There is disgust at a video showing fox hunters and a pack of hounds arriving at Adare Manor hotel on the day of a wedding.
The video - which has since been deleted from Instagram - was posted by wedding planning company Olivia Buckley International and showed the red-coated hunters on horseback along with the hunting dogs on the grounds of the County Limerick hotel. The video was titled “A regal escort to dinner at Adare Manor” and captioned “Call for Dinner? Let’s paws and think how we could do this differently”.
It was removed after several negative comments and a call from the Irish Council Against Bloodsports for people to boycott Adare Manor and any other business which supports fox hunters.
Among the comments posted below the video before it was taken down were:
• “After a hunt? This would actually turn me off a hotel.”
• “Just no. Horrendous 'sport'.”
• “I’m stunned anyone could publicly brag since a lot of us campaigned in May to bring in a ban on fox hunting.”
• “Just No No NO. It's 2025 and you're promoting hunting and bloodsports. What is wrong with people?”
• “Sickening.”
• “Just no. Let’s not romantise this.”
• “I love dogs but I’m sorry, I hate the cruelty that hunting embodies. This is a seriously bad look for Adare Manor”
The hunters and dogs were from the Limerick Foxhounds, a hunt whose shameful terrorisation of foxes has been well documented.
For example, an article in “Horse and Hound” magazine (11 January 2024) highlighted the plight of foxes during a “fast and furious” Limerick Foxhounds hunt. One of the foxes was killed in woodland, with the report outlining how two red-coated hunters on horseback were “pulled up in the eaves of a dark wood, where the wonderful Limerick hounds finally accounted for their fox”. Another fox was chased and killed – “after a lively little scurry, hounds accounted for their fox in a brambly ditch”.
More recently, a report in the Irish Field (7 December 2024) told of how foxes were chased by a pack of 35 dogs during a hunt - “It wasn’t long before [hounds] had a fine west Limerick dog fox afoot,” the report stated. “Reynard set his mark for the ruined castle of Dromore which dominates the skyline, looking down on the Shannon Estuary, with Shannon Airport distinctly visible on the Clare side of the tide. With hounds working hard and music to match, they pressed on towards the main road, but our pilot [the fox] knew where he was going as he found a welcoming shore and was given best.”
Later, another fox was targeted by the hunters: “Hounds drew on along the estuary and soon found [a fox] and ran towards Ringmoylan Pier, before swinging inland across Ballydoole and crossing back to the Cartown side of the road, where they met the best jumping of the day.” The fate of this fox was not revealed.
The Olivia Buckley International video was also uploaded to Tik Tok along with the caption “Now onto the Mane Event … Not your usual call to dinner, guests were escorted to the Grand Ballroom at The Adare Manor with a procession of horses and hounds” https://www.tiktok.com/@oliviabuckleyintl/video/7523202467887107350
Adare Manor hotel is owned by billionaire businessman John “JP” McManus who not only welcomes fox hunters to his hotel but has also supported hare coursing and horse and greyhound racing. At a coursing event disgracefully sponsored by him at Limerick Racecourse, the Irish Council Against Bloods Sports filmed hares being hit and severely mauled by greyhounds. One hare hit by the dogs could be clearly heard crying out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcx9n7SEpTI
SEE ALSO
Another American couple’s lavish wedding at Adare Manor is going viral on TikTok https://goss.ie/featured/another-american-couples-lavish-wedding-at-adare-manor-is-going-viral-on-tiktok-425911
TAKE ACTION
In fox hunting, foxes are chased to exhaustion by packs of dogs and when they slow down and are caught, they are attacked, bitten, disembowelled, pulled apart. Foxes who try to escape underground are dug out with shovels and spades and thrown to the hounds - typically after hunt terriers are sent down the hole to corner and attack them. It’s time for a ban on this barbarity.
Help get fox hunting banned in Ireland Please get in touch with all your local TDs and urge them to support Ruth Coppinger TD’s Animal Health & Welfare (Ban On Fox Hunting) Bill when it returns to Dail Eireann. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/34
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party. Tell them that you want fox hunting, hare coursing and all bloodsports banned.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Tel: 01 619 4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Simon Harris TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01 281 3727
Email: simon.harris@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris
Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Ivana Bacik TD
Leader, The Labour Party
Tel: (01) 6183136
Email: ivana.bacik@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivanabacik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bacikivana/
Keep hunters off your land
If you are a landowner, make your land off-limits to hunters. Find out more about how to do this on our Farmers/Landowners page – http://www.banbloodsports.com/farmers.htm
Watch our campaign video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG9rMlE3VAQ
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