I IGNORED all the weather warnings of Orange and Red, as I left North County Dublin at 7am en route to the West Coast, to the North Galway and Grallagh Harriers joint meet near Tuam, along the N17 made famous by the Saw Doctors. Was it worth it, yes it was. As a West of Ireland immigrant, when I visit, I still wonder at who built the latticework of walls that define the area that gives hunt followers a reason to breed the unique Traditional Irish Hunter who carries them safely on a day’s hunting. The landscape is magnificent, with great viewing of hounds at work with the imposing Castle Hackett in nearby Belclare, with the tower at the base of Knockma Hill and Aille Hill in the background. I remember hunting with the Bermingham and North Galway Foxhounds, when Lady Molly Cusack Smith, described by the artist Augustus John as ‘The Tulip of Tuam and Other Flowers’, and John Pickering were hunting the pack. The late Galway Blazers field master Willie Leahy, before he acquired a truck, hacked his hirelings the 50km from Aille Cross near Loughrea to the meets. It was usually the night before, returning back that evening after the hunt, depending on the weather.

The meet was at hunt chairman Ger O’Brien’s farm and, although they had a bereavement in the family, they very kindly left everything ready and insisted that the hunt went ahead. The horseboxes arrived early, as they were starting an hour before the usual time, so that they could finish earlier to powder and perfume themselves for the hunt ball later at the Raheen Woods Hotel in Athenry.