‘Walls! Walls! More walls!’
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
Peterswell, Co Galway
THE foxhunters of County Galway have always been a high-spirited bunch. A boisterous hunt dinner held by Galway sportsmen in the early 19th century famously ended with Dooly’s Hotel in Birr in flames. The hotel burned to the ground and the county pack earned for itself the undying sobriquet “the Galway Blazers”.
In its modern form as a subscription pack, the County Galway dates back to 1839, but even before that, East Galway had acquired a reputation as a first-class hunting country, with its little hazel and hawthorn coverts, light going and, of course, a multitude of limestone walls begging to be jumped. The great sporting artist Snaffles, visiting the Blazers in the 1930s, reported, “Walls! Walls! More walls! Dammit, there were more walls than fields!”
The County Galway met in the quiet village of Peterswell on the last Saturday of October. My day
