At the Louth Foxhounds meet at Jimmy Carter’s Valley Inn in Tenure outside Drogheda, it never stopped raining. With driving wind, it presented a stiff challenge to the huntsman Alan Reilly, who is now in his third season hunting hounds. However, Reilly proved equal to anything the weather could throw at him.

His pack of pure Old English hounds are one of the most magnificent packs of hounds in the country that can trace their lineage in the studbook back for hundreds of years. At the National Hound Show in Stradbally last summer, Reilly and his hounds had one of the most successful performances of any Old English pack.