The Kilmakerin Hounds

The composer of this song remains unknown at this time. This version of the song was published in The Kerryman on the 18th April 1953 and was submitted anonymously under the name ‘One of the Boys’. Another version of this song in the Binneas Collection was collected and recorded by Mary Horgan for her dissertation titled ‘The song tradition in English of the Iveragh Peninsula’.

There are hounds in Kilmakerin, there are hounds too in Clahane,

In Coomastow and Maulin, Dromaragh and Mauliarkane,

And in Canuig and Tullig West to Fionán Sheehan’s bounds,

They are known the world over as the Kilmakerin hounds.

Young Courtney sounds the horn to proclaim a hunting day,

As oft did Galt and Gorman, who are now so far away,

It reverberates through the valley and from hill to hill resounds,

‘Till its sweet peel quickly gathers up the Kilmakerin hounds.

As they hunt through Kilmackerin o’er the vale of Inchabui,

They wake ten thousand echoes from Bealach to Beentee,

See the them sweep across the heather going ahead by leaps and bounds,

Sure you’d know them ‘midst a million the great Kilmakerin hounds.

‘Round the lake when they’re fox hunting you should hear their tongues of gold,

Bringing Bourne and Faill a ‘Locha, pay them back a thousand fold,

The fox so cute and clever in his native heath and ground,

But in vain he must surrender to the Kilmakerin hounds.

Often praised in song and story are the hounds of Stephen Keane,

And the hounds that hunted Ryner from Canuig to Castlemaine,

Or Burke’s famous champion that won o’er a thousand pounds,

They’ll all blaze a trail of glory for the Kilmakerin hounds.

Hounds that specialised in drag-hunting and won prizes not a few,

Were the Tooran Letter leaders and Ballard the Joker too.

And it’s stated by old huntsmen, who can vouch on all the ground,

That their speed they did inherit from the Kilmakerin hounds.

Pat Lynch and Denny Casey, who have shed their mortal coil,

Seamus Welshe and Galtey Reilly, Milo Casey and Tom Doyle,

Patsy Mahoney and Gilpin may they dwell where bliss abounds,

All delighted in being hunting with the Kilmakerin hounds.

From the crest of Coomarovanig to the top of Teermoyle,

Killelan, o’er the water out at Gorachairn, Fermoyle,

Cuas lake to the Black Valley where the broad Atlantic bounds,

There is always míle fáilte for the Kilmakerin hounds.

‘One of the Boys’