Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Late Earl of Dunraven


The coursing community and in particular the members of Co Limerick Coursing Club are in sadness at the death of Thady Wyndham-Quin, the 7th Earl of Dunraven. 
The Earl passed away at his home in Kilgobbin House, Adare on Friday.
For almost one hundred years the Earl and his family provided the famous running grounds at Clounanna for the Irish Cup. 
When the Irish Cup moved to a new venue in 2000, the Earl maintained a huge interest in the event and he was overjoyed when his nomination Castle Pines won the Irish Cup in February 2005.
Our deepest sympathy to his wife Lady Geraldine, to his daughter Ana and to his extended family.
Reposing at his home on Monday 28th March from 11am to 4pm and also on Tuesday 29th March from 11am to 4pm.
Funeral on Wednesday 30th March at 12 noon at St Nicholas Church, Adare.


Yesterday, the chief executive of the Irish Wheelchair Association, Kathleen McLoughlin, paid tribute to the earl, who was president of the association from 1971-91.

"He genuinely cared about people. He sparkled, he had a twinkle in his eye, he was a really good man," she said.

"He was just a gentle character, with a fantastic sense of humour but with a steeliness to him to fight for what he believed in. His most significant contribution was that he could articulate what people's needs were and push for a response at government level."

She said his presidency of the association over two decades was used to step up the pressure to include people with disabilities in every aspect of life. This included getting disabled access to buildings, to people getting out of their homes, and using 1981 as the Year of the Disabled to push politically for change.

He had studied what was going on internationally and had researched the area before approaching government.

She said there were no hard facts at that time about how many people had disabilities in Ireland, or what their needs were. He used that information to influence the State to say these were the numbers, these were their needs and this is what you needed to do for them.

She pointed out that in 1977 35 per cent of association members were totally confined to their homes. Poignantly, the earl was included in a chapter of a commemorative book launched this week in Croke Park, Extraordinary Lives, to mark the 50th anniversary of the association.

Born in 1939, he was the son of Richard Southwell Windham Robert Wyndham-Quin, sixth Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, and Nancy Yuille. He married Geraldine McAleer in 1969 and was confined to a wheelchair after suffering from polio when he was a schoolboy. Educated at Ludgrove School, Berkshire, England, and Le Rosey School, Rolle, Switzerland, he succeeded to the title in 1965.

Valentine Richard Quin was created a baronet in 1781, becoming the first Earl of Dunraven and the title Mount-Earl was added in 1816. The family had a succession of MPs and the fourth earl was a senator in the Irish Free State. The family were among the largest landowners in Co Limerick. The seventh earl sold the family home, Adare Manor, and its contents in the Eighties for a reputed £2m and it became the hotel and golf resort after being purchased by Irish-American businessman Tom Kane. Adare Manor is set on a 840-acre estate and former US President Bill Clinton stayed there in 1998.

The earl lived with his family in nearby Kilgobbin House

Friday, March 25, 2011

CONTACT ME



Im very sorry .......there is a gentleman trying to ring me...........and Ive missed his call!

When leaving a message please leave your name and slowly leave your number.....The number you have left has no code with it......when I dial it.....and many other combinations of codes I get no reply.

 I am not ignoring you.....your details are incomplete

Giveabitback - Daren Johnson is running the length of the country for ch...

Giveabitback - Daren Johnson is running the length of the country for ch...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

ERINSTONE TRAP DRAW





Race 7 Erinstone Coursing Bred Unraced 325 Final 09:12 Approx. (325 Yds. Flat)  (Race Grade : N0)
TrapGreyhoundView Complete Race Form
Trap 1CANNAKILL SHOP 
Trap 2MARKET HUGO 
Trap 3VACUME STARLIGHT 
Trap 4SLICK SNOWY 
Trap 5HIPPY BOOTRUS 
Trap 6MASTER STAR 






Slick Snowy (Maurice Leahy) and Vacume Starlight (Susan McCarthy) last night at Kilkenny

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

THE TRUTH ABOUT COURSING


 Anyone who Missed Henry McKeans .....The Truth about Bloodsports can view it here

THE TRUTH

Fair Play to Henry......He set about putting a fair and balanced view and he gave all a fair chance to have their say.   Very refreshing in this day and age.





There goes yet another healthy hare being released back into the wild


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Taken from the Herald .ie




By Henry McKean
Tuesday March 22 2011
AFTER a bitter vote last year, John Gormley's now nearly defunct Green Party managed to ban the Ward Union Stag Hunt in Co Meath. Fine Gael now plan to reverse the ban, but their Coalition partners Labour hope to keep it.
Rural Ireland was upset with the Fianna Fail/Green stag hunting ban and the parties took a hammering in many areas.
Before I joined a TV3 crew to make The Truth About Irish Bloodsports, I imagined hunting to be a cruel sport for West Brits. I was to change my mind.
At Laois hunt in Abbeyleix, families from all walks of life took part. Despite the rain a big turn out showed up for the opening meet of the season. I met Dick Power, general secretary of the Hunting Association of Ireland, who said: "It's for people at every level of society. Of course there are posh people involved, but there are many who aren't."
Fox hunting has been popular in Ireland for centuries and is part of the fabric of Irish country life. I visited the Laois Hunt kennels and saw hounds with a direct blood line back to England for 400 years.
During filming, my producer Philip Gallagher and I visited a hare coursing meet in Edenderry, Co Offaly, where were given a rude welcome. They wouldn't let us in to film so we stood outside behind big hedges and blacked out gates.
But then, at a Hare Coursing event at Ballyduff in North Kerry I bumped into Bill Cullen's sidekick and TV3 Apprentice judge Brian Purcell. Here we received a much warmer reception and got to experience hare coursing with openness and warmth from the people of Kerry.
It is a well-regulated sport, with hares being checked by vets and tagged. Brian Purcell said: "Since 1993, greyhounds have been muzzled so the hare gets away. The hare has more stamina than a greyhound.
"I've been helping my dad since I was four years of age and have owned greyhounds ever since. Unfortunately in this country there's a big divide between city and rural life. If the Government is looking towards future employment and wealth, they should look at rural economies. There's a lot of money to be made from greyhounds. Over 11,000 people are employed in it."
What emerged to me is that the issue is not black and white. Clearly, tradition such as this cannot be given up over night. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently that the Hunting Bill was one of the measures he most regretted.
Blair said: "If I'd proposed solving the pension problem by compulsory euthanasia for every fifth pensioner I'd have got less trouble for it. By the end, I felt like the damn fox."
Me? I think in Ireland hunting will probably never be banned because there isn't enough will at political level to do anything about it. It is such a part of Irish culture.
All politics is local and after what happened to the Green Party in the countryside, no one will take on the hunting lobby and expect to win easily.
I don't like to see any animal suffer. I love animals and to watch a fox or hare in pain and worried for its life is not nice. But we have to weigh up tradition and way of life against a backdrop of hardline vegetarians, many having their own agenda.
Believe it or not, I was sitting on the fence but after making this documentary, I find myself falling off on the side of the hunters.
Are we right to end a centuries-old tradition, just to keep a fox alive which a farmer might shoot anyway? The fox is the Lion King of the farmland, ruling over all other animals constantly out-foxing us.
According to Dick Power, general secretary of the Hunting Association of Ireland, the hunted fox is dead in seconds and feels very little pain. I met Ger Foley at the ploughing championships in Athy, Co Kildare, who said he had been involved in hunting for 50 years.
"The fox will last for 20 seconds if he's caught, there is more killed on the roads than we kill hunting, what about the poor hen when he catches her and carries her 10 miles along fields and she's alive for the length that he's carrying her?"
Henry McKean is a reporter on Newstalk 106-108. The Truth About Irish Bloodsports airs tonight at 10pm on TV3
- Henry McKean



ERINSTONE COURSING BRED UNRACED

Tonight at Kilkenny its down to semi final stage in the Coursing Bred Unraced...........its tough going because its first two through to the Final .

The Final will be run Friday Week


We have some cracking Coursing dogs still in at semi Final stage.......Party Jay Cee is showing just what a great dog he is to own


Elaine with Party Jay Cee

Master Star is fresh from his Irish Cup Champion Working Members win.....everyone from Borrisoleigh will be routing for him again.

Vacume Starlight has taken to the track with flair........along with many others we have watched on the field this season







 Race 6 Erinstone Coursing Bred Unraced 325 Semi-Final 09:00 Approx. (325 Yds. Flat)  (Race Grade : N0)
TrapGreyhoundView Complete Race Form
Trap 1MARKET HUGO 
Trap 2HIPPY BOOTRUS 
Trap 3CHILL PLOUGH 
Trap 4PARTY JAY CEE 
Trap 5KEY FLOWER 
Trap 6ARDMAYLE WOODY 

 Race 7 Erinstone Coursing Bred Unraced 325 Semi-Final 09:12 Approx. (325 Yds. Flat)  (Race Grade : N0)
TrapGreyhoundView Complete Race Form
Trap 1MARSHALS KYLIE 
Trap 2SUDDEN LILLY 
Trap 3MASTER STAR 
Trap 4CANNAKILL SHOP 
Trap 5MUNGOS GAGA 
Trap 6BALYBANION PRIZE 

 Race 8 Erinstone Coursing Bred Unraced 325 Semi-Final 09:24 Approx. (325 Yds. Flat)  (Race Grade : N0)
TrapGreyhoundView Complete Race Form
Trap 1HEADFORD GANG 
Trap 2VACUME STARLIGHT 
Trap 3SLICK SNOWY 
Trap 4LIXNAW VIEW 
Trap 5DEIRIN ROSE 
Trap 6HILLBILLY INCA