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Labour take a walk on the wild side and stop running with the hounds
Letter, Sligo Weekender: May 1st 2025
Dear Editor,
I’m delighted to learn that the Social Democrats’ Ban Hare coursing Bill will receive cross-party backing, with People Before Profit, the Greens and the Labour Party set to support the measure.
I’m especially pleased by Labour’s position. When similar Bills were proposed in1993 and 2016 to end this cruel practice, Labour ran with the hounds. Its new stance represents real, if painfully slow, progress in the decades-old campaign against coursing.
This activity is centuries past its sell-by date. One can understand it being all the rage when recreational animal cruelty alternated with street theatre and circuses. Life had little to offer in the way of hope or joy back then.
And it’s not too surprising that coursing was among the entertainments in the Roman Coliseum, cheered on by an audience that lapped up the terror and suffering of a fellow being.
But while it may have been Nero’s scene, hare coursing should have no place in modern Ireland, where it’s a perverse anachronism. Today’s fans don’t travel to the park in chariots, wear flowing robes, or carry swords or spears, but they connect with the same atavistic urge to witness an animal fighting for its life.
Apart from animal welfare, it ought to be unconscionable for even one hare on this island - let along many thousands per year - to be subjected to the organised savagery of coursing. The Irish Hare is one of our very few truly native mammals, having survived the Ice Age of 10,000 years ago, and it may have been around for up 60,000 years before that.
It has been in decline for the past half century, and while this is mainly due to habitat loss arising from urbanisation and modern farming, the rural “pastimes” of hunting, shooting, and especially coursing, add to its plight.
With all the emphasis on preserving our biodiversity, we should be prioritising the hare’s legal protection, not allowing over seventy coursing clubs to snatch these animals from their habitat just to have dogs set on them.
With Labour now on the side of compassion and conservation, I hope and pray that the other Dail parties, whether in government or opposition, will also opt to run with the hare. I urge people of all political hues to help consign coursing to its rightful place…in the footnotes of history
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny
TAKE ACTION NOW
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. Tell them that you want the Irish Hare fully protected and hare coursing, hare shooting and hare hunting banned.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Tel: 01 619 4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Simon Harris TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01 281 3727
Email: simon.harris@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris
Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Tell Nature Minister Christopher O’Sullivan and Heritage Minister James Browne to refuse 2025-26 hare coursing licences.
Christopher O’Sullivan TD (Fianna Fail, Cork South West)
Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity
Tel: (01) 618 3095 or 023 88 11011
Email: mos@housing.gov.ie; christopher.osullivan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.osullivan.716
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosullivantd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_o_sullivan_td
Minister James Browne (Fianna Fail, Wexford)
Tel: (01) 618 3094
Email: minister@housing.gov.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.browne.enniscorthy
Twitter: https://x.com/jamesbrownetd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbrowne
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntgYjH06czs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVIKc2CS4ko
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports