{"id":5091,"date":"2022-08-08T14:36:12","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T14:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=5091"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:40:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:40:03","slug":"prominent-huntsman-passes-the-late-jack-hartigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/prominent-huntsman-passes-the-late-jack-hartigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Huntsman Passes. the late Jack Hartigan, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Leinster Leader, <\/em>12 March 1977<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Taoiseach, Mr. Cosgrave, Dail and public representatives, and Kildare Hunt Club officers and members were among the huge attendance at the funeral on Sunday to St. Corban\u2019s Cemetery, Naas, of the noted ex-huntsman of the \u201cKilling Kildares\u201d \u2013 Jack Hartigan of Jigginstown. Jack, who gave legendary service with the Kildare hounds, took suddenly ill while visiting a house in Naas, and died within a short time on Thursday.\u00a0 He celebrated his 70th birthday only a few days previously. A resourceful and faithful staff-man of the Hunt for many years, he was an outstanding horseman, and cut a fine figure in scarlet on hunting forays.\u00a0 His skill, sense of direction, and dependability were a byword, but on or off the hunting field he was cool and reticent, never flustered.<\/p>\n<p>How that he is gone, many a story will be retold of his career, and of his dedication to the personnel and to the stock, equine and canine, down through the years.\u00a0 Numerous tributes were paid to him over the weekend.\u00a0 There were wreaths from the Hunt, from followers, Clubs with which he was associated, and friends, including a very appropriate one of scarlet flowers inscribed from the people of Bishopscourt and Johnstown-Kennedy. The latter was a nostalgic gesture, recalling the golden era of hunting, from the founding days of the Hunt in the early nineteenth century by the late Mr. John Kennedy \u2013 later succeeded by his sons Sir Edward, and William, and an illustrious line of Masters and Joint Masters. Sir John Kennedy\u2019s great grand-daughter, Mrs. Patricia MacGillycuddy, Bishopscourt, Kill, an admirer of Jack\u2019s prowess, said this week:\u00a0 \u201cIn all the years I do not think that hunting in Co. Kildare has ever had a better or more loyal servant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The late Mr. Hartigan was closely identified with sporting organisations, especially athletics and boxing.\u00a0 He was one of the most reliable supporters, always willing to share the spade work.\u00a0 It is virtually certain that the local clubs will decide to keep his memory evergreen by deciding on a tangible means of doing so, with a perpetual memorial trophy or shield. Jack\u2019s skill as a huntsman was all embracing, and few people were as expert in judging hunters and hounds. The sympathy of all went out to his wife, May, sons John (England), Michael and Gerard; daughter, Mrs. Anne Kennedy, Kingsfurze, Naas, sister and brothers. A warm tribute came this week from Mr. Thomas F. Long, Martinstown House, Curragh, Master of the Kildare Hounds from 1967 to 1976.\u00a0 He said:\u00a0 \u201cIt would be very hard to say anything that is not superlative about Jack Hartigan.\u00a0 He was a great friend and much more than a huntsman.\u00a0 I was privileged to have him as huntsman for nine seasons.\u00a0 His loss is tremendous to me and to my family\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leinster Leader, 12 March 1977 The Taoiseach, Mr. Cosgrave, Dail and public representatives, and Kildare Hunt Club officers and members were among the huge attendance at the funeral on Sunday to St. Corban\u2019s Cemetery, Naas, of the noted ex-huntsman of the \u201cKilling Kildares\u201d \u2013 Jack Hartigan of Jigginstown. Jack, who gave legendary service with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries","category-sport"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5091"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8622,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions\/8622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}