IT is always a pleasure visiting some of the smaller packs that may not be so much in the public eye, so a visit to the Brosna Foxhounds was long overdue. The first time I visited them was shortly after they were formed some 1995. They have a smashing pack of Old English hounds that some say are one of the best packs in the country and always look well in their coats and demonstrate drive, accuracy on a line and tremendous voice. It is not always the large fashionable kennels that have the most influence on hound breeding in Ireland. In fact you may not hear much mention of the Brosna, and you probably will not see them showing at the major hound shows but if you look closely at the breeding on the winners’ results, and follow what hounds are making an impression in hunt reports, the prefix of the name of those hounds will immediately inform you of the Brosna influence.

Hunting away low key in very trappy country in the midlands of Ireland, the Brosna huntsman Derek McMahon, an agricultural contractor, has a passion for the Old English breed of hound, with some of his foundation hounds going back to Duhallow when Michael Buckley was hunting them. Now some of the best known Old English packs are the Louths, Duhallow, Waterford, Muskerry, County Limericks and the Blazers. Although everybody has their own favourite breed of hound, some huntsmen feel that the Old English are hardier especially in negotiating modern day electric fencing, but then I followed the Ballymacad modern breed of foxhounds last week in the spectacular Cavan Hills doing just that, and also hunting all day in temperatures of 16 degrees, so I think hounds know more about scent than we do. The Old English hound is known for its colour – black, tan and preferably little white – but they are also often tan in colour. McMahon started his pack some 20 seasons ago with Modern hounds, a few Harriers and two couple of Old English hounds. The latter proved to the most suitable for his hunt country, so he started to build up his Old English pack by travelling the country to see hounds working. Unless a potential stallion hound or bitch were at the top of their game hunting, he did not consider them. That’s what it took to breed the superb pack it is today. Over the years, his stallion hounds like Brosna Ton Ton, Logger, Target, Taylor, Postman, Parson, Panther and Londis, have been used by many hunting packs in Ireland like the East Galway, Louth, Macroom, Rockfield, Duhallow, and the North Tipperary.

The members of the Brosna Hunt are very active in showjumping, eventing, and some of the highlights of the season are the hunter trials, and they run two point-to- point meetings each year.

The meet was at Tullybeg House, which used to be a Jesuit Retreat House and Seminary, and was a sister house of Clongowes Wood College. Nearby is Esker Hills Golf Club whose members are probably still celebrating the outstanding win of their Club touring professional Shane Lowry in Abu Dhabi.

There was a small group of enthusiastic followers hunting, many of whom use the hunting field for bringing on young green horses, while others use it to extend the season as many are keen followers of the hunter trials circuit. I met Liam Murphy, who hunted the Farney Harriers, before moving to Co Limerick where he hunted the Stonehall Harriers for four seasons. He is now back in his family home and besides whipping-in to the Brosna huntsman, he is practicing his old trade as a farrier. His wife Lorraine was also hunting on a borrowed thoroughbred horse that Frank Maher jokingly said was lunged for two hours to calm him down! But it was obviously not true, and anyway it did not bother Lorraine as she got on great with the horse. Kean Fitzpatrick (13), is in the same class as the huntsman’s son Kyle McMahon and both show all the signs of huntsmen in the making. They both help with whipping duties and are also a great help in the kennels and walking out hounds on the weekends and during school holidays. Also hunting were Linda Sexton, Chelsea Kelly, Brendan McEvoy, Mary Loughney, Ellie Fitzpatrick, Neil Tyrell and Pat Davey who gave a great lead as field-master all day.

Joint-master Kenneth Keys was also the area manager for organising this particular meet, and he obviously worked hard in the preceding days building jumps through the forestry which kept the followers on the move. He also put in hunt jumps to make it easier to cross the extensive amount of electric fencing, but it also meant that no electric fencing got damaged. Also following were Kevin Fox, Colin Deegan and Jonathon Swaine, and I met Ruth Fitzpatrick, originally from Oldcastle in Co Meath, who told me that she was a classmate of Bobby Kellett, whipper-in of the Ballymacad Foxhounds. Ruth’s two children Kean and Ellie were hunting on two smashing Connemara ponies, one dun and the other grey.

BEST HUNTS

McMahon recalled that one of his best hunts this season was a joint meet with the South Tipperary Hounds when they marked four foxes to ground, and had a fast run of six miles. But it was time to get hunting so they moved off from the meet from Tullybeg House and the pack and followers were a picture crossing the narrow canal bridges and down by The Thatch Pub that sits on the side of the Royal Canal. The huntsman drew the hedges in Dinny Condrons below the Clara Road with great viewing from the top road. It was mainly pasture land and sown ground but challenging as almost every hedge was bounded by electric fencing on both sides of the hedges. But it proved blank so far, and the sand quarry was also blank.

The huntsman hacked on down the Clara Road and across from the Mass Rock towards the Killina Plantation Lane where hounds quickly found and we were treated to some high class music. They hunted back towards the lane that splits the plantation, and left-handed in a wide circle and back into the plantation before he broke covert again towards the Thatch Pub, and turned back again where they marked him in a bank by the road.

As they went in by the hay sheds in Rosgore, Kenneth Keys had already been there and erected some hunt jumps across the electric fencing. Hounds were quickly onto another customer as the huntsman drew down the side of Killina Bog, finding in Dunnes on the side of the bog. This fox ran back towards Rahara, then straightened up before running left-handed across some lush grassland through the forestry and into Lambe’s before doing a few circles and back in a twisty line before he decided he had enough and the pack marked him in a bank by the side of the bog. Hounds then hunted a stale line and cold marked in Nora Finnegan’s. But this fox was at home and was game for running as he bolted and ran in a wide circle in a new plantation before they marked him under a pile of bog oak.

It is always a pleasure to see Derek McMahon’s fine pack of Old English hounds in action, and just enjoy what they were bred to do best, hunting the fox. It is remarkable what one man with a clear vision can achieve. As the season closes, I wish to thank all those packs for their hospitality that I visited during the season.