Dogs, whips, boots, leather, horses . . . and a full and misty moon. The rendezvous had been spread by word of mouth. "No advance publicity" was the warning. "Some well-meaning individuals may try to prevent this lunacy." For the Irish, English, Scottish, French, German, Dutch, Swiss and north American participants in a nocturnal chase across the sprawling fields of south-east Co Galway last Friday night, there was nothing mad about it. Yes, it was over a century since it had been done before but why not commemorate the famous midnight hunt from Pallas and raise funds for the Galway Hospice?
Apprehensive though they were beforehand, some 35 invited participants and their steeds completed the 10-mile route over fields, fences and ditches in the early hours of Saturday morning. There were only three falls in the dark, far fewer than in many daylight outings.
Among the Irish riders were members of the Galway Blazers, the East Clare Harriers, the East Galway Hunt, the Ward Union and the North Kildare Farmers.
The brains behind the weekend event, which wound up with a hunt ball on Saturday night, says he will never do it again. Mr Oliver Walsh, of Flowerhill Equestrian Centre, at Killimor, Co Galway, grew up with a local legend which he had always wanted to recreate; once was enough and he won't tempt fate.
The legend concerned one "Fire Away Flanagan" - any youngster in the area who displayed wild characteristics was nicknamed after him. "Fire Away" was an employee in the stables at Pallas, the now demolished matching house to Flowerhill on the old Westmeath estate in east Galway, who earned his reputation for learning to ride a pig.
Appointed whip of the hounds by Anthony Nugent, the Ninth Earl of Westmeath, "Fire Away" let out the dogs one moonlit night after a fox had been bothering them. Both he and Nugent gave chase on their horses as far as Duniry.
Sadly, "Fire Away" 's horse fell at a wall and he was badly crushed. He died after a few weeks and was buried in Tynagh Cemetery. According to a profile in a recent book on east Galway, Lickmolassy by the Shannon, by John Joe Conwell, Flanagan's hunting horn was blown at night for many years after during the lambing season to keep foxes at bay.
Perhaps it is something about the spirit of Flowerhill. Perhaps it is an inevitable result of the changes facing Irish farming. Perhaps it is the fact that east Galway has always been in the shadow of Connemara. Whatever the reason, Mr Oliver "Fire Away" Walsh has transformed his farm into a highly successful equestrian centre.
Supporting him in his efforts is Mr John Donnelly, past president of the IFA and a man who has recently been under pressure from Fine Gael to run as a second European candidate in Connacht-Ulster. Now serving as a member of the EU's Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, Mr Donnelly takes the "what's global is local" approach to life. In between flights to and from Brussels, he has been very active in promoting tourism in east Galway.
Formerly synonymous with the defunct Tynagh mines, the area doesn't have the bustle and buzz of Galway city or the spectacular mountains and coastline of Connemara. However, it does have relatively quiet roads, rolling fields and forests running back to the Slieve Aughty mountains. It also has Portumna on the Shannon and its tributaries, such as the local Kilcrow trout and salmon river.
"I could see the need 10 years ago to diversify into tourism," Mr Donnelly says. "Yes, farming is going through trauma but it is not the first time. Fifty years ago, the little grey Massey Ferguson came in and thousands of horses and ponies left the land. So rural Ireland is not dying, it is just changing." Agri-tourism has to be carefully thought out and both Mr Walsh and Mr Donnelly believe that east Galway has to be sold as a package. Much as Mr Walsh would like to think that families would be immediately attracted to Flowerhill, with its courses in trail riding, cross-country, polo crosse and trekking, he knows that many couples and groups have diverse interests. Not everyone wants to spend days on horseback in beautiful countryside where there is the opportunity to accompany the East Galway and East Clare hunts.
However, the interest is definitely there, evidenced by the fact that a £100,000 equestrian centre at Ballygar, Co Galway was opened several weeks ago.
Mr Walsh markets other activities in the locality on a commission basis, including language courses, golf, pitch and putt, swimming, cruises on the Shannon and circuits at the Tynagh karting track, which claims to be the biggest motor sports centre in Ireland.
Mr Michael Moloney, owner of the track, is a bit of a "Fire Away" himself. Having left school early, he got a job in a local woodworking factory and then went into business, initiating a very successful baking tray manufacturing plant.
He later set up a horse-drawn caravan business called Into the West. Two years into that venture, Mr Moloney built a 500metre outdoor karting track. Its success, and the fact that his business premises was destroyed by fire, led him to build a full-scale car racing track beside the original, which is about the size of Mondello Park.
There are shades of the film Eat the Peach about it as it is behind his farmhouse on a narrow road between Tynagh and Portumna. In Mr Moloney's case, however, his Pallas karting has been far more successful than the infamous wall of death built by actor Stephen Brennan in the film.
Mr Michael Molamphy, a teacher at Portumna Community School, describes Mr Moloney's efforts as "quite amazing". The man is "an entrepreneur in the purest sense of the word", and a shining example for his Leaving Cert vocational programme students. "If this venture was in Dublin, we would all be familiar with its existence."
Details on the Pallas karting track, on all sorts of activities in south-east Galway and on Flowerhill Equestrian Centre's programme - which also includes children's pony camp - can be had by phoning (0905) 76112 or 76009.
