Please join the "Ban Fox Hunting" demo outside Dail Eireann, Kildare Street, Dublin from 12.30pm to 1pm on Wednesday 17th December.
The demo will take place following a Dail debate on Ruth Coppinger TD’s Animal Health & Welfare (Ban On Fox Hunting) Bill. A vote on the bill will take place later in the day.
You can watch the debate live online from around 10am to 12 noon at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/oireachtas-tv-channel/
Alternatively you can tune in on Saorview Channel 22, Virgin Media Channel 207, Sky Channel 514, eir Vision Channel 504, Vodafone Channels 201, 207.
Between now and then, please telephone and email politicians and political parties and urge them to vote in favour of Deputy Coppinger’s Bill.
Prioritise contacting Fianna Fail / Fine Gael and Sinn Fein TDs. Find their phone and email details at
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/urge-ff-fg-sinn-fein-tds-to-vote-in-favour-of-ban-fox-hunting-bill/
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. Tell them to vote in favour of Deputy Coppinger’s bill – or at the very least, allow a free vote.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Telephone: 01 619 4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
X: 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
Telephone: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie, admin@sinnfein.ie
X: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Deputy,
I urge you and your party to vote in favour of Ruth Coppinger TD’s Animal Health & Welfare (Ban On Fox Hunting) Bill on Wednesday 17th December.
It would be very appropriate for you to support this important bill, given the fact that the vast majority in Ireland are in favour of a ban on fox hunting. The latest Ireland Thinks opinion poll (conducted in November 2025) shows that 87% are opposed to the hunting of animals for sport. 81% of respondents to the poll who expressed an opinion, agree that fox hunting as a sport should be banned in Ireland.
As you know, fox hunting involves horrendous cruelty to animals. It should have no place in modern Ireland.
Foxes are chased to exhaustion by packs of dogs and when caught, they are attacked, knocked off their feet, bitten, disembowelled and pulled apart. Foxes who try to escape underground suffer further cruelty. The hunt’s terriermen send terriers down the hole to corner and attack the fox. They dig the clay away from above and the squealing and injured fox is then pulled out and brutally killed.
Fox hunters try to justify their bloodsport by falsely portraying foxes as a threat to farming interests.
In fact, these fascinating and intelligent creatures are very much part of our natural heritage and play an important role in the ecosystem. Claims that foxes are a threat, ignore research by Teagasc which confirms that the vast majority of lamb deaths are caused by infection, dystocia, hypothermia and starvation. Teagasc stresses that farmers may “perceive predators (fox, mink, dog, etc) to be the main cause of lamb mortality” even though “it is unlikely that predators are the main cause”.
In any case, no farmer should seek to solve perceived problems by inviting dozens of hunters on horseback to hurtle heavily across wet winter fields, leaving pockmarked trails of destruction in their wake and posing a biosecurity risk as they traverse numerous boundaries.
The wild and wondrous madra rua (red dog) deserves to be cherished and afforded the same protection given to domestic dogs. It is unacceptable that they are the victims of recreational animal cruelty.
Animal welfare groups all across Ireland are united in their calls for a ban on fox hunting.
Please side with the compassionate majority of the electorate and support Deputy Coppinger’s bill. In doing so, you will be helping to stop the suffering and finally kill off this obscene bloodsport.
Thank you. I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully,
[Name/Address]
Keep hunters off your land
If you are a landowner, make your land off-limits to hunters. Find out more about how to do this at http://www.banbloodsports.com/farmers.htm
Sign and share the Uplift petition
https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/petition-to-ban-fox-hunting-in-ireland
Watch and share our campaign videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_5_ixsrg48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxQdL6VQiQ