“All God’s creatures have a place in the choir” but they don’t appear to have a place in the hearts of cynical, vote-conscious TDs or Senators - Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in the Avondhu and please scroll down for action alert...

Far worse than a Talking Shop
The Avondhu: 16 June 2022

Dear Editor.

I see that eco-protesters outside the recent biodiversity conference in Dublin dubbed the event a “talking shop” and accused the government of not doing enough to protect our precious flora and fauna.

I hate to say this but as a campaigner against blood sports I wish that successive Irish governments had confined their handling of wildlife issues to a harmless, if indefensible, “talking shop”.

Unfortunately, governments are made up of politicians who in turn are motivated more by where their votes are coming from than by any concerns about the conservationist or welfare status of birds, bees or assorted furry critters.

The late Tommy Makem sung that “all God’s creatures have a place in the choir.” They might well have, but they don’t appear to have a place in the hearts of cynical, vote-conscious TDs or Senators intent on winning Dail seats.

I have attended coursing fixtures to keep tabs on what is happening to an ostensibly protected mammal, the Irish Hare, a sub-species of the Mountain Hare that is unique to Ireland. It has been in decline for the past half century, mainly due to habitat loss resulting from urbanisation and the unintended effects of modern agriculture, and for the past three years has been under additional pressure from the arrival of the deadly RHD2 virus in the countryside.

This highly transmissible disease is fatal to hares and rabbits and can be spread by the use of nets to capture hares for coursing and their subsequent confinement in paddocks or compounds.

But these challenges to an iconic species which has been on this island since at least the last Ice Age of 10,000 years ago and may have been around for over 60,000 years before that; seemingly mean nothing to the string of governments that have presided for decades over this democracy.

At the coursing events I attended I have watched hares being hounded in all weathers: twisting, turning and dodging on muddy fields, in torrential rain, or wind storms, or with snow falling on the so-called sporting venues.

I have seen them being mauled, and flung skyward by the dogs as grown men laughed and marked their betting cards. I have listened to the child-like sobbing of hares that were struck forcibly in the chase or had their bones crushed.

I have campaigned, with others, for years against this obscenity, but still it continues. And I ask: Should anyone be surprised that a government that allows THIS treatment of a “protected species” is less than committed to saving what remains of our imperilled biodiversity?

John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co Kilkenny

ACTION ALERT

Tell Heritage Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan to stop licensing cruel hare coursing and give Irish Hares the proper protection they deserve

Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD

Malcolm Noonan TD (Green Party, Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 618 3148 OR (01) 618 3156
Email: mos@housing.gov.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm

Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour to tell them that you want hare coursing and all bloodsports banned.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: +353 (0)1-704 3630 OR +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar

Eamon Ryan TD
Leader, Green Party
Tel: 01 618 3894
Email: eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EamonRyanGP/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EamonRyan

Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald

Ivana Bacik TD
Leader, The Labour Party
Tel: (01) 6183136
Email: ivana.bacik@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivanabacik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bacikivana/

Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://youtu.be/5Dm0mmXYcv8
https://youtu.be/yVIKc2CS4ko