What follows is a report on a fine day’s hunting, a description of a brilliantly executed new kennel complex that any hunt contemplating new kennel construction will appreciate, and an opportunity to become Joint-Master of an Irish pack for any foxhunter yearning for more adventure!
(l-r) East Galway Foxhounds Joint-Master Joe Cavanagh and huntsman Liam McAlinden with hounds at the New Kennels / Noel Mullins photo
The history of the East Galway Foxhounds goes back to Giles Eyre of Eyrecourt who kept a pack of hounds from about 1790. The East Galway Foxhounds was founded in 1880.
In addition to those milestones, the year 2014 will go down as a proud year for the East Galway followers. A brand new state of the art kennel complex was developed and financed by Joint-Master Joe Cavanagh and handed over to the hunt recently. Cavanagh, a successful businessman and a former owner of Cavanagh Foundry in Birr, is passionate about hunting. A former Master of the Ormond Hunt for twenty seasons, he joined the mastership of the East Galways eight seasons ago. Joe bred the international eventer Comanchee who with his rider James Robinson was third at Burghley and fourth at Badminton, the latter which he competed in ten times, and the last time at nineteen years of age!
The project of building the new kennels has taken Cavanagh three years from purchasing the site, visiting kennels in the UK and Ireland for ideas of what mistakes to avoid, securing planning permission, and then building. Meticulous about detail, his top priorities were the welfare of hounds and horses and comfortable surroundings for the huntsman to do his work.
The result is a beautifully finished complex of buildings on five acres with a Tegral roof of fibre cement for soundproofing and anti-condensation. The stainless steel is by Earls’ Engineering with raised reinforced concrete walls faced in redbrick and topped off by reconstituted yellow granite. Cavanaugh made all the gates himself in his workshop. There are four hound runs and lodges, with hounds bedded on straw over insulated benches. There is a central drawing and feed area, three stables, toilet and shower, a valeting room, and a flagged area for showing hounds strategically situated in front of the main entrance. In addition there are grass runs where hounds can relax and play when not hunting, and a large enclosed yard for trucks and horse boxes. The drainage system has a 7,000 litre effluent treatment plant and a 14,000 litre pressurized pump system. Hounds never looked happier, the huntsman appears delighted, and the followers have every reason to be both proud and grateful to Master Cavanagh for his generosity.
Kathleen Ward, Niall Molloy, Marie Ward, Olive Broderick, Joint-Master Pascal Conroy, Daniel McAlinden, and Marie and Godfrey Gibbons at McDonagh’s Pub / Noel Mullins photo
The meet was at Brian McDonagh’s Pub in Tynagh whose children Aoife and Brian are well known in pony jumping circles. While Joint-Master Joe Cavanagh was busy developing the new kennels, his fellow Master Pascal Conroy was working in the sun getting more familiar with big game in West Africa where he is based for most of the year.
Hunt Chairman Tom Fahy was following by car for a change as was Claire Cavanagh. Whipper-in Alan Briscoe, who events, was on his eighteen-plus hand hunter, better known as the Giraffe. Niall Molloy, whom some American readers will remember as the former whipper-in to Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Foxhounds in Pennsylvania, was in the field. (The Cheshire pack is hunted by Ivan Dowling from nearby Loughrea.) Backroom organisation by huntsman Liam McAlinden, Chairman Tom Fahy, and meet organiser Pat Hardiman was supported by the fencing crew of Johnnie O’Donnell, his daughter Emma, and brother Paddy.
The cosy conditions in the new kennels must have something to do with how sharp hounds were on the day. The pack had their first fox away almost immediately from Brian McDonagh’s, running by the back of Kilcorban Priory. McAlinden gave a short touch on the hunting horn as he laid them on the line, and from there it was all sweet music.
Having been headed on the road once, the fox tried again and succeeded in taking a line for Pat Noone’s Covert. Hounds checked for a moment at the farmyard but McAlinden cast in a figure-of-eight and hounds recovered the line, pushing him on back towards the meet where he crossed the Tynagh to Portumna Road. Hounds were across in a flash to Seamus Conroy’s and over Laurence Lawless’. The pack marked their fox to ground beside the Kylecrow River after a run of forty-five minutes. Suspecting that there was another fox sitting tight, McAlinden brought the pack back to the original covert, and how right he was as he had another customer away up the banks of the Kylecrow River and right-handed marking in maize of brambles.
Hacking on through Flowerhill and up by Monaghan’s Wood, hounds drew Tom Brehony’s Plantation at the back of Blazer’s Joint-Master Vincent Shields’ house but it was blank, as was the long stretch in High Street Wood. Hounds spoke in Mattie Reynolds’ Quarry but the fox had crossed the road earlier. Hounds hunted on slowly for about fifteen minutes with scent running out in Ger Huban’s. Ford’s in High Street was blank but hounds found again in Tom Brehony’s and hunted in covert for a while before getting away through Brehony’s dairy farm in fine voice, through Huban’s and McDonagh’s for a forty-minute screaming run where, in fading light, the huntsman decided to stop hounds near the road and blow for home.
This was a very enjoyable day’s hunting with good weather, great hound-work, a happy band of followers, and a state-of-the-art new kennels. It is certainly the beginning of a new era of hunting in East Galway, where they have vacancies for Joint-Masters for the coming season! Applications should be sent to Tom Fahy, Chairman.
East Galway Foxhounds
Chairman: Tom Fahy
Masters: Joe Cavanagh, Pascal Conroy, Michael Brassil, and John Flynn
Huntsman: Liam McAlinden
Whippers-In: Alan Briscoe and Neville Horseman
Field Master: Cathal Gibbons
Posted February 17, 2015
Author and photojournalist Noel Mullins is a lifelong foxhunter and a regular contributor to Foxhunting Life.