Dear Editor,

With so many pressing issues and challenges facing our country it might seem a bit inapt or petty minded to mention that another live hare coursing season is due to commence at the end of this month. I can understand why people in negative equity, struggling on low incomes, or thinking of emigrating to escape the nightmare of enforced austerity mightn’t see it as exactly the pre-eminent concern of 2013.

Yes. In the wider scheme of things, the fate of a hare running for its life from two frenzied greyhounds in a wired enclosure pales to a small dot on the crowded socio-political agenda of our time.

But it remains an issue nonetheless, for people from all of walks of life who wish to see the iconic Irish Hare protected from this so-called “sport”.

Noel Browne, that extraordinary reforming politician and fighter against injustice in Irish society (his Mother and Child Scheme enraged the Catholic Church and precipitated the fall of the government of which he was Health Minister) was a man who certainly had his political priorities in order. He toiled relentlessly on behalf of the marginalised and the unfairly treated, and successfully tackled the killer scourge of TB, thus saving thousands of lives on this island.

But he also found time to speak up for the humble hare. When the Wildlife Bill was debated in the Seanad in 1975, he sought an amendment to have hare coursing banned under the proposed legislation. He failed to achieve that objective. Not surprisingly, given the calibre of politicians we had then, and still tend to elect.

He couldn’t be accused of not understanding the subject, for he had personally witnessed what many of our present-day TDs and Senators still publicly condone and eulogise.

In his autobiography, ‘Against the Tide’, he described a typical scene at one of those “sporting” events: “The hounds reached the hare together, each furious at the other and mad for that spoonful of blood in the small body, as indeed were the baying human beings around me. There was a long death scream of pain that rose to a crescendo, and died in my ear. Like acid on a glass, that memory of a primeval ritual of a coursing meeting remains etched on my mind”.

Sadly, this ritual of sickening cruelty continues to be a part of rural life in Ireland. Hares were filmed at the Irish Cup coursing event last February emitting the same never to be forgotten Banshee-like scream that Noel Browne heard in his childhood. The event can be viewed on YouTube.

Noel Browne was vindicated on many of the issues and causes he held dear. Perhaps some day his position on this one will also be taken on board by our slow-moving, vote-conscious political establishment.

Then, hopefully, the plaintive cry of the coursing hare will be consigned to the pages of our past.

Thanking you,

Sincerely,

John Fitzgerald

(Campaign for the Abolition Of Cruel Sports)

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Co Kilkenny.