Naah. Hunting was and is a popular sport in Ireland. Less popular with foxes, of course. It comes through, not as an allegory for English-Irish stuff, but for memories of happy youth, in things like "Sean O Duibhir a' Ghleanna".

I vaguely remember that song, but with the chorus going something like:

Away, hark away
Away, hark away
And it's [something] bold Reynard
Away, hark, away.

Reynard, of course, being Mr (or Ms) Fox.

Funny enough, I was just looking at old photos a friend bought in an auction in Dublin, in an album with the combined families Ryan and Stapleton (she has another from a Jeffares family, a bit older - maybe 1870s; the Stapleton/Ryan one was 1880s-90s).

It has a picture of one of the Misses Stapleton, if I remember rightly, in a dangerous-looking riding habit trailing almost to the ground, in what looked like velvet, sitting sidesaddle on a spectacularly beautiful hunter. Horse, that is. The Miss Stapleton - possibly a kid called Tempie who is in many of the photos, was sitting the horse beautifully.

And away, hark away. Run for it, Reynard!