‘A paradise for foxhunters'

The hard-working Wexford hounds provide plenty of entertainment for a gutsy field – who don’t turn a hair at some very famous visitors

- LIAM CLANCY

Wexford, Newbawn, Co Wexford

“WEXFORD is a real paradise for those fox hunters who want the blood and bones of the thing, those bred to love sport rather than follow fashion,” wrote the late novelist Molly Keane in the 1930s.

Mrs Keane knew the country in the days before the wire and modern intensive farming, but her words remain as true today as they did 90 years ago. It is a gently undulating country with wild little coverts lying in the shallow valleys, and fields divided by huge, overgrown double-banks, a country that has drawn sportsmen since Colonel Pigott of Slevoy Castle hunted his own hounds here in the 1780s.

Johnny Howard hunts the Wexford hounds, as well as the neighbouring Bree Foxhounds, having taken over both roles from his sister-in-law Mary Kehoe this season. He is a modest, like able character who describes himself as a “sort of self-taught” huntsman.

His hounds are of athletic modern English type with a cross of Kerry Beagle for voice, nose, and steadiness. Johnny describes Wexford as a generally good scenting country, where hounds fly when conditions are right. He recognizes the need to keep the tambourine rolling, and to provide entertainment for a notoriously hard-riding field.

“They’re a good oul’ bunch of lads that hunt with the Wexford,” he told me. “They’re good men to go, and they like their hunting. They don’t like messing around.”

Johnny’s wife Muriel Kehoe whips in, and he is also assisted by Michael Condon and Jason Higgins, both expert horsemen whose names are known far outside the hunting world.