One year on from the publication of my novel Time to Stop Running, I am heartened by the reaction to this attempt to tell the story of an Irish Hare...an animal born to a country where the cruel “sport” of coursing is not only legal, but commands the backing of prominent greasy politicians and fat-cat business tycoons.

Getting inside the mind of an animal is naturally impossible, and one can only imagine how our furred and feathered friends experience the world into which they are cast as actors on the great stage of life. But one thing is certain: They are susceptible to pain just as we humans are, and cruelly ill-treating them, to quote a line from a UK government report on stag hunting, “compromises their welfare.” 

Tipsy the Hare in the novel is of course a purely fictional character, and his magical adventures are in the realm of fantasy, as are the shenanigans of the other animals who give what I hope are compelling supporting roles in the story: the fox, the badger, the greyhound, the cat, the falcon, and the rabbit...aside from the multitude of other hares that dwell on the offshore Irish island where tipsy lives.  Not so fictional at all is the depiction of what happens in coursing, and how crooked politicians keep it alive in Ireland with the help of monetary inducements and unsolicited “gifts” from hare baiters.

I’m delighted with the reaction from readers to the novel’s main character. Tipsy is the hero whose mission is to liberate the oppressed hares of Ireland, who are, I can assure you, in dire need of liberation.

There was a bizarre case of “life imitating art” last June when RTE, the national TV channel, exposed how hare coursers had invaded the peace and tranquillity of Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay to terrorise its acclaimed hare population.  These “sportspeople” have also, we know now, snatched hares from the island for use in coursing fixtures on the mainland. In the novel, a coursing club also invades the island where Tipsy and his fellow hares reside.

I hope that Time to Stop Running will help, if only in a small way, to bring the day nearer when hare coursing will be banished from the Irish countryside and our offshore islands...and these gentle creature will be able run free, safe from man’s perennial inhumanity.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Stop-Running-John-Fitzgerald/dp/1731369123/