HISTORY
The area was originally hunted by Giles Eyre of Eyrecourt 1791-1829. The hunt was founded in 1880, disbanded in 1956 and revived in 1969 with Michael Higgens hunting hounds and later, Michael Dempsey followed by his son Michael Jr.
EAST GALWAY FOXHOUNDS
Chairman: Tom Fahy
Masters: Joe Cavanagh, Olive Donnellan, Pascal Conroy and Niall Earls
Huntsman: Liam McAlinden
Whippers-in: Alan Briscoe and Neville Horsman
Field-master: Cathal Gibbons
Honorary secretary: Kathleen Ward
Point-to-point Secretary: Bridie Larkin
Hunter trials secretary: Marie Dunne Gibbons
AS the end of the season comes close, it has not come soon enough for some East Galway followers. The hunt could open a casualty ward with old hunting injuries resurrecting themselves like niggling joints, dodgy knees, frozen shoulders and sore hips. Joint-master Joe Cavanagh has just had knee surgery and remarkably, he was following by car a few days afterwards. One follower I met was walking very bandily and he admitted that he would be unable to block a terrier in a corridor! But the East Galway followers are made of sterner stuff and despite their temporary troubles, they all look fine when they are on their hunters!
To compound matters further, some of their hunt horses also have to be rested. But East Galway has a reputation for producing top-class showjumping and eventing horses, so despite their value, they are not being kept in cotton wool and being called into action to get followers to the end of the season. No doubt a bit of serious hunting will probably sharpen them up for the competition season.
Niall Earls has been invited to be the new joint-master, joining Joe Cavanagh, Olive Broderick and Pascal Conroy. Niall’s family are manufacturers of Easyfix racecourse fences and rubber matting for the agricultural industry. Following was one of Ireland’s most successful coaches, Ralph Conroy of the local Milchem Equestrian Centre in Tynagh, a former huntsman himself. He has trained many of the top young showjumpers and eventers in the west including World Equestrian Games eventing team silver medallist Cathal Daniels. Ralph, who is also a breeder and producer of showjumpers and eventers, was profiled in The Irish Field in a recent feature by Susan Finnerty who described him as ‘the medal maker’, as at least 13 European medal-winners have been trained by him. He was following his niece Caoimhe and sister-in-law Caroline.
Joint-master Olive Broderick, who was hunting a smashing hunter with Clover Hill bloodlines, was out with her son Joshua. Olive and her husband Ivor own Kylemore Stud that stands successful stallions like Watermill Swatch, Tyson, Womanizer and will shortly stand two of Jimmy Quinn’s Irish Draught stallions – Cappa Casanova and Cappa Aristocrat – while Jimmy and his wife Edel undertake a project in China.
WEG silver medallist Cathal Daniels will campaign Broderick’s four-year-old thoroughbred KMS Timeless and Neil Fearon will show-jump Good Luck VDL. Honorary secretary Kathleen Ward was on a good performing Appaloosa. The huntsman’s wife, Dorothy, a daughter of Blazers field-master Willie Leahy, was hunting with her daughter Rachel and son Daniel, a regular competitor at the Dublin Horse Show. He is now campaigning three showjumpers for honorary whipper-in Alan Briscoe. Briscoe was on foot as he has run out of hunters but has another on order. He was accompanied by his bulldog Bertie, who is related to former international rugby player Jamie Heaslip’s dog Jay-Z. Bertie is really spoiled, and to develop his personality, he goes to doggy day-care to socialise!
It was great to see his fellow whipper-in Neville Horsman back in action after a short layoff. Former Laois Foxhounds whipper-in Ann Hannify was out, as were Cerella Larkin, Kate Naughton, Neil Larkin, Liam Briscoe, Marie Leahy and her daughter Niamh and Caoimhe Conroy and her brother Stephen. Haddy Lewis Jones was visiting from the Blazers and Grallagh country. Also hunting were Christine Rabbitt and her son Conor, Wesley Ryan. Chairman Tom Fahy’s sons Colm and Tom were out. Scott Casky, a regular visitor from the Alchemy Restaurant in exclusive Martha’s Vineyard, USA, was hunting and he also has a Welcome Flagmount hunter at home in the USA.
Following was Oliver Walsh from nearby Flowerhill Equestrian Centre, huntsman of the Roscommon Harriers, as well as John Morrissey, former field-master of the Roscommons, and Niall Molloy, a fine horseman who spent a few seasons whipping-in to Mr Stewart’s Cheshire Hounds, Pennsylvania, USA, whose huntsman is Loughrea native Ivan Dowling. Paula Cosgrave, who had a horse-related accident, is on the mend and all are looking forward to seeing her back in the saddle. Local farmer Sean Canavan was following every inch of the way in his New Holland tractor. They say he has worn out five tractors following the East Galways over 50 years! Keeping up with the action also were Larry Gohery, Kirsti Cannole and Joe O’Rourke.
With field-master Cathal Gibbons not hunting on the day, the hunt were spoiled for choice with Tom Fahy filling in, and David Masterson, a former whipper-in of the Ormond Foxhounds and the United Foxhounds, in the wings. Johnnie O’Donnell and his son Shane do the fencing, and not alone do they do a fantastic job putting the country back together, but are also the hunt’s finest diplomats with a great relationship with the farming community.
Joint-master of the East Galway Foxhounds Olive Broderick of Kylemore Stud with her son Joshua at the meet from McDonagh's pub, Tynagh (Photo: Noel Mullins)
GREAT HUNTING
The day was to unfold as one of the best days of the season. The first draw was across from the pub and it started the way you like all hunts to, with a symphony of hound music from the 12 ½ couple in Padraic Conway’s Plantation. A brace and a half were on the move. Thomas Fahy viewed one away left-handed through Patsy Blake’s and on through Laurance and Eamonn Fells’ winter corn, but he circled back in the direction of Portumna and into the corner of Fells’ again with a nice line of walls, hedges and a few hunt jumps which helped to get the followers’ eyes in.
The pack flew over Laurence Lawless’ before checking. McAlinden did a clever diagonal cast and immediately Panther, a fourth season home-bred Old English doghound, picked it up with great drive and accuracy pressing on through Josh Tierney’s and the experienced bitch Carty was the first to mark to ground in Fells’ out farm with the rest of the pack quickly on the spot for a 45-minute pipe-opener.
The huntsman went back through the same covert again and the pack picked a cold line and feathered away slowly, but the other brace had long gone and scent was almost non-existent. So the huntsman wasted no time drawing a fresh covert across the road and immediately the pack were screaming away again on yet another brace as there must have been a get together of foxes on Carey’s Covert on the hill. The pack ran parallel to the Portumna to Tynagh Road, and then crossed on into Laurence Lawless’ and McLoughlin’s by Mike Hegney’s house before running on over Liam Broder’s and John Connors’ and through the three-cornered field in Seamus Conroy’s, a brother of Ralph, by the Reask Road. Here the fox doubled back on himself to Seamus Conroy’s and Moloney’s and went to ground in a bank in John Hegney’s which was another great run of about 40 minutes. A few went for an unscheduled swim in a river and shall remain nameless, just to say one was the new joint-master, but he has since got delivery of a new red coat, so no worries!
After a breather, the huntsman tried Hegney’s Covert, The Sandpits, and hunt chairman Tom Fahy’s farm where hounds hunted a cold line and marked. So it was on to Oliver Walsh’s Flowerhill Equestrian Centre. The huntsman drew the river bank, over a field of rape and the High Road where the late and much missed master of both the Galway Blazers and the East Galway’s, Vincent Shields, lived. His favourite hunter, Ray Boy, that escorted his cortege at his funeral in Athenry is still in Flowerhill.
There were lots of happy faces returning to McDonagh’s Pub where proprietors Brian and Rose McDonagh served soup that my mother would describe as so thick that, ‘You could trot a mouse on it’, and homemade brown bread.