Sir, – After the vote on the Abortion Services Bill, Tánaiste Simon Harris opined that TDs should be allowed to vote outside of the party whip system on issues of conscience.
On July 2nd the Dáil will debate a bill proposing a ban on hare coursing, the third such attempt to end the blood sport in Ireland.
The late deputy Tony Gregory moved a similar Bill in 1993, and Maureen O’Sullivan TD in 2016. Both proposals were heavily defeated when the main political parties applied the whip to block them.
I was present in the public gallery in 1993 and noticed how the anti-coursing Government TDs walked through the lobbies to vote with heads down. It was stomach-churning ... like hare coursing itself.
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This activity stands condemned on both animal welfare and conservation grounds. The sight of hares – the gentlest creatures in our countryside – running from hyped-up dogs at venues nationwide should be just a distant memory by now. It had no place in the 19th century, let alone in the 20th or 21st century.
The Irish hare is one of our few truly native mammals, rightly hailed by conservationists as the flagship of Ireland’s biodiversity.
How perverse to see this wildlife icon hurtling through the air after being pummelled by a greyhound, or mauled like a rag doll on the field.
If ever there was a case for a conscience vote in the Dáil, this is it. – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – One of my prized possessions is a poem translated by Seamus Heaney from Middle English to modern English. This signed copy sits on my wall and is called The Names of the Hare.
Back then the beautiful Irish hare was revered, as evidenced by the myriad names to describe it: “the dew flirt”; the “furze cat”; the “long lugs”; “the rascal”; “the frisky legs”; the “starer” – to name but a few.
Hares would appear to have been afforded protection back then, as evidenced by the opening line of the poem: “Man must speak the praises of the hare and lay down on the land what he carries in his hand.”
In Ireland in 2026 the number of hares in the wild is dwindling. Yet, unbelievably, the cruel practice of hare coursing is licensed every year by Minister for Heritage James Browne and the Minister of State Christopher O’Sullivan.
Hares are captured from the wild and kept in captivity for months, allowing disease to spread among this typically solitary creature. After this they are set upon by greyhounds in an enclosed field. Many will suffer fatal injuries and die. All will suffer extreme distress.
On July 2nd there will be a debate in the Dáil on the bill to ban hare coursing, followed by a vote on July 8th. I implore all in politics to do the right thing and ban this cruelty, a practice that 77 per cent of people in Ireland want stopped.
Cruelty to our native Irish hare really should not need to be debated, just ended. – Yours, etc,
JOAN BURGESS,
Annmount,
Cork.
