Noel Mullins

THE recent meet of the Louth Foxhounds at Stamullen had the two new joint-masters, Eamonn McGinn and Kieran Ryan on horseback. Ryan, who is also an honorary whipper-in to the Ward Union Staghounds, is probably better known as a show horse producer, regularly featuring in the ribbons in shows around the country including Balmoral and the Dublin Horse Show. His mother Kit and father Jimmy were masters of the Fingal Harriers, and his wife Mairead represented Ireland at three European Eventing Championships on her horse Watercolour, who Kieran also evented in Burghley. Mairead’s father Jimmy played senior Gaelic football for Mayo, and her brother Ivan, who farms locally, played minor for Meath. Fellow masters Joe Callan and Gerry Boylan were also hunting.