An Old Flame

A comment was made recently by a 'Barry' who was a member of Fairhill in the sixties before he left for Canada(His comment is under the News and Gossip column). As I had no contact details for this person I left a comment hoping He might see it, for him to contact me and I would post him this years Fairhill calender as it has a picture dating back to the sixties. To make a long story short, He seen my comment and e-mailed me saying that his brother Bill had posted him one(with a comment that the fairhill dogs couldn't pass the No 2 bus going up Cathederal road !!!) and was disappointed to see that his old club Fairhill was not in the running................... So I asked him a little more about his time here with the dogs and why He left etc..............and here's his reply.........

'Hello Nicola, I just got back from my walk, today was a nice day for walking. It has been very cold over here so far this year. Nicola if you look at the 2009 calendar in the extreme left hand corner is johna leary, he was a member and also a bookmaker, next to him is robert healy he used to have a grocery shop up the hill from the old glen hall.I am on his right with the white sports coat, 1st whip on left in front is johnny wrenne the last of the old fair hill boys, still alive must be in his ninetes. Peter cahill is huntsman in the centre, my brother bill is the whipper on the right in front, frankie quinlan is the whipper on his right. If i remember properly that picture was tken up in Mayfield, its the cross going up to rathcooney graveyard i think it was called Harrison Cross.
You asked me if i ever trained dogs for fair hill, my father won the all ireland in blackpool in 1947, the next year stevie quinlans dog joker and my fathers dog challenger tied for 1st place, so my father gave it to joker as my father won it the previous year, they were both fair hill dogs.Stevie Quinlan is in the calendar also, he is the 6th head in the back counting from the right. My brother bill had the first english dog liverpool lou,i had the next one the Don,i would think i was the 1st person to go to cumbria, i think it was 1961. I went for a vacation, it was my first time seeing dogs going over 6bar gates. It was johnny wrenne who was the first person to tell us about the drags in cumbria he was working in england at the time. We would not believe if anyone else had told us, but if you know johnny he never drank or smoked so the fair hill committe agreed to send me over. I remember the slagging we got the first time we brought liverpool lou to his first race you must remember we were running on horse flesh then, the lou as they called him was trained to aniseed oil. my brother bill and i picked him up off the innisfallen on thursday on friday morning and saturday morning we tried him on horseflesh against my own dog who was wicked fast for 2to 3 miles, they dead heated. We ran them from the long bog into the blackstone bridge. The first drag we ran the lou jn if my memory serves me right was in macroom on a monday of a bank holiday, he was second. He was actually running ahead and back to the pack not being used to the horseflesh, my brother bill w;uld remember better than me. Well Nicola i hope i did not bore you with my reminiscencing.Barry kelleher'



Above is the picture on this years Fairhill calender.
In his next reply to me ....................

'You asked me about and why i left Ireland, well my whole life then was draghunting, i worked in sunbeam on sot married in 1968 and left for canadahifts. There was little jobs then and i could not see any future. Josie callaghan got the Don when i left. WE got married in 1968 and left the same day for canada. For the next 12 months i could not wait to go home for vacation just to see my dog,we were going home in june 1969 when my father wrote to say the Don had died. A mystery three and half years old, i loved that dog, i used to talk to him alot when i was walking him. HE was afraid of crowds,in those days there was a lot of blackguarding in draghunting on both sides. In 1969 we moved to new york. Between 1969 and 1974 we had a house built on faggott hill, That bungalow looking out over the long bog -We were the only house there that time. WE had no luck in that house so we came back to New York after 10 months. So we are living in new jersey for the35years. WE are 30 miles from manhattan. I hope you are noy bored with my life story . God Bless Barry'

He told me his brother Bill, who still lives in Mayfield, was the fiirst person to run an English dog here in Ireland, his name was Liverpool Lou. I was very touched by this mans story, and it must be nice for him to see how the dogs now are running in Cork through this site.......I think it obviously brings back fond memories for him and he's able to keep track of old friends also. If any old friends wants to contact Barry let me know and I'll pass on his details. I'd like to thank Barry Kelleher for his time and for sharing his memories as I think other people who'll read this will as well.