THE recent passing of Lady Melissa Brooke has been recognised with obituaries in both the local and sporting press but her main passion in life warranted just a passing mention.

She was a dyed-in-the-wool foxhunter with a life-long connection with the County Limerick Foxhounds. She had spent the war years in New York where their American-born mother had taken the children – Melissa, Caroline (now the Marchioness of Waterford), and Thady (later the Earl of Dunraven) – during hostilities.