WHEN hunting in Co Meath, you are never far away from people with a passion for Gaelic football, and public houses usually have their walls adorned with club and county memorabilia, and indeed hunt photos and local racehorses that made good. It was such at The Tara Harriers meet at Dee Local Pub in Nobber where publican Dudley Farrell now gives his time to Meath football in an official capacity in the hope that they can relive some of their glory days when legends like Mick Lyons, Colm O’Rourke, Pat ‘Red’ Collier took home the Sam Maguire Cup. But the Meath Ladies won the Intermediate Camogie All Ireland last year with Amy Gaffney, Megan Thynne and Eillen Burke who kept the Meath flag flying.

Dudley’s son Brian, a senior Meath player, and a winner of a Leinster and All Ireland Junior Football Championships, is an accountant by profession but also assists his father in the bar which prompted a local newspaper to headline that Brian was swapping, ‘scoring points for serving pints’. His father took over the pub from the late Shane McEntee, former Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Food Safety. Shane was a useful footballer himself before injury halted his career and he trained the Meath Minor Football Team. I met Shane a few times when he stood four square with the hunting community when the Green Party ran a campaign to stop the Ward Union Staghounds from hunting. Shane made himself and his contacts in politics available, and he spoke knowledgably at many of the RISE meetings. He knew that like the GAA, hunting in Ireland has its roots in the parish, based in the community, which supports businesses in the community. McEntee’s daughter Helen succeeded him into politics serving as Minister of State for European Affairs and more recently Health.