelan-Conlon, Dermot Duffy, Neil Larkin, Cathal Concannon and Jack Devlin. Riding up front was Niall Earls who also hunts with the Blazers. His family company Easyfix is now an international company founded by Michael Earls, based in Ballinasloe, and manufactures products for the agricultural industry and also equestrian rubber flooring. Easyfix racing fences and hurdles are used by many racecourses as well as by champion trainer Willie Mullins and the Curragh Schooling Grounds. Blazers followers Pat O’Neill and Randal McNally from Loughrea were over to enjoy a day with the East Galways, but Randal has hunted with them many times over the years.
WALL AFTER WALL
Huntsman Liam McAlinden takes great pride in his hounds so he was a happy man when everything just came together for a cracking day at the meet in Kilconnell.
The first draw was across the road from the creamery which is always a sure find but it is close to the village and foxes do not always run the right way! However, on this occasion as hounds entered the covert, a brace were up and running. One fox crossed the road and honorary whipper-in Alan Briscoe was quickly on the spot and stopped hounds as the huntsman did not want them to run that way.
So the pack were put onto the second fox and he headed for North’s with wall after wall and plenty of wire to be crossed, but hounds checked at John Joe Carthy’s. Scent was so poor that the fox had time to lay low in thick briars, and hounds had difficulty dislodging him. However, first season bitch Package (by Duhallow Paddy) and second season Dalton (by Cotswold Vale Farmers Banjo) persisted and never stopped feathering, and quick as a flash, they had him on the run again.
The fox headed left-handed for Jackie Kelly’s and back through Pat Joe Connolly’s and across Martin Gormley’s towards the find. But he did not have time to delay in the small covert before heading towards Kilconnell, and left-handed again crossing the river at John and Shirley North’s farm where they checked again.
John Ringling North comes from one of America’s best known circus families. His wife Shirley is a former master of the Galway Blazers and whipped into the late Michael Higgens when he hunted the East Galways. They own the Kelly Miller Circus in Oklahoma which they have decided to sell as they are retiring.
Hounds were running again at the back of the house, over the farmyard through the second covert left-handed up through the cattle feed lots and left through Joe Carthy’s, Stephen Byrne’s, Tom Delaney’s and left through Pat Joe Carthy’s where there was great excitement as a number of followers got a ducking in a very wet drain. The pack marked this fox to ground after a run of one hour and 10 minutes in a bank beside the Ballinasloe to Kilconnell road in Jackie Kelly’s. It was just steady hunting with hounds never stopping working, but anybody interested in hound work were in their element as they had time to appreciate the incredible work-rate of the pack and a patient huntsman.
Horses and riders were ‘cooked’, so they called it a day. Seldom would one see so many beaming smiles, particularly field-master Cathal Gibbons who was hardly able to speak with a dose of the flu but such is his passion for the chase he was content to risk pneumonia to have a red letter day!
They know how to round off a day’s hunting in East Galway as Timmy Broderick’s Pub was heaving with the crowd with refreshments and good lively banter the order of the day.
EAST
GALWAY
FOXHOUNDS
Chairman: Tom Fahy
Masters: Joe Cavanagh, Pascal Conroy and Olive Broderick
Huntsman: Liam McAlinden
Whipper-in: Alan Briscoe (honorary) and Neville Horsman (honorary)
Field-master: Cathal Gibbons
HISTORY
The area was hunted by Giles Eyre from 1791-1829. The hunt was disbanded in 1848 and revived in 1880, disbanded again in 1956, and restarted again in 1970.