KINGDOM OF HOUNDS
KINGDOM OF HOUNDS TONY O’SHEA Text by Paul O’Sullivan
RRB PHOTOBOOKS BRISTOL
In memory of Con P. O’Shea
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Tony O’Shea For more than 30 years Tony O’Shea has maintained a creative
Liberator, Daniel O’Connell, the uncrowned king of nineteenth-century
preoccupation with the distinctive world of the Kerry Beaglemen in
Ireland, hunted his own pack in the rugged terrain above Derrynane.
their mountainous ‘Kingdom’. His images capture the interplay between
He was kinsman to the Ryans of the Tipperary Scarteen Hunt whose
drag-huntsmen and their hounds against the landscape and weather of
‘black and tans’ were - uniquely for this breed - a mounted hunt, and their
these harsh uplands. The photographer is native to this place, returning
kennel was influential in maintaining the blood line. Edith Somerville, co-
annually to capture the rituals of pursuit re-enacted in the drag hunt. The
author of the Irish RM stories, rode out as Master of the West Carberry
huntsmen are his neighbours.
Hounds but she also kept a foot-pack of Kerry Beagles, her true passion.
The hounds too are indigenous to this windswept rain-washed mountain
The Kerry beagle clubs and the drag hunt aficionados of Fairhill on the
mass caught between valleys drowned by retreating glaciers. Prevailing
northside of Cork City belong to a more democratic world, devoted to a
south-westerlies from the Atlantic drive sheets of rain deep into the high
people’s sport that shares little with the privileged world of the mounted
ranges of South-West Kerry. Torrential and often continuous downpour
hunt. For those who nurture the Kerry beagle there are no kennels or
in winter makes for a sodden, mist-engulfed landscape; and while the
hierarchies. The dogs are bred and trained by the huntsmen, owned
sun may warm the summer hills to a version of pastoral they’re always
household by household. Neither hound nor man acknowledges a
subject to the whim of unpredictable shower-bursts. Sky and light
master.
change with the hour. Four seasons, it is claimed, can be experienced in the span of a single day. Whatever the season, when rain is not present
Courage, speed and endurance are bred into these hounds. These are
it may well be threatening.
not the small dogs of the fox hunt, but stand twenty-three inches or more at the shoulder, with the conformation of a natural athlete. In
There is little forgiveness in this landscape for man or hound. Many of
Tony O’Shea’s images they are a powerful physical presence as they
Tony O’Shea’s images feature drenching rain that huddles the huntsmen
emerge in a quicksilver burst from car boots and trailers, or are caught
under the scant shelter of a stunted hedgerow or a parked van. The men
in steeplechase flight across a high bank, or navigate with precarious
are stoic, attuned to this world of slough-pasture and mountain and the
balance the vertical hazards of barbed wire. A platoon of brave bobbing
cold misery of unremitting rain. The photographer finds the authentic in
heads swim up-river against a strong river flow, in an image that is both
the faces he captures, sculpted by lived experience and environment.
thrilling and strangely moving.
The Kerry Beagle is one of only nine Irish breeds recognised by the Irish
Local lore traces the breed to dogs who survived the wrecked galleons
Kennel Club and the hounds have heritage as well as pedigree. The
of the Spanish Armada which foundered on the Kerry coast, but it can
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boast an older lineage, likely descendant of medieval staghounds with a
seeking, scanning through mist or peering into the sun with shaded
possible admixture of French blood. In turn, it is acknowledged as one of
eyes. Groups congregate, eyes focussed hill-ward or skyward, awaiting
the pillars of the hunting breeds of the southern United States. In recent
the coming of the returning pack.
decades, drag hunting has increasingly displaced mountain hunting and speed has become the sought-after trait, prompting selective cross
The starting point will often also serve as finish and a contagion
breeding with bloodlines from Cumbria.
of excitement spreads along the waiting line as partisans will their contending dogs to final effort. Frenzy dissolves restraint, pretence
Kerry Beagles are intelligent and docile as house-dogs, but it is on the
abandoned, despair and triumph stand stark on faces. Victory is ecstasy.
mountain terrain they display their attributes of scent and tongue and footing. They are unparalleled as scent hounds following the drag trail
Or the finish may funnel the racing hounds through a gap or gateway
of aniseed-soaked rags. In full cry the sweet music of the Kerry Beagle
where the huntsmen crouch in a choreographed ritual of retrieval, each
is unmistakeable; the rough-hewn harmony so loved by the huntsman,
in his assigned position, proffering a lure of food, as if supplicants with
a music as old as time wherever hounds and quarry enact the drama of
votive offerings.
pursuit. Tony O’Shea has always been interested in groups in public spaces, Tony O’Shea is drawn to the drag hunt as a canvas where the story
their public presence and the private worlds of the individuals they
arc provides a developing drama. Under ‘starters orders’ the hounds
encompass. Here his compositions frequently enlist the everyday
stretch across the frame in a line taut with compressed energy; the
forlorn furniture of the bog and slough land - telephone poles and power
intensity of emotion is palpable; inhibition on the part of hound and man
lines and stays, a leaning five bar gate and skewed fence posts, lines of
is abandoned in an arena of naked competitive passion. Reputation is
barbed wire - to fashion a personal geometry which animates planes
in play beyond the winning of a trophy. Faces are conflicted as men
and sightlines in these gatherings. He likes to triangulate surfaces,
struggle to restrain their hounds, while simultaneously willing them to
to bring focus to an individual or group. He will seize upon the casual
power forward and seize advantage.
disposition of cars and vehicles and even the Golden Grill chip van to order the spaces he designs.
From the off, the dogs are quickly lost to the camera and the crowd. The participants now too become watchers, scrambling for precarious
In these gatherings of individuals, he is a steadfast observer of the
footing across clumps of rough grass or racing to a crossing point
ordinary but he is alert to the moment where the incongruous or the
where visibility can be regained. Men, framed from above, ascend to
unexpected can tip the everyday into the extraordinary. His pictures are
high ground in single file as if pilgrims on a journey. A line of watchers
frequently celebrations, affirmations of comic rhythm and possibility.
takes formal possession of a hill crest. Now it is all about listening and
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A man sits accompanied by a pair of hounds at sunlit ease beside what
the perspective disturbed, by a foetal figure almost discarded on the
might almost be an olive tree - there are few trees elsewhere in this
grass bank in the background.
landscape or in these images- with a classical almost biblical resonance. In other images the shading toward darkness is explicit rather than Three men lean against a wall, casual observers of activity in the distance
suggested. Weather provides the pigment, sometimes even the subject,
beyond. A hound stands at heel, his attitude conveys a profound lack of
of images so bleak they seemed drained of light. The starter of a Drag
interest, but loyalty and patience too, a study in infinite good-humour
Hunt, a crouched near-black figure, seems to be emerge not just from
and tolerance.
the dense enveloping mist but from sodden primordial earth. A scenario is revisited with men proceeding along a dismal track, where it seems
A watching huntsman leans against a grass bank, eyes searching. His
that all light is draining out of the frame as figures recede toward some
two hounds replicate his stance, companionable shadows to his search.
kind of infinity. The darkness is more than the physical absence of light;
Two men, identically dressed, make a precise and delicate traverse of
the figures seem caught in a ritual of departure.
an elevated dock, leading (it would seem) unseen hounds swimming somewhere below. The surface of the image is a series of planes; the
In all these images the subjects are an immediate and physical presence.
structure of a bridge strongly dominates the background and straight
But the power of Tony O’Shea’s compositions reverberates beyond
stone walls retain the body of water. The guessed-at presence of the
the domain and purposes of documentary. Huntsman and hound are
hounds in this ordered space - the absence implied - has intimations of
captured in their individuality and particularity and faces are discovered
mystery, even magic.
in moments which are poised between the communal and the personal, the ordinary and the out-of-ordinary. His vision orchestrates the play of
Another scene offers a sun-lit diptych. On one side three men make
sun and shade and shadow. Images flooded with light and energy sit
a bench of a grassy bank, comfortably presiding as if at a wake or
alongside uncompromising renderings of harsh endurance. Within a
courtroom. A shoeless prone figure stretched full length on the road
single frame the celebratory may be underscored by darker intimations.
elevates his head, perhaps to question the commentary of the wise men.
Animated by these tensions the images achieve an intensity which
To the right, in counterpoint, the grouping is mimicked by the wheels
compels attention. They are powerful testaments to the actual which
and gears of a casually abandoned bicycle. The ordinary resonates with
also resonate memorably beyond the frame.
strangeness, as if in a scene from Beckett. What is strange and comic may sometimes veer toward the sinister. In a
Paul O’Sullivan
sunlit image the eye is drawn to the angled head of a hound luxuriating in the sensual delight of being groomed. But the image is complicated,
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
36-37
Letter, County Kerry 2008
6
Carhan, County Kerry 1991
38-39
Conaiceen, County Kerry 2013
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
40-41
County Cork 2006
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Coom an Easpaig, County Kerry 2001
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Valentia, County Kerry 2002
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Valentia, County Kerry 2006
43
Finians Bay, County Kerry 2006
10-11
Sussa, County Kerry 2012
44
Valentia, County Kerry 2006
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Waterville, County Kerry 1993
45
Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Coom an Easpaig, County Kerry 2008
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Ardcost, County Kerry 2003
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Waterville, County Kerry 1992
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Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
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Swollen river, Carhan County Kerry 2005
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County Cork 1995
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Swollen river, Carhan County Kerry 2005
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
50-51
Reen Caheragh, County Kerry 2001
18-19
Sussa, County Kerry 2012
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Reen Caheragh, County Kerry 2001
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Conaiceen, County Kerry 1996
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A. Reen Caheragh, County Kerry 2001
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County Cork 1996
B. Reen Caheragh, County Kerry 2001
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Carhan, County Kerry 1997
54-55
Finians Bay, County Kerry 2012
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Ballinskelligs, County Kerry 2003
56-57
Ballinskelligs, County Kerry 2011
24-25
Sussa, County Kerry 2012
58-59
Finians Bay, County Kerry 2008
26
Pound, County Kerry 1994
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Coom an Easpaig, County Kerry 2005
27
Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Carhan, County Kerry 1999
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
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Carhan, County Kerry 1996
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
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Pound, County Kerry 1994
31
Finians Bay, County Kerry 1999
65
County Cork 1997
32
Valentia, County Kerry 2001
66
Finians Bay, County Kerry 2013
33
Carhan, County Kerry 2005
67
Letter, County Kerry 2008
34-35
Gurrane, County Kerry 1996
68-69
Waterville, County Kerry 2012
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
101
Cahersiveen, County Kerry 2006
71
Carhan, County Kerry 2005
102
Kenmare, County Kerry 1996
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Finians Bay, County Kerry 2013
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Kenmare, County Kerry 1996
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Carhan, County Kerry 1991
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County Cork 1990
74
Waterville, County Kerry 1998
105
Cork City 1992
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Coom an Easpaig, County Kerry 1998
106-107
Ardcost, County Kerry 2008
76-77
Reen Caheragh, County Kerry 2008
108-109
Kenmare, County Kerry 2014
78-79
Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Kenmare, County Kerry 2014
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Letter, County Kerry 2008
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Kenmare, County Kerry 2014
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Valentia, County Kerry 2007
112-113
Finians Bay, County Kerry 2012
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Ardcost, County Kerry 1995
114-115
Reencaheragh, County Kerry 2006
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Carhan, County Kerry 1997
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Ballinskelligs, County Kerry 2012
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Kenmare, County Kerry 2014
86-87
Letter, County Kerry 2008
88-89
Carhan, County Kerry 1993
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County Cork 1996
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County Cork 1996
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County Cork 2003
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Kenmare, County Kerry 1996
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Conaiceen, County Kerry 1996
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Valentia, County Kerry 2006
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Kenmare, County Kerry 1991
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County Cork 2005
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Valentia, County Kerry 2005
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Carhan, County Kerry 2002
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County Cork 2005
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Thank you to the Kerry Beagle Association and Cork City and Cork County Beagle Association. Thank you to Craig Atkinson, Josie Atkinson, Montserrat Benet Morella, Bobby Burton, all the staff at Photo Museum Ireland, Bridie Gilligan, Tommy Gilligan, Tanya Kiang, Trish Lambe, David Monahan, Patrick O’Donoghue, Con O’Leary, Conn O’Shea, Pat Pidgeon, Sarah, Keelin and Siuin, Jessamine Thoemmes-Tondowski, Rudi Thoemmes, Colm Tóibín. And a very special thanks to Paul O’Sullivan, Daniel Scully and Brían Sparks for their immense contributions.
RRB Photobooks, April 2023 Photographs © Tony O’Shea Text © Paul O’Sullivan Selected and Sequenced by Tony O’Shea Edited by Josie Atkinson Layout and Image Production by Jessamine Thoemmes-Tondowski Printed at Taylor Brothers, Bristol, UK. 978-1-7397023-4-2
rrbphotobooks.com
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