O’Sullivan planning his routes to National Meeting

Aside from a keen and active interest in coursing, John O’Sullivan runs the very successful Dublin Coach company, and the Clare-native, now resident in Kildare, is eager to merge the two, with an eye to promoting next month’s National Coursing Meeting at Clonmel.

O’Sullivan has had plenty of success up the field through the likes of Grangemore, First Flyer, Ballymore Trick and more recently with Rathdowney All-Age Cup winner Something Quick and Old Kilcullen JE Brennan All-Age Cup winner Bond Street Boy.

He is yet to have a qualifier for this year’s National Meeting, which takes place from Saturday February 2 to Monday February 4, but he will certainly be in attendance and hopes, if demand is sufficient, to be bringing many coursing enthusiasts with him.

O’Sullivan, through his coach company, intends to provide a service which, for €10 return per day, will carry patrons to and from Clonmel on each of the three days of the meeting.

“The concept of running coaches to and from the National Meeting has been banging around for some time and we’ve decided to run with it this year and see how well it is taken up,” explained O’Sullivan.

“We have been coursing all our lives — it’s our main interest — and we plan to support this initiative and try to make it work.

“We run a luxury coach service around Ireland and, in this case, our emphasis is on providing a high quality service, to get people to and from the national meeting.”

The three suggested runs start out at Dundalk, Galway and Tralee, and their routes have been mapped out through O’Sullivan’s knowledge of the sport.

“It’s a pilot project and we have identified three corridors which we think cover a large catchment area of interest in the sport,” he added. “These corridors are convenient to motorways and towns, making the service accessible as well as fast — we’d hope to make it almost as fast as going by car, but with greater convenience.

“The return buses will depart Clonmel one hour after the last course each day and we have spoken to the coursing club about getting a DVD of the day’s action, which will be shown on the buses on the return journey.”

If coursing clubs or patrons outside of the proposed routes are interested in having a new route installed, they should not be shy about discussing the possibilities.

“This is our first year doing this and we are totally flexible,” O’Sullivan added. “If the demand is great enough we will work to alter routes or introduce new routes so as to satisfy it. And if it works, we would certainly be interested in expanding it in years to come.”

As for the greyhounds themselves, he hasn’t given up on the idea of having a runner at the meeting.

“We haven’t got anything qualified yet but Something Quick has six points and we haven’t given up hope on getting her into the Champion Bitch Stake,” he admitted.

“We don’t have any pups qualified this time but the beauty of coursing is that you can always look forward to next season. We were out admiring the saplings the other day, hoping they might be the ones for next year.”

Details of the proposed routes can be found on www.irishcoursingclub.ie or in the Sporting Press. Those who wish to avail of the service should register their interest with

[e-mail] or contact Dublin Coach directly at [phone].

Photo: Sponsor Patsy Lynch presents the Dan Lynch Memorial Cup to Owner Kieran Burke and trainer Mick Murphy after Spruce Bolt won the Derby Trial Stake at Kerry Coursing Clubs recent meeting in Tralee

Photo: Yvonne Harrington, Fotoware