Hare coursing just a ‘cruel, stupid game’ Letter to the Editor, Sunday Independent, 11 February 2018 Sir - This weekend's three-day so-called "festival" of hare coursing in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, should be seen for what it is: a nauseating stain on our sporting calendar. Though the greyhounds will be muzzled at this coursing All-Ireland final, that won't take away from the terror and distress to which the hares will be subjected for the amusement of gamblers and dog owners. Since the present season began at the end of September last year, hares have been mauled, forcibly struck, pinned down, or otherwise injured by dogs at virtually all the coursing events held. Every greyhound entered in this weekend's extravaganza will have its own exotic or comical-sounding name, announced in sombre tones...but the hares will have no names. They serve as mere pawns, playthings in a cruel and stupid game that should have no place in 21st-Century Ireland. The hare in coursing is the equivalent of the sliotar in hurling... the essential difference being that it is a sentient creature, susceptible to pain as we humans are. Some day, I hope, a government with guts will outlaw this obscenity. John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny https://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/robin-the-murdering-hoodlum-36590444.html