‘A paradise for foxhunters’
catherine.austen@futurenet.com
Wexford, Newbawn, Co Wexford
“WEXFORD is a real paradise for those foxhunters 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 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, likeable character who describes himself as
