Historian William Murphy's study shows that Sinn Féin members in Co Cork were most successful in stopping the hunting season as part of their campaign to force the release of prisoners.

Murphy recalls an episode involving about 25 members of the Muskerry Foxhounds from Co Cork in March 1919. After they set off for a day's hunting, the group, including a local Catholic cleric, were met by 50 to 60 Sinn Féin supporters.

"Hurleys, sticks and stones were met with riding crops, but soon the hunt was in full retreat, the huntsman and the clergyman receiving particular attention as they withdrew.

The hunt departed to the sound of a revolver shot and the shouted question, 'Now will you obey Sinn Féin and the orders of our Executive?'

One bruised human nose and three maimed dogs later, the day's hunting and the Muskerry season was over."

The incident came at the end of a two-month struggle which saw republicans causing wholesale disruption to the hunting season. Sinn Féin was intent on pressurising Westminster to release republican prisoners including de Valera and Arthur Griffith. Those organising the hunts, however, argued that the campaign was damaging the economy.

The new research also indicates that not all Sinn Féin branches backed the hunting protest, with members in Tramore, Co Waterford, opposing an attempt to interfere or poison foxes and hounds.

Murphy is a speaker at the annual conference of the Sports History Ireland Society at NUI, Galway. Other topics include Ireland's last rugby international at Belfast, and the anti-apartheid movement's relationship with Irish sport.