DESPITE the bankruptcy that many landlords faced as a result of the Famine, when the Irish Masters Fox Hunting Association was formed in 1859, a fair number of landowning families were still able to keep their own packs, and, as well as foxhounds and harriers, many if not most of these were Kerry Beagles. The dogs were bred to hunt, and were seldom exhibited in shows. While pedigrees were kept, these hounds were judged primarily by their physical abilities, by their noses, their courage and their stamina, and not by their physical appearance. However, in the early 1880s, the Kerry Beagle became one of the few breeds of dog to have been killed deliberately for political reasons.

A campaign had been launched by the National Land League to prevent landlords and magistrates from hunting across tenanted land. This combined political, social and economic grievances in a concerted challenge to one of the landlords’ most treasured rituals. The campaign was part of a wider agitation for land reform in Ireland (the so-called ‘Land War’), and many hunts felt compelled to quit the field when they were confronted by large and angry crowds carrying pikes, scythes and assorted cudgels. Masters of hunts who refused to back down ran the risk of losing their hounds through poisoning. Indeed, so much poisoned meat was laid across the roads and fields used by hunts that riders began to carry emetics to give their dogs in case they became ill.