Bermingham and North Galway Foxhounds
An Historic Blazers’ Opening Meet
Huntsman Anthony Costello and hounds head to covert. Behind (l-r) are whipper-in Oisin Rigney, Senior Master Michael MacDonagh, and local landowner Martin Moran. / Noel Mullins photo
History
The County Galway Hunt (the Blazers) was founded by John Denis in 1829. Denis was Master and huntsman.
In Foxhunting LIfe, we have previously written about the late Lady Molly Cusack-Smith of Bermingham House and her ancestor, John Denis. Lady Molly was Master and hunted the Blazers’ pack from 1939 to 1943 during most of World War II when so many of the men were away in service. At that time, she was known as Miss Molly O’Rourke.
John Pickering and the End of an Era
John Pickering, one of Irish foxhunting’s witty raconteurs and colorful characters, passed away recently in his adopted town of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. In his career he hunted the East Down Foxhounds, the Golden Vale Foxhounds, the Oriel Harriers, and was whipper-in and huntsman to the legendary Master of the Bermingham and North Galway Foxhounds, the late Lady Molly Cusack-Smith.
I first met him when he was hunting the Oriel Harriers in the 1980s. At a meet north of Dundalk, in County Louth, hounds put a fox away from Bell’s Covert, but he only ran a couple of hundred yards before going to ground in an earth in the middle of a field. To make matters worse his best hound Heckler was down in the earth with only his stern in view. Pickering sat casually back in the saddle and remarked, “I think I will have to take that hound to a shrink.”
“Why”, I asked, to which Pickering replied, “Because he thinks he’s a bloody terrier!”
The Galway Blazers Puppies Enter Glorious Tradition
MFHs Michael Dempsey and Vincent Shields
The Galway Blazers Puppy Show drew a large attendance at the Kennels in Craughwell, County Galway, Ireland.
Michael Dempsey, internationally known Joint-Master and former huntsman of the Galway Blazers for the last 32 seasons, has maintained some Old English bloodlines in his pack. He likes a light hound that can bank the Galway walls and leave the stones in place. Vincent Shields was attending his first puppy show as a newly appointed Blazers Joint-Master, while retaining his current Mastership of both the East Galway Foxhounds and the Roscommon Harriers.
One is ever mindful of the great tradition of hound breeding at the Blazers’ kennels, particularly when thinking of previous huntsmen like Captain Brian Fanshawe, Paddy Pickersgill, and above all American-born Isaac Bell who hunted the pack from 1903 to 1908, and who made such a lasting contribution to what is now known as the modern English foxhound.
