PP Hogan (1922-2005)

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By Dickie Power

In Ireland, the early 1950s through the 1960s was an era of amateur Master/huntsmen―young men of some means―who took on a pack of hounds more as an avocation than a job," writes our correspondent, Dickie Power. He was fortunate to have hunted with many of them, such as Thady Ryan in Scarteen, Evan Williams in Tipperary, Lord Daresbury in Limerick, Capt. Harry Freeman-Jackson in Duhallow, Victor McCalmont in Kilkenny, Elsie Morgan in West Waterford, and PP Hogan in Avondhu. This centenary year of Hogan’s birth is an appropriate time to remember him―a legend of Irish foxhunting and point-to-point racing.

 (L-R)  PP Hogan with his friend Thady Ryan, Master and huntsman, Scarteeen Black and Tans (1956)

PP (Pat) Hogan was born in Ireland into a family of horse dealers, farmers, and huntsmen, with an odd Bishop thrown in. His great uncle was the sporting bishop of Limerick, who always encouraged his clergy to ride to hounds.

The Hogans were a well-to-do farming family, with farms dotted around east Limerick, then as now an area steeped in everything to do with the horse. PP rode almost before he could walk. He rode his first race at the age of twelve. In those days before health and safety reigned supreme, it was only a matter of months before he made the first of countless visits to the winner’s enclosure.

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Pat Coyle: Forty-Two Seasons, Huntsman, Ward Union Staghounds

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By Dickie Power

Pat Coyle, huntsman, Ward Union Staghounds (IR)    /   Catherine Power photo

Pat Coyle, born and reared in Two Mile House, Co Kildare, has been huntsman of the Ward Union Staghounds since 1980. It was as natural for young Pat to follow a hunting career as it was for a bank manager’s son to join the bank. Pat’s maternal uncle, Eamonn Dunphy, was the much-revered huntsman of the Ward Union, but age and falls had taken their toll. By the late 1970s, he was nearing the end of his tether. So when the job of yardman in the kennels fell vacant, seventeen-year-old Pat Coyle applied and was hired. By that point, he was no longer red raw.

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Lord Daresbury, MFH, Co Limerick Foxhounds

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By Dickie Power

"In Ireland, the early 1950s through the 1960s was an era of amateur Master/huntsmen―young men of some means―who took on a pack of hounds more as an avocation than a job," writes our correspondent, Dickie Power. He was fortunate to have hunted with many of them, such as Thady Ryan in Scarteen, Evan Williams in Tipperary, Lord Daresbury in Limerick, Capt. Harry Freeman-Jackson in Duhallow, Victor McCalmont in Kilkenny, Elsie Morgan in West Waterford, and PP Hogan in Avondhu. This is our second installment in Dickie’s series about these remarkable men and women.

Edward 'Toby' Greenall, Lord Daresbury, MFH of the County Limerick foxhounds from 1947 to 1977  /    Photo courtesy of Hugh Robards

I started my hunting career with the Co Limerick foxhounds and the late Lord Daresbury, MFH and huntsman. In the eyes of a small boy, he appeared a forbidding figure, tall and straight in his pink coat, elegantly turned out, and always beautifully mounted. It was an era of long hunts where hounds didn’t go home until they had accounted for their fox, regardless of the hour.

With the war over and the committee needing to restaff the hunt, they had wisely settled on Edward Greenall, 2^nd Baron Daresbury. He had been Master of the Belvoir Hunt in Leicestershire for thirteen seasons (1934 to 1947). While Edward was his christened name, he was known to one and all as Toby, probably because it is a brand of ale from their family brewery, Greenall’s, which was the source of almost unlimited finance. Lord Daresbury came to Limerick and took up residence in Clonshire, then as now the property of the Co. Limerick Hunt.

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Thady Ryan: Three Centuries of Tradition at Scarteen

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By Dickie Power

Thaddeus 'Thady' Ryan of Scarteen was Master of the family pack of Kerry Beagles from 1946 to 2005, the year of his passing. Records show this unique breed of hounds has been in the Ryan family at Scarteen for ten consecutive generations stretching back more than three centuries. The pack hunted hare in the earlier years, then the stag, and finally, in 1927, the fox.

Thady Ryan, MFH, and Tommy O'Dwyer with the Scarteen Hounds at Knocktoran Bog, 1982.  /   From the painting by Peter Curling

The period from the early 1950s through the 1960s was an era of amateur Master/huntsmen where young men of some means would take on a pack of hounds more as an avocation than a job. I was fortunate to have hunted with many of them such as Thady Ryan in Scarteen, Evan Williams in Tipperary, Lord Daresbury in Limerick, Capt. Harry Freeman-Jackson in Duhallow, Victor McCalmont in Kilkenny, Elsie Morgan in West Waterford, and PP Hogan in Avondhu.

Over the next couple of months, I hope to bring short hunting biographies of these remarkable sportsmen, recalling a time of long days in the field and even longer hunts when the leading horsemen of those times flocked to Ireland to experience the magic and challenge of hunting in the south of Ireland.

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