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thefootman

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  1. thefootman
    I'm not aware of any split, as far as I know the same club members who keep drag dogs keep beagles for hunting, while years ago foot harriers/beagles were used for drag hunting now nearly all drag hunting is done with trail hounds that were imported originally from the lake district by the Cork clubs back in the 50s and 60s. That said in the North there are still one or two drags run every year for harriers only.
  2. thefootman
    I have not hunted in Kerry myself but I would know lads in Monaghan who have been down to Kerry. To my knowledge there are still packs around Caherciveen, Waterville Portmagee and Kenmare. I hope to head down that way myself somethime. As far as I know they hunt the same as the northern foot packs they would intend to hunt hare but if they meet a fox they will hunt it as well. The Kerry Beagles Association has a website covering drag hunts, http://kerrybeagle.blogspot.ie/ check it out, there are some contact details on it.
  3. thefootman
    Good to see they came on well for you. You will have good sport next year. Hard to beat the Monaghan hounds, but then I am biased.
  4. thefootman
    Interesting thread this, for me personally I would not expect my own pack to lose either a hare or fox because of a field of sheep. I would not accept sheep "foil" as some of the lads call it on as a reason to drop a line, hounds should go through sheep or cattle as if they are not there. Of course a field of cattle might run and split a pack, but then you should not be hunting where there are big fields of cattle. The biggest obstacle in my opinion to a pack on a line is a tarmac road. It takes a good hound to hunt the road, especially a hare on the road. That brings me to another q
  5. thefootman
    I found this link. It was written by a Presbyterian minister in the 1950s about the local hunting tradition in Loughgall Co Armagh. It captures well the way that hunting was a way of life for the common man all across South Ulster. This form of "free range" hunting survived in my own parish in Co Monaghan up until the late 1990's. Unfortunately with all the changes in the countryside the days of casually walking to the top of a hill and calling in a pack of hounds are gone I'm afraid. http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/3rd-may-1957/22/the-sudden-pack
  6. thefootman
    Myself and another lad went out with just half a dozen hounds of our own last Saturday morning. We found at 8.45 and never stopped until 11.45 put two to ground and hunted another cub. Scent was very good and the hounds were flying, we only quit when a farmer came out and asked us to finish up as he had cattle to move. We went out with the full pack on Sunday had around 30 out, but it was useless, scent was poor, hounds knew it too and they were listless and did not have anything like the same enthusiasm as the previous day.
  7. thefootman
    That's good to know, we wouldn't hunt hares until October anyway. That's a good one about Sunday hunting. Does that include foxes?
  8. thefootman
    We are a Monaghan pack but would hunt over and back across the border regularly. Not sure of the actual legislation, but to my knowledge it starts on the 1 October and finishes on 28 February same as the south. lets just say the cops would keep a low profile in the parts of the north our hounds would cross into. so the law was never much of an issue for us. I remember once in the early 90s the pack got across the border and we came across an army/cop foot patrol when we were following them up, The old lads told the cops we were hunting foxes even though the pack were full steam after a hare.
  9. thefootman
    She is still there, though I think there is a lad coming at weekend to look at her. Its my mates, so send me a pm and I will give you his number
  10. thefootman
    By the way we are in Ireland
  11. thefootman
    One of the lads in my pack wants to pass on a harrier bitch. She is a bit too slow for our pack. She is a grand bitch to beat and is as truth full on a line as you could ask for, just slow and gets tailed of a bit on hard running hunts. Would suit a lad looking for a hound to beat cover. PM and I will pass on my mates details.
  12. thefootman
    No problem Gonetoearth. I am very proud of our tradition, so I can get a bit touchy if I think any one is running it down. Thankfully we should be able to pass it on to the next generation. Hope we never have to deal with the problems you lads have had to over there.
  13. thefootman
    Look lads no need for the personal abuse, argue and debate away, but the name calling is stupid. Gonetoearth the definitions of hunting and bushing in England had nothing to do with Lowry's post, as he was quite clear that he was talking about Ireland. In Ireland while there are plenty of bushing packs, it is a totally different sport to the trencher fed foot packs which most people keeping hounds in Ireland are part of. There are 129 packs with the Irish Foot Harriers Association of which I would say 90% have hounds kept by members, with there own country, breed lines, and deep roots in the
  14. thefootman
    Gonetoearth what do you mean by bushing not hunting. Do you think our sport in Ireland is not of equal value to that of the mounted packs, just because we don't dress up in fancy gear and address our betters as "sir"?. My own pack is a trencher fed foot pack, most of whose members, including myself, can trace their families involvement in hunting and keeping hounds at least back into the 1800's. We are not in any way unique as there are written records of foot packs kept by the "peasants" and factory workers in South Ulster back into the 1700s, that's a lot of tradition and hunting knowledge
  15. thefootman
    Well lad nice looking hounds there, what part of Ireland did ya get them from, no specifics now just Northern or Southern counties.They look like they are Northern bred to my eye. Hate to break it to ya but the Irish Harrier is notoriously head strong even for a hound. The mounted packs around here won't keep them because they think they are two heedless to suit there style of hunting. Ourselves we actually try to breed them that way as we want them to be as game as possible and would have no respect for a hound that would lift his head from a hunt to go to a call. Funny thing is I have seen
  16. thefootman
    While it seems most lads on here are into foxes I thought I would give a write up of the two days of hare hunting on foot we had over the last weekend, when our foot pack hosted a joint meet with the Ballycattan Harriers from near Kilbrittain in County Cork. The Ballycattan lads, had 14 hounds up with them, which we met with 25 from our own pack. Saturdays meet was at 11 o’clock on Scarva Bridge about 2 miles to the South East of Clones town. After beating for 40 minutes, the first hare was put up by one of our lads. This hare rang at first to the high country to the east of the meet, throu
  17. thefootman
    Any word of this show lads is it on 21 July?
  18. thefootman
    Where in Monaghan are you hunting Danny. Hunt up Clones way myself. We are not a gun pack but a foot harrier pack. None of the sheep farmers up our way are half as helpful as that.
  19. thefootman
    How did you find the tracking system. Was it any good? How far was the range? What would you be looking for it.
  20. thefootman
    It would happen fairly regularly with foot packs in Ireland as we operate over smaller areas than mounted packs and in parts of counties such as Kerry, Cork, Cavan, Monaghan and Armagh there are areas where every parish has one or two packs of hounds. My own pack would expect to clash with other packs at least three or four times a season. It is usually considered something of a "victory" over your neighbours to draw them to your hunt as it is a sign that your pack has been hunting well with a strong cry. I once seen a clash of four packs near the village of Scotsouse in Co Monaghan, with o
  21. thefootman
    Well lads the days are shortening and there is a bit of a chill in the evening air, it can only mean that its not long until the hounds are singing again. We are lucky enough to have a huge area of mountain forestry near our country with no stock or crops for miles. We will probably start up there this Sunday coming. When do the rest of you intend to start?
  22. thefootman
    Now I don't know how scientific this is, but I was always told by one great old huntsman from our area that an Irish Harrier should have the last 3 ribs showing when at hunting weight, any less and it will be too light to hunt two days in a row. Its a rule we try to stick to and I think it works. I think the important thing is that the hound is allowed to hunt down to a hunting weight, it should not be starved down. If it loses weight through hunting its muscles will be strong and well developed. If a hound loses weight just through a cut back in its ration it may not have the same strength
  23. thefootman
    Just curious, why is the Dublin Working Terrier club is having a show in Tyrone? What do you mean by hound, do you mean greyhound or do you mean harriers/foxhounds? If its harriers I will try and get some of the lads from around us to head up.
  24. thefootman
    Kerry Beagles are quite common in Ireland. To my knowledge the Scarteen is the only mounted foxhunt that hunts only Kerry Beagles, other packs may run some Kerry beagles along with English Foxhounds/Harriers. Outside of County Kerry the breed is known as the Irish harrier, although the Kerry men will say that their hounds are a different breed to the Irish harrier. While there are some differences in the hounds kept in the north of Ireland and those in Kerry e.g. the northern hounds is in general smaller and lighter boned, in my opinion the hounds are all the same breed. The hounds are kep
  25. thefootman
    This type of thing wrecks my head. With more farmers keeping sheep and roads getting busier its harder and harder to keep hunting ground open. When we started last Sunday a local sheep farmer called round to us tell us a hound had been in and out through his sheep over the previous few days. It had done no harm but he was not happy. It wasn't one of ours but or any of the local packs so it was probably some lads at foxes during the week who didn't pick all their hounds up and had just left it. You do your best to try and keep your farmers sweet and then a bunch of nobs come into your count
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