SOME of the best Galway hunting country is around Athenry, and the Grallagh Harriers meet at Lafferty’s Bar at Cartymore proved to be a cracker for brilliant hound work and some of the most robust hound music from the first covert in the morning all through to mid-afternoon. The 19 and a half couple of hounds, mostly home-bred with some recent Lakeland bloodlines, were on song. They are a popular pack, who take a limited number of visitors and many have booked days up to Christmas. The Grallagh Harriers are a private pack owned by senior master and huntsman David Burke and his family. He has bred a level pack of mainly Old English colouring, and they are so athletic over the walls that they hardly knock a stone.

David is a real professional, always taking wind direction into consideration when he draws, and anticipating the line he would like his hounds to take and is very correct on the hunting horn. He whipped in to the Percy in Northumberland before he whipped in to the Galway Blazers and knows the country well. He is joined in the mastership by his sister Lorraine, John Cantillon who hunted the South Union Foxhounds in Cork for five seasons and whipped in for 14 seasons, and whose father Noel hunts the Waterfall Foot Harriers.

Fellow joint-masters are former Tara Harriers master, Imelda O’Donnell and Joe Cavanagh, who is also a joint-master of the East Galway Foxhounds. Whipping in is his brother Frankie, who is currently taking time out in the UAE, where there are many other Loughrea friends working, and we even got to talk to him on WhatsApp between draws, so he could hear the hound music and what he was missing.

In the meantime, Declan Burke is filling in for him and was in the right place all day. John Lohan is the countryman and Mark Cunniffe is kennel huntsman. Olive Dempsey is an important member of the team and David and Lorraine’s mother Bernie, who has a heart of gold, keeps everyone fed using the bonnet of the jeep to display her plates of smoked salmon and home-made brown bread and all sort of high calorie goodies for those who never met a calorie that they didn’t like. Even farmer John Bane could not resist the display. Sinead Burke was in her element experimenting with the burst speed setting on a borrowed camera, so much so that she snapped every follower from every conceivable angle.

John Cantillon joint master of the Grallagh Harriers jumping a double at the meet at Laffertys Bar \ Noel Mullins

High bar

Publican Damian Naughton was busy serving and his father Willie, the owner of Lafferty’s Bar, told me that he was a syndicate member in three racehorses: Portant Fella, Gigilo and Gawad, all trained by Joanna Morgan, who Willie said was a fantastic trainer. On a quick count, the horses won 15 races and placed 28 times. One of the syndicate members was Fr Sean Breen, also known as The Punters’ Curate. He was parish priest of Ballymore Eustace and Eadestown, who gave his racing tips to his congregation during Sunday Mass. There is a sculpture of the popular priest cast in bronze in his memory at Punchestown Racecourse. This is hurling country and local Turloughmore players include Sean Loftus, Daithi Burke and Sean Linnane are on the Galway team.

The farmers are so welcoming, particularly the Bane family, father John, daughter and show horse producer Marylyn, granddaughter seven-month-old Róisín and Marylyn’s husband, international endurance rider Martin McNamara. They maintain a model suckler cow and Galway sheep farm, combined with sport horse breeding, while preserving all the old coverts and even owl boxes high up in the trees. Baby Róisín is the sixth generation of the Bane family and John hopes she will farm it when her turn comes. Martin remarked that the two ladies, his wife Marylyn and her grey mare, were both just back from maternity leave, as the mare had a foal by Captain Caruso in the meantime. John reminded me of former local Carnaun National School principal Finbar O’Regan, who I hunted with at the Blazers. He taught both John and his daughter Marylyn.

Just to show how ahead of his time Finbar was, he regularly took the children on walks in the countryside, teaching them about the flora, fauna and wildlife and even loaned Marylyn his daughter Lorna’s pony Dusky to hunt. Finbar’s parents, Tim and Nora, his aunt Babs and sister Anita all taught at the school.

The Freeney family of Sybil, Gabriel, Ruben and Rowan at Banes Farm at the Grallagh Harriers meet at Laffertys Bar \ Noel Mullins

Followers

All the masters were out, as well as Haddi and Will Jones, Shane Reidy, Michael Casey, former Grallagh joint-master Kevin Hough, Phoebe Topp from the Wairarapa Harriers in New Zealand, Aidan Kelly from the County Clares, but Mack McMahon was missed, as he was unable to make it.

At the meet also were North Galway Foxhounds joint-master Tom McNamara, who supplies hirelings in Galway and always has hunters and show horses for sale, as his daughter Maria is a well-respected show and side saddle rider. North Galway huntsman David Masterson was also there regaling us about a morning he had with the Meath Foxhounds, the best he has seen recently, but I think that was before he heard the Grallagh hounds scream away on the first run! Regulars also include Billy Shaughnessy, Joe McEvoy, Sean O’Brien and Pat O’Neill, who recalled hunting from a young age with the Blazers and hacking to meets on the late and much missed Willie Leahy’s hirelings.

Hunting

Waiting at Banes was Gabriel Freeney and his children Rubin (11), Rowan (9) and Sybil (7) on immaculately turned-out ponies and the children could really cross country. Their mother Shauna was close by and their youngest daughter, Bonnie was sharing her pocket full of sweets, but seemed more interested in Marylyn’s baby daughter Róisín than hunting.

The minute David put hounds into the first covert at Paddy Coen’s they were on, screaming away on a brace running in a wide right-handed circle and back by the Big Trough. One beautifully marked red fox split back almost to the feet of John Bane, who was standing on a wall behind a tree. Both looked at each other for a moment with neither stirring and then this outlier headed for one of the many natural patches of dry whinns. Meanwhile, hounds were at fever pitch as a pack on the second candidate and the followers had a nice spin over all the natural fences on the farm.

They left this fox and drew the top of the farm and were on again out past Paddy Coen’s into Feilim Connor’s and over a nice double stone wall at John Bane’s where they lost him.

David did not hang about and field master Lorraine brought the followers over a series of single stone walls to a small strip of cover that always holds. But this customer had moved quietly down to another strip and the pack was away again as John Bane said, ‘hounds were not an inch out each side of the line’ they were so accurate, and this fellow headed for the Long Wood. After a few laps, he slipped out the side and right-handed under the shade of a stone wall until he got to the ruined cottage by the pond where the mystical Banshee (in Gaelic, ‘Bean Sidhe’ or Woman of the Fairies) it is said, can be heard howling at night when someone dies. Hounds made a line for Costelloe’s Rocks, where our quarry had loads of options to lead hounds on a merry dance in the ash and hazel coverts. It was great to see the followers at full gallop keeping to the headlands with hounds in fine voice ahead.

The last draw was the Craggs, but there was nobody at home, so after a really nice day David blew for home and back to Lafferty’s Bar, where refreshments awaited, courtesy of the Naughton family.