with Horse and Hound

September 21, 2020

mullins.Daniel OConnell and Kerry Beagles

Hunting with Daniel O’Connell, The Liberator

mullins.Daniel OConnell and Kerry BeaglesPortrait of Daniel O’Connell and one of his Kerry Beagles /  Noel Mullins photo

Researching the history of one’s sport can be very rewarding, as little did I know during my history classes in school that the Irish politician Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), known as The Liberator, was a hunting man. Maybe I would have paid more attention had I known!

I explored Daniel O’Connell’s hunting life further when I was given a seventy-year-old unfinished manuscript on the Kerry Beagle written by the great Irish writer, poet, broadcaster, and hunting correspondent, Stanislaus Lynch (1907–1983). I since edited Lynch’s manuscript and published his book in 2017 titled, In Search of the Kerry Beagle.

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