Priorities!

Dear Editor,

Last week, as police across Britain swooped on hare coursing gangs that could face prison terms or massive fines, our own police were directing traffic outside the so- called National Hare Coursing Meeting in Clonmel. Coursing is also a criminal offence in Northern Ireland, as it is across all of Continental Europe apart from Iberia.

I was among the protesters outside the All-Ireland finals of this vile blood sport, as I have been for decades. Despite a succession of professional opinion polls showing that a big majority favours a ban, coursing continues unabated.

About thirty years ago I sought the advice of a politician as to why no government had moved against coursing. His analysis was quite revealing if hard to stomach. He explained that while most people might be opposed to coursing the minority that support it retain a vice-like grip on rural TDs.

The PR system of voting means that a candidate can win or lose or by handful of votes in a General Election, he reminded me, so what rural candidate will risk losing, especially over a flipping hare: Except he didn’t say ‘flipping’.

He was honest and blunt in his response and I thanked him for it, but I disagree that our iconic native hare counts for nothing in the big political scheme of things. I earnestly believe that the protection and conservation of this species, dubbed the flagship of Irish biodiversity, should take priority over the loss of a few seats to one or other party at election time.

The Irish Hare has been with us since before the last Ice Age of 10,000 years, and it may have been on the island for up 60,000 years before that. In other words, long before politics was heard of.

Sure, TDs in certain constituencies might just lose out if they found the courage to take a stand against form of animal cruelty.

We all have to make sacrifices, and failed candidates can always shop around for another job or career option.

But the unfortunate hare doesn’t have a choice in the matter of being used as live bait in a game that makes political ‘ blood sport’ look harmless..

Thanking you, John Fitzgerald Lower Coyne Street,

Callan, Co. Kilkenny.