“I hope you feel some shame”: Actor Mary McEvoy to TDs who rejected bill to ban coursing

Petition updateBan Blood Sports in Ireland“I hope you feel some shame”: Actor Mary McEvoy to TDs who rejected bill to ban coursing

Irish Council Against Blood SportsMullingar, Ireland

Jul 24, 2026

Actor and author Mary McEvoy has said she is “incandescent” at the rejection of the bill to ban hare coursing and that she hopes the 125 TDs who voted against it feel shame.

“The hare coursing ban has been voted against by our ‘lovely’, ‘morally upstanding’ TDs,” she said in a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, the day after the Dail vote. “I really hope you feel some shame though I don’t think you have the capacity to feel shame. You, in the eyes of the world, have voted to maintain a practice that torments a timid, vulnerable animal for fun. And you have done that in the eyes of the world. Oh, shame, shame, shame on you.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DakJPZRI1iq/

She encouraged people to “show them in the ballot box the next time exactly what you think of them.”

Mary went on to praise the 24 politicians who supported the bill: “Well done People Before Profit, well done Paul Murphy, well done all of those TDs that voted for the ban.”

“I’m sure in my lifetime, this horrific practice will be banned but I wish it was today,” she added.

In 2024, Mary McEvoy – most famous for her role as Biddy Byrne in Glenroe – called for a ban on fox hunting after a local hunt trespassed on to her land.

“We’ve got to ban fox hunting right now,” she stated at the time, pointing out that the hunters came in to her forest and also sent pregnant sheep running for their lives on a neighbouring farm, with some of the animals aborting.

Speaking on RTE’s John Murray radio show in 2014, she told listeners: “I don’t believe in hunting, shooting, all that kind of stuff.”

A big thank you to Mary McEvoy for speaking out against cruel fox hunting and hare coursing.

Follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mary_mc_evoy_official/

Buy her book “Ordinary Beauty: Meaningful Moments in Everyday Life” at https://www.kennys.ie/health-personal-development/Ordinary-Beauty-Mcevoy-Mary

ACTION ALERT

Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and Aontú. Tell them that you want hare coursing, fox hunting and all bloodsports banned in Ireland.

Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Tel: 01 619 4000
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
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
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris
X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD

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

Peadar Tóibín TD (Meath West)
Leader, Aontú
Email: Peadar.Toibin@oireachtas.ie; info@aontu.ie
Tel: (01) 618 3518 / (046) 902 3472