The South Tyrone Foxhounds Joint-Masters Stephen Hutchinson, Andy Oliver, and Tony Weir; huntsman Ryan Carvill; and whippers-in Paddy Considine and Paul Kinane at The Four Corners Inn in Brackaville / Noel Mullins photo
“Don’t open the back door of the horse box,” shouted honorary whipper-in Paul Kinane as I met him on the M1 Motorway heading north to Belfast. “There is a hound of Lord Waterford’s in there, and if he gets out we will be chasing him all over North County Dublin and miss the South Tyrone Foxhounds meet at Brackaville.”
As it transpired it was not a meet to miss as they had the best hunt of the season so far. Paul was bringing the hound up to Ryan Carvill, huntsman of the South Tyrone. Lord Waterford’s hound never made a sound, knowing that he was in good company with two tacked up hunters sharing the accommodation.
The South Tyrone Foxhounds in Northern Ireland were reformed in 1960 after a lapse of thirty years. They hunt a wide area in Counties Monaghan and Tyrone.
The last time I was in Bracaville (Irish, for Wolf Hill) at The Four Corners Inn, Joint-Master Andy Oliver proposed to his wife, Saffron Hutchinson. It was also the annual Christmas tour of the hunting pubs by the hunt followers with their traditional band on that night, The Rambling Pitchforks.
Stephen Hutchinson, MFH, has been in office since the early 1980s, and hunted the pack for many seasons. Stephen is Chairman of Tayto NI and UK, one of the largest manufacturers of packaged snack foods in the UK. He is also president of the Hurlingham Polo Association, the governing body worldwide, and he owns his own polo team in Cirencester, UK. The other Masters are horse trainer Andy Oliver and the newly appointed Master Tony Weir whose business is in heavy engineering.
Travelling with Paul Kinane was farrier Ciaran Sweeney who hunts with the Westmeath Foxhounds. Kinane and his wife Amy, a lecturer in equine science at the University of Limerick, now concentrate on breeding racehorses. Their homebred progeny are coming through with Lady Stormborn by the Coolmore classic winning stallion Camelot. The filly broke her maiden by over twenty lengths at Leopardstown recently, trained by Andrew Slattery and ridden by his son Andy, the new champion apprentice. She will go for a listed race next. Amy was not hunting this day, but long reining a filly by another classic winner, Australia. She was putting the other youngsters through their paces under a dressage routine. They have colts by Gleneagles and Power going into training this coming season.
Ciaran Sweeney recalled breaking his collar bone hunting. The hospital staff, unaccustomed to the value of foxhunters’ precious well-fitting hunt coats, wanted to cut it off, but he managed to save it. Like wrist bands for diabetics or other conditions, there are now wrist bands for foxhunters who may have a leg injury and don’t want hospital staff cutting off their costly boots. “My boots have zips,” the wrist bands announce!
The hunt recently made a significant investment in their kennels by adding new hound runs and lodges with quality materials such as shuttered concrete walls, Belfast Tack sand-blasted railings and Bangor Blue Slates. Former Master Dr Cathal Cassidy returned from New Zealand, where he is currently on an overseas posting, to cut the tape. This was followed by the Puppy Show judged by huntsmen John Henry of the Meaths and Peter Cahill of the Kildares. The clubhouse was heaving to capacity for the Hunt Black Tie Gala Dinner, with over 100 dinner guests and a musical evening with talented soprano Helene Hutchinson. When she had completed her performance at the dinner she went out with Dr Cassidy to the kennels and sang to the hounds. They responded by joining her in the chorus and it made wonderful harmony. And yes, they were singing in key! Huntsman Ryan Carvill, one of the foremost breeders of hounds in Ireland, has over fifty couple in kennels and has three bi*ches in whelp to three Peterborough champions―Grove & Rufford Laxton, Saxton, and Broker.
Tommy Considine from Spancil Hill in County Clare hunted the East Clare Harriers and whipped-in to the County Clares before taking up the role as professional whipper in to the South Tyrone. “This is real hunting,” he remarked. His father Joe, who hunted with the County Clares for over thirty seasons, and his mother Eva were there to support him, as was his girlfriend Aoidhinn Bannon who was also hunting.
Huntsman Ryan Carvill had a decent-size pack out with 19 ½ couple all carefully bred for fox sense, drive, and voice. Clarke’s, off the Tullabeg Road across from Paddy McEvoys, was blank. It was an epic moment for me in all my years reporting on the South Tyrone Foxhounds, as I actually witnessed a gate being opened! Toby Clowes, son-in-law of senior Master Stephen Hutchinson opened it for his father-in-law. In Stephen’s defence I have to say he did not ask for the gate to be opened, and anyway hounds were not running at the time. But still, opening gates is a rare occurrence in these parts.
The shucks in Alister Turtle’s were also blank, so the huntsman crossed the road opposite Raughan’s to Raymond and Angus McAteer’s where hounds spoke briefly in a big blackthorn hedge but it appeared that the fox had left earlier.
However, like an engine starting and then gaining momentum, hounds feathered away on the line. As moments passed their voices got stronger until they were booming. The list of farms that they crossed was like reading all the folios of every field in the townland around Brackaville and Mousetown. With the going deep and the pace fast it was the survival of the fittest as hedges, drains, gates, and wire loomed up field after field. But the casualties started to mount also. Hounds were flying left-handed over O’Neill’s by Patsy Dowey’s yard and left again to Fred Lowe’s and back right-handed for Rafferty’s Hill. Then right again in direction of O’Neills of Coalisland where the fox was headed on the road by traffic and turned back in the direction of Rafferty’s Hill and onto McAdam’s and right by Stewartstown Gaelic Football Grounds. The fox crossed the road again by Sheila O’Neill’s and right for James Lowe’s then crossed the main Ardboe to Coalisland Road to Patsy Dowey’s farm where they marked him in the farmyard at the back of the town of Coalisland. With nothing left in the tank the huntsman wisely blew for home after a run of an hour and a half.
Mark English informed me that they have had fifty-five fallers in nine meets at £10 each for the Tumblers Club. Proceeds go to charity and the hunt supporters’ projects. Fallers’ roll call this day included huntsman Ryan Carvill, Master Tony Weir, Whipper-in Paddy Considine twice, Denis Canavan, John Keys twice filmed struggling out of a river, visitor Ciaran Sweeney twice―feeling proud of himself for jumping a gate with a ditch on the landing side―but proceeding to fall at a simple drain in the middle of a field! There was a sighting of honorary whipper-in Paul Kinane on the ground. First, he apparently had a quick look around to see if anyone saw him, then, still holding onto the reins, he vaulted back into the saddle and was away. But it appears that he owes the kitty ten Euros! Mark English who keeps the tally has a very simple philosophy. “If you are not jumping big fences, you are not falling.”
Survivors of a fast 1-1/2 hour run at Brackaville / Noel Mullins photo
The day’s survivors posed for a group photo, and then it was back to the Four Corners Inn for refreshments and more tall stories!
Posted January 31, 2020
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.