A screaming hunt with ‘Dicker’s Dogs’

An autumnal November day with the Rockview Harriers proves to be “hunting at its purest”

- By LIAM CLANCY

"WE'RE an odd old club, but we accept that," Johnny Dicker said, describing the Rockview Harriers with his habitual boyish grin. “This is very much a dictatorship. We have no committee, no masters, and we don't take any money."

If there was a master it would be Rory Dicker, Johnny's father and founder of the pack.

Rory hails from Hampshire, where in 1969 he founded the Test Valley Bassets, redesignated as the East Lincolnshire Harehounds when he moved with them to Lincolnshire. Co Tipperary was the next staging point in Rory's peregrinations, again with five couple of bassets and outsize beagles along for company.

There he met Mary Marshall, whose father hunted the Kilfeacle Beagles.

Rory kennelled his hounds in Kilfeacle, soon fell for Johnny Marshall's daughter, and 50 years on they are still together.

Despite having little or no equestrian experience, Rory blagged his way into the huntsman's job at the Laois (Queen's County) in 1978.

The Dickers spent seven happy seasons in Laois, and their eldest son Philip, now a commander in the Irish Navy, was born at the kennels. The family relocated to Co Kilkenny in 1987, and in 1995 Rory registered his private foot pack as the Rockview Harriers.

The Rockview soon attracted a loyal local following, and earned the sobriquet of Dicker's Dogs in the wider hunting community. Inevitably, their annual end of season dinner is known as Dicker’s Dogs Dinner.

A level pack has never been a priority with the Rockview. Initially there were small foxhounds, large beagles, one or two true Irish harriers and a couple of Welsh woollies, but all hunted the Kilkenny foxes with an equal single-mindedness.

Today, with Rory’s younger son Johnny carrying the horn, old English blood predominates, but there is still a splash of Irish harrier in the mix, and two litters of foxhound-beagle crosses.