NPWS’s shameful recommendation to Minister: Grant coursing licences and DON’T sanction coursers
Documents obtained by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports reveal sickening details relating to the granting of 2026-27 licences for cruel hare coursing.
The documents, released further to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the Irish Coursing Club applied for the licences on 29 May 2026 and the National Parks and Wildlife Service not only recommended that the licences be granted but also advised the Minister NOT to sanction coursing clubs which previously breached licence conditions.
Download the documents
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/coursing-2025-2026-foi-records.pdf
In a letter to Fiona O’Mahony (Assistant Principal at the Wildlife Licensing Unit of the National Parks and Wildlife Service), DJ Histon of the Irish Coursing Club stated: “I wish to apply for licences to net and earmark/tag hares for the 2026/27 coursing season, commencing Friday, 7th August 2026, on behalf of all clubs affiliated with the Irish Coursing Club. In addition, I submit an application on behalf of Kilflynn Coursing Club to hold a one-day trial session on Sunday, 20th September 2026. I look forward to our upcoming annual review meeting and await confirmation of the details.”
A follow-up letter from the Irish Coursing Club to the NPWS on 3 June 2026 stated: “I attach application for Section 32 and Section 34 licences under the Wildlife Act 1979 for the forthcoming coursing season of 2026/2027. I have also copied Joe McMahon as he is very familiar with the application process. I look forward to our annual review meeting at your convenience.”
Two days later on 5 June, Joe McMahon (Higher Executive Officer at the NPWS Wildlife Licensing Unit) responded to say: “Dear DJ, I wish to acknowledge receipt of applications from the Irish Coursing Club for licences for the 2026/2027 coursing season. We propose Friday 3 July 2026 at 11am for our annual meeting in our North King Street offices. If this is acceptable to yourselves, could you revert to me by next Friday 12 June 2026 and we can send out a placeholder invitation...We will forward your draft agenda for the meeting in due course.”
After the date was agreed, Joe McMahon again wrote to the Irish Coursing Club on 25 June to confirm the meeting on 3rd July - “Hi DJ, Attached is draft agenda for meeting next week. If there are any items for inclusion in the agenda, could you let me know by Monday 29 June 2026? Could you also provide a list of attendees from the ICC for the meeting? Kind Regards, Joe.”
On the agenda was: Introductions, Review of 2025/2026 Hare Coursing Season, ICC/NPWS Joint Guidelines, NPWS Legislative Review update, Conditions of licences for 2025/2026 Season and any other business.
To this, DJ Histon of the Irish Coursing Club replied: “Thank you for sending on the draft agenda. The ICC attendees will be: Pat Loughlin (President), Damian Matthews (Treasurer), Kevin Marmion (Board Member), DJ Histon. If appropriate, could the following items also be added to the agenda: 1. Status of National Hare Survey 2025–2028, 2. Consideration of Multi-Annual Licence (S32 and S34), 3. Illegal Hunting. Please advise attendees on behalf of the NPWS. We would appreciate receiving the draft licences in advance of the meeting. We look forward to meeting with you on the day.”
The next day, the NPWS told him that they would “look at adding your items to the agenda” and that “we will issue the draft licences following the discussion on Friday to ensure that all issues are captured.” The additional items were added to an updated agenda.
Among the issues the NPWS planned to discuss at the meeting were:
“Timeframe for holding hares. How long can you keep hares for? How does it work?”
“The use of fishing gut criss-crossing over hare enclosures. It has been done on ICC/NPWS field days undertaken in recent years. Why is this recommended and undertaken? Which bird species were problematic in the first place? This has the potential to injure birds and perhaps act as a trap. One documented raptor case in 2019, involving a young hen harrier caught in and tangled in netting that had been erected to protect a crop from crows. This proved fatal.”
“XXX [Redacted] - Tuesday 21st October and Sunday 2nd November 2025. No landowner permission and illegal netting of hares at night time (Section 37 prohibits the capturing of hares at night).”
In relation to the Cavan/Dungannon/Westport coursing meeting - “Number of items sent for comment to ICC re. veterinary oversight, administrative differences, influence on rangers, amended reports...”
Regarding Dundalk and Dowdallshill coursing meeting, it was noted that “hares captured very early (August 2025) for meeting and not tagged when Regional Staff visited hare park. Difference in numbers released between ICC data and NPWS data.”
The minutes of the 3 July 2026 meeting show that there was a discussion about the the 2025/2026 hare coursing season, including what they referred to as “positive changes following the introduction of joint guidelines”, discrepancies following the counting of hares, and netting used over the hares. The status of the National Hare Survey 2025-2028 was also discussed - “NPWS provided an update on this item outlining the different survey approaches being undertaken”.
Responding to a request for a multi-annual hare coursing licence, “NPWS advised this item was still under review with no change anticipated for the 2026/2027 coursing season”.
In subsequent correspondence to Heritage Minister James Browne, Joe McMahon of the NPWS Licensing Unit stated: “The Minister's approval is requested for the following: 1. the granting of conditional licences to the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) under Section 32 and Section 34 of the Wildlife Acts to capture and tag hares for the 2026/2027 coursing season. 2. the granting of a conditional licence to Kilflynn Coursing Club under Section 26(3) of the Wildlife Acts to hold one day regulated coursing trial meeting on 20 September 2026, which is outside the Open Season dates”
In relation to breaches of licence conditions by coursing clubs, he went on to say:
“NPWS officials noted a number of potential breaches of the ICC licence conditions during the monitoring of coursing events this year. These ranged from tagging of hares, hare releases, cooperation from Club officials, incomplete and clerical errors on forms, discrepancies following the counting of hares and vet presence at meetings. The joint guidelines for ICC officers and NPWS staff for the running and monitoring of Coursing Events introduced in 2025 had a positive affect. These matters were discussed in depth with the Executive Board of the ICC at the annual meeting between NPWS and ICC recently. The only sanction available to the Minister is to not issue a licence to an offending club. In consideration of improvements achieved in recent years, IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS AT THIS TIME.”
In fact, there were indeed other sanctions available to the Minister. As well as exclusion from the hare netting licence, the Minister had the option to sanction offending clubs by reducing the number of hares coursed at their meetings. This has been done in the past by another Minister.
In submissions to Minister Browne, the Irish Council Against Blood Sports implored him to refuse the licences or at the very least, take action against coursing clubs who breached licence conditions. We reminded him that such breaches constitute an offence under Section 69(6) of the Wildlife Acts (“any person who contravenes a condition attached to a licence granted by the Minister under this Act shall be guilty of an offence”).
The NPWS’s recommendation not to impose sanctions came despite a warning to coursers last year. In a letter to the Irish Coursing Club in August 2025, the NPWS stated: “A number of issues arose last season ranging from issues with hare releases, veterinary presence, cooperation from Club officials, hare escapes, incomplete and clerical errors on forms and provision of tag number detail. SHOULD THE ISSUES THAT OCCURRED DURING THE 2024/25 SEASON CONTINUE DURING THE 2025/26 SEASON SANCTIONS WILL BE IMPOSED.”
The latest reports reveal that 3,020 hares were captured for the 2025/2026 coursing season (291 fewer hares compared to the 3,311 netted for the 2024/2025 season) and 3,000 were released back to the wild. There was no acknowledgment that hares forcefully removed from their habitats, manhandled, transported to coursing fields, held in unnatural captivity and forced to run for their lives are at risk of dying from stress-related capture myopathy in the days, weeks and months after release.
There was a reference in the documents to hares still being vulnerable to the deadly RHD2 virus - “the available evidence suggests that RHD2 remains primarily a disease of rabbits, with some limited spill-over into hares.”
In correspondence to Niall Ó Donnchú (Director General of the National Parks and Wildlife Service), Catherine Comer (Principal Officer, NPWS - Wildlife Enforcement & Nature Protection) commented: “please [see] attached submission with regard to the granting of licences to the Irish Coursing Club for the netting and tagging of hares for the 2026/2027 coursing season and to hold one regulated coursing trial meeting on days not specified in the Open Seasons Order...I recommend that the Minister grant these.”
The following morning, Niall Ó Donnchú also expressed support for issuing the hare capture licences. In a message to Minister James Browne, he wrote: “I recommend that you grant these”.
Despite appeals from the Irish Council Against Blood Sports and other groups and individuals, as well as reports of multiple licence breaches by coursing clubs, Minister Browne proceeded to approve the licences the next day, 23 July 2026.
On the morning of 6 August 2026, DJ Histon of the Irish Coursing Club wrote to the NPWS to enquire about the licences: “Good morning Fiona, Would you consider issuing the licences this morning as I have a family engagement later today. Many thanks, DJ.”
42 minutes later, Joe McMahon of the NPWS Licensing Unit sent the licences - “Hi DJ, Further to your email below, attached please find the following documents: Section 26(3) licence for Kilflynn, Section 32 licence to tag hares, Section 34 licence to net hares, Cover letter with licences. Kind Regards, Joe.”
Shame on Minister Browne and those in the NPWS who facilitate the continuation of a bloodsport which causes stress, injury and death to the Irish Hare.
"This is an insult to the majority in Ireland who want this barbaric bloodsport banned and it is a betrayal of the threatened Irish Hare, an icon of biodiversity," we stated in a message to Minister Browne and the Minister of State for Nature and Biodiversity Christopher O'Sullivan. "You should be protecting this species, not facilitating its persecution."
The licences, covering a 206 day period, allow 87 coursing clubs to capture thousands of hares in nets between 7 August 2026 and 28 February 2027 and attach ear tags to them before using them as live bait for dogs to chase. Thousands of hares will be cruelly netted from their habitats, held in captivity for up to eight weeks and forced to run for their lives. All the hares will suffer fear and stress and some of those hit and mauled into the ground will sustain broken bones and die from their injuries.
Among the victims last season were:
• A hare found in agony with a detached and protruding leg bone after a coursing meeting in Limerick
• A pregnant hare who died at a coursing meeting in Gorey. She suffered abdominal bruising and haemorrhage
• A hare “found dead” at a coursing meeting in Tipperary who suffered an injured eye and a wound on the hind quarters
• Hares who "died of injuries"
• Injured hares euthanised by vets
• An injured hare who was “given injection for shock”
• Hares administered painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs
• A hare who suffered bruising after being pinned to the ground by a dog
• A hare mauled with such force that an ear tag came off
• A mauled hare with a graze on the back
• A hare seen with "ear bleeding from tag removal”
• A hare who got tangled in a wire fence during coursing
• A hare who “died during release”
ACTION ALERT
Contact Ministers James Browne and Christopher O'Sullivan. Urge them to withdraw the hare coursing licences and sanction all coursing clubs which breached licence conditions.
Minister James Browne (Fianna Fail, Wexford)
Tel: (01) 618 3094
Email: minister@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.browne.enniscorthy
X: https://x.com/jamesbrownetd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbrownetd/?hl=en
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: christopher.osullivan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.osullivan.716
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_o_sullivan_td
X: https://twitter.com/COSullivanTD
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. Tell them that you want hare coursing, fox hunting and all bloodsports 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/
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
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
X: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Watch our campaign videos
The suffering of hares during 2025-26 coursing season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jN3OMM7_UY
Bill to ban hare coursing shamefully rejected - 24 in favour, 125 against
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMSh_T5l6i0