Warm weather again forces the cancellation of the weekend draghunts

Another blank weekend in the sport of draghunting as once again the welfare of hounds running in the present heatwave was deemed unacceptable and unfit to race in.

Credit to all concerned for making a wise decision and whilst some trainers will have itchy feet to get back in the groove two weeks of rest makes proper commonsense in these conditions.

The action will return on Saturday next when all associations will come together for the second Mickey Wade Memorial heat draghunts at Coom (11am) kindly sponsored by the O’Connell Group.

There will be four senior heats, two puppy heats, a consolation final in both senior and pups, plus the main senior final that is sure to give draghunting enthusiasts a great day’s sport.

Few would imagine that the sport of draghunting first officially began in 1902 and 134 years later the sport continues to strive with the present membership working hard to keep the show on the road.

To the general public in Cork and beyond they might find the sport hard to understand but once you get the dragunting fever into your blood it never seems to leave you.

One of the major changes in draghunting was made in 1997 when the Cork association changed its method of finishing a race.

Up to that year the winning hound was judged by coming off the final ditch and the first to touch the ground was adjudged the winner.

Since 1997 the hounds are called on the finish by their respective trainers to a finishing tape which brought them in line with their English counterparts in Cumbria.

Prior to this in 1963 another major occurred as the Cork association decided to purchase English trail hounds with Fair Hill Harriers Club the first to acquire the talented hound named Chicory.

It is well documented for many years that thousands of pounds were spent by Cork clubs in acquiring hounds from Cumbria but that ship has long sailed.

When the elder lemons of the sport look back they will surely regret not breeding some quality hounds that landed on Cork shores as many trainers simply wanted ready-made hounds to run.

In recent years clubs have begun breeding and credit to trainers like Mary Barrett of Shanakiel Harriers, who is consistently breeding on an annual basis that is surely crucial to the survival of the sport on Leeside.

The present number of clubs in Cork is now at seven with Northern Hunt, Clogheen harriers, Mayfield harriers, Kerry Pike/Fair Hill harriers, Griffin United, Shanakiel harriers and Southern/Carrigaline harriers.

In truth this is a huge drop off but the reality is that when draghunting was at its best you had no distractions like computers or Sky TV as the majority of young people are not interested in exercising draghunting hounds on a daily basis.

My greatest memory of the sport is the numbers of incredible characters that were associated with various clubs.

The Northern Hunt club had some hard- working individuals like Garry O’Sullivan, Johnny Devereux, Sean O’Sullivan and Tom Connolly to name a few.

Looking back, I can remember the legendary Billy ‘Doc’ Burns of Fair Hill whose one liners were sheer class and if there was a shock winner at any draghunt his favourite saying was “this result is stranger than fiction.” 

The former Fair Hill stalwart Frank Quinlan, who is still a member of the northside club holds the record of holding the position of chairman within the Cork City and County harriers association from 1964 to 1973 and 1975 to 1989 a total of 25 years.

No chairperson is going to please all the membership on a consistent basis but for me, Mr. Quinlan held the respect of his position with dignity and honour.