Our day will come

The tricolour resting on the coffin of a Garda killer has generated political odium. ‘Uncomfortable’ to ‘shameful’ were words expressed to describe the use of our national flag as a veneer of respectability to a person whose life made holy water sizzle.

While our nation’s flag is an inanimate heritage object, can our political class manufacture outrage to what is being done to our living natural heritage? For the 1,440 minutes of the day that passes, Ireland is full of legal and illegal animal exploitation, abuse and death.

Reviewing an annual compilation: over 6,000 hares are captured to be abused and killed in hare coursing, over 55,000 deer legally shot for recreation, over 5,000 badgers legally snared for dubious disease control, on behalf of the Dept. of Agriculture.

Every year, thousands of wild animals and birds are hunted for recreational killing and filed under undocumented deaths.

In 2023, within the factory farming sector, 1.9m cattle, 3.2m sheep and 3.3m pigs were slaughtered. Also, that year, 33,500 young calves were slaughtered at Irish abattoirs while the calf export trade continues its international expansion. Live farm animal exports to non-EU countries sees animals dying under skies as diverse as Lebanon, Israel and Algeria.

In 2022, 92,939 animals, ranging from mice, dogs and cats were used in research experiments.

Ireland’s horse racing industry, which has Government support, reported that in 2022, there were 107 horse fatalities at Irish racecourses. Between 2012 and 2022, the total number of horse fatalities at racetracks was 1,060.

As for companion animals, the torrent of neglect, premeditated abuse and abandonment never stops flowing.

Letting somebody else take care of my wetnose ‘problem’ is seen as a merit badge for those with the emotional depth of concrete. Space does not permit to add to the data salad of all the activities that inflict exploration, abuse and death on animals in this country.

Our animals, domestic, wild, captive and farm, are part of Ireland’s heritage. Deserving respect and legislative protection and in dire need of this government to dial back the permission to inflict the daily legal and illegal animal abuse.

For those fighting the animal abuse troubles, our day will come. Till then, our national flag should fly at half-mast in memory of all sentiment creatures that have fallen.

Yours, John Tierney, Campaigns Director, Association of Hunt Saboteurs, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1.

“Woke” to stifle debate

In recent weeks I’ve become aware of just how cruel and dishonest people can be in distorting language and misrepresenting words and concepts that have been with us for a long time.

I’ve been campaigning against hare coursing in Ireland for decades and I thought I had all the answers to counter arguments or excuses from blood sport advocates.

Now, however, my adversaries have come up with a new put-down. I’m “woke” they say, for opposing their traditional rural pastime.

I hadn’t paid much attention to how this once respected word had been weaponised, mainly by the far right and people who decry any change in the status quo, or who are irked by anyone they deem to be excessively politically correct in his or her views or behaviour. But since it was thrown at me in a pejorative way, I’ve done a little research on the subject

I can see how utterly crass such misuse of the word is. Back in the 16th century Saint Thomas More in his classic work Utopia envisaged a hare coursing ban as one of the progressive features of his ideal society. Yet he could hardly be accused of being “PC” back in those days. And the 4th century Saint Blaise risked his life by rescuing captive animals destined for the Roman coliseum. So was he “woke” before his time, or what?

Was Martin Luther King “woke” when he pursued his epic civil rights campaign? Was the German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “woke” for taking a stand against the Nazi regime… a position that cost him his life?

I wouldn’t have thought it overly PC to be concerned about climate change, about a threat to the very survival of humanity, especially in light of overwhelming evidence that our behavouir is driving our own species and all the others, to the brink of extinction. But it’s deemed “woke” now it seems, to even talk about reducing greenhouse gasses, or the melting of the polar icecaps.

And, having trawled through social media, I see that you’re “woke” or a “traitor” in some people’s minds if you object to protesters screaming “get them out” at human beings huddling inside an asylum or refugee centre. Even people who expressed their horror at the burning of buildings believed to be set aside for victims of war and persecution have been denounced as “woke.”

The word is used so loosely and recklessly as to be almost meaningless at this stage, but we may be reaching a point where many people feel uncomfortable about expressing an opinion that clashes with the “No Change” and “leave things as they are” agendas.

I was intrigued though by the online ramblings of an anonymous far right advocate I came across. He declared “woke” to be the exact opposite of everything he stood for. Having read exactly what he did stand for, I said to myself: If “woke” is the opposite of fascism, then I’d be happy to be regarded as one of the wokiest people around. I’m sorry if that offends the ever-growing anti-woke community.

On second thoughts, why should I be worried about offending them? Let’s not be too PC about getting under the skin of bullies, oppressors, distorters of language, climate change deniers, Holocaust deniers and downright died-in-thewool racists!

Thanking you, John Fitzgerald Lower Coyne Street, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.