LISTENING back to recorded interviews, the background sound of clip-clopping hooves is often heard although the latest doesn’t have the usual stable yard setting. Instead the sound effects are supplied by Paddy Joe Foy’s carriage horse Podge on his route around Westport.

“Back in the 1950s, tourists were an unusual sight here. It would be like seeing a cat with no tail!” said Paddy Joe, a sprightly 80-year-old. This is the third summer the pair have plied their trade in the town, voted the ‘Best Place to Live in Ireland’ in an Irish Times poll.