[1] It was created in 1822 for William Hare, 1st Viscount Ennismore and Listowel, who had earlier represented Cork City and Athy in the Irish House of Commons.

In 1869 he was created Baron Hare, of Convamore in the County of Cork, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him an automatic seat in the House of Lords.

His grandson, the fifth Earl, was a Labour politician and notably served as the last Secretary of State for India and Burma.

[citation needed] As of 2017[update] the titles are held by the latter's eldest son, the sixth Earl, who succeeded in 1997.

The next in line is the present holder's cousin Caspar John Hare, 3rd Viscount Blakenham (born 1972), a philosophy professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.