Red setter day for Ruby, the pride of Kylemore

Connemara canineRuby Moroney travelled for two days overland from Germany this week to visit Kylemore Abbey, Co Galway – the place her mother was named after.

The Irish red setter was one of 18 puppies born in Germany in 2010 to a dog called Anny “The Red Pride of Kylemore” in what was dubbed the “litter of the century”.

Dubliner Martina Moroney, who lives in Berlin, bought Ruby after she read a story in The Irish Times in October 2010 about the enormous litter. “I said let’s go and visit them, and fell in love with one of them,” Ms Moroney said.

Ms Moroney’s parents had spent their honeymoon in the Connemara estate with the Benedictine nuns in the 1950s, and had frequently spoken about it. Ms Moroney had wanted to visit the abbey and take a photograph of Ruby there ever since she bought the dog. “I just really wanted to photograph her there. Each breeder gives their breed a name, and theirs is ‘Red Pride of Kylemore’.”

Ruby visited the estate yesterday and was extremely friendly to many of the visitors.

“Because she was in such a big litter of pups she was bottle-fed in a rota from the beginning. She is very used to people, and extremely tame and affectionate,” Ms Moroney said.

The dog also explored the estate. Ms Moroney yesterday admitted she had not anticipated what Ruby’s energy levels would be like when she was buying her.

She had visited Ruby’s mother and more than a dozen of the pet’s siblings for her first birthday last year, and will visit again for her second birthday later this year.

Ruby’s mother was named after the abbey by her owners, Gerd and Marita Holey, of Neverin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, northeastern Germany.

The couple have never been to Ireland, but did enjoy a film about the Kylemore estate, which was developed by Manchester cotton merchant Mitchell Henry in 1867. The abbey and walled Victorian gardens are owned by Benedictine nuns and are one of the top visitor attractions in the west of Ireland.