Meath Foxhounds honorary whipper-in Johnny Clarke outside Scut Fagans pub / Noel Mullins photo
Scut Fagans Pub
Those who missed the Meath Foxhounds’ meet at Scut Fagans pub in Moynalvey missed one of the best hunts of the season. But more of that later.
The pub is a step back in time and so tiny that if you are having a drink and standing against the back wall, you probably could still reach the bar! With its galvanized roof, Scut Fagans has probably been there since pre-history! It has been short-listed as one of the top eighteen Irish pubs one should visit before retiring to that great hunting field in the sky.
The Meath
The earliest record of foxhunting in County Meath, just north of County Dublin, was Mr. Nicholson’s pack in 1723, followed by the packs of Mr. Pollock of Mountainstown and Mr. Gerrard of Gibbstown. They later formed the Clongill Hunt which eventually became the Meath Foxhounds in 1817.
The hunt has had many well-known people as masters, Charlie Bird from Pennsylvania; showjumper Eddie Macken; John Watson from Carlow, whose father and brother were Masters of the Carlow Foxhounds (his brother George was a founder of the Melbourne Foxhounds in Australia); The Countess of Mount Charles; lt. col. Tony Cameron who was fourth on Gaye Navaree in the Aintree Grand National in 1962; lt. col. Joe Hume Dudgeon an international showjumper who was also a cavalry officer in the Great War and competed and won many international competitions and Nations Cups after the war on the war horse Sea Count; and Dr. Austin Darragh, father of international showjumper Paul.
The current chairman is Graham O’Reilly, with Joint-Masters Norman Williamson, Richard Trimble, Andrew Boyd, Bill Dwan, and Pat Dillon. The joint-huntsmen are brothers John Henry Jr. (who hunts the bitch pack) and Kenny Henry (who hunts the dog hound pack). They are assisted by professional whipper in Barry Finnegan and honorary whippers-in Johnny Clarke and Brian Black. The huntsmen alternate as Field Masters on days they are not hunting hounds. The honorary secretary is Janet Williamson.
Meath staff and hounds move off into the country. / Noel Mullins photo
The Hunting Day
It is always a rush to get to a Meath hunt, as Masters and staff are at the meet at 10:30 am and mounted and moving off at 11:00 on the dot. The Henry brothers hunt hounds with John Jr hunting the bitch pack this day. When the brothers’ father, John Sr., hunted hounds with whippers-in Aidan Galligan and Speedy O’R ourke they were known in the hunting world as the “Ream Team.” Well it looks as if his two sons could now be known as Ream Team 2; they are outstanding at their jobs with Barry Finnegan professional whipper-in and dairy farmer Johnny Clarke and farrier Brian Black honorary whippers-in.
Before the 11:am bell sounded for moving off, Jill Reville—who whipped-in, hunted hounds herself, and was a talented event rider—was collecting caps. Bill Dwan of Castlebridge Consignments, now the largest consigner of bloodstock in Europe in only just over a decade, has joined the Mastership this season. Fellow Joint-Master Norman Williamson is a former National Hunt jockey who holds the unique record of only a select few who have won both the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in the same year. He was hunting with his wife Janet, a daughter of Timmy Ronan, a former Master of the Tipperary Foxhounds and her brother Tim, a current Master. Janet is honorary secretary of the Meaths, and their two children Josh and Carla were hunting, two fine riders whether hunting, showing, or showjumping. Norman’s and Janet’s Oak Tree Farm is well-known for producing champion racehorses.
There was a debate as to whether Eoin Sharkey’s wife, Olivia, also a keen hunt follower knew he was out hunting as he had a sprained wrist, but I suppose the secret is out now anyway! Eoin and Olivia are frequently on TV promoting their Maperath Farm where they raise thousands of turkeys and geese for the Christmas trade. You can also sample them at Olivia’s Headford Arms Hotel in Kells, a favourite hostelry for visiting hunt followers. Niki Potterton was on a smashing Grange Bouncer hunter. His wife, Irish international eventer Sarah Ennis, was a member of the victorious World Eventing Silver Medal Team at Tryon, North Carolina last year.
Former Master of the Ward Union Staghounds Johnny Mangan, who was with his wife Madelaine and son John, recalled buying the famous hunter Motor Car from John Henry Sr., who had hunted hounds off him. The horse was a legend not only in the Meaths but also the Ward Union and later with Larry “Gusty” McGuinness when he was Master of the Fingal Harriers. I remember jumping a few ditches on Motor Car myself and he was a machine across country.
Huntsman John Henry, Jr. drew along the eighteen acres of boundary woodland in Frank and Veronica Martin’s farm where Sarah McCann grazes a flock of sheep. Frank affectionately refers to Sarah as Bo Peep! Fran’s guinea fowl were safe as hounds focused on the woodland. Surprisingly, there was no fox at home. But when hounds crossed the road we knew why, as they found immediately in the rough ground beside Fagans Pub car park where there were obviously richer pickings. The bitch pack opened with a great fanfare, and if you hadn’t tightened your girth by then, well it was too late, as it was a roller coaster day from then on. National Hunt jockey and Aintree Grand National winner Robbie Power, a whipper-in to the Ward Union, is always in the right place, remarking that the fox was only five yards ahead of the pack. Hounds ran right-handed along the river through Drum farm towards the GAA Pitch at a cracking pace. Hounds flew through Kiernan’s left-handed and over five more estates before swinging left-handed again down to Peter Collins’ dairy farm into Jimmy Kiernan Plantation. It was time for the fox to make a quick decision, and he decided not to dwell. He ran straight through the plantation and hounds marked him to ground in Leonard farm after a cracking run.
The field was well strung out by then, and Eamonn Meade had an argument with a branch of a tree but was none the worse for it. After a short breather a fox hopped up in the next plantation and the seventeen couple in the bitch pack were away again at lightning speed towards Teagasc Agricultural Farm through three more estates before swinging left-handed through former Meath Foxhounds Field Master’s son, M.J. O’Rourke’s farm, and up through the renowned horseman Hugh Leonard’s farm, where this fox also decided to tempt fate no further and went to ground in Jonathon McNaughton’s who was out hunting this day.
Culmullen covert was blank so the huntsman drew back to O’Malley’s Gorse where he found a brace and a half. One went to ground immediately, so hounds settled on second fox who departed down through O’Malley’s, crossing two more estates and on through Leonardstown Stud before crossing the road into Tommy Spillane’s. There was a short check where the good Meath bitch Pollen 7 put the pack right. She was one of five litter sisters out on the day, as they ran hard over Horan’s Lane, through another good stretch of country, where hounds marked this fox in Longstaff’s.
This was an unbelievable day’s foxhunting right from the start. There is no doubt that if you learn from the best you are more likely to be one of the best. The Henry brothers have the best mentor in their father, John Sr., who started with the Meaths as a fourteen-year-old. Within a year he was deemed good enough to be appointed whipper in. His appointment as huntsman in his early twenties made him one of the youngest huntsmen to have been given the responsibility of hunting one of the premier packs in the world. Some sixty years later, he still manages the Meath kennels and the hunt country, and is there as mentor for his sons. A truly remarkable career.
Posted February 14, 2019
Noel Mullins is a photojournalist and author of The Dublin Horse Show, The Irish Hunter, In Search of the Kerry Beagle, and other books on Irish horse sport.