Ward Union HAI Rally TRIM

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1214/1224260654203.html

MEMBERS AND supporters of the Ward Union Hunt are holding a “monster rally” tonight in opposition to plans to ban stag hunting.

The hunt, which operates in Co Meath and north Co Dublin, is furious at the ban proposed by Minister for the Environment John Gormley. They have accused him of vindictively singling them out as they are the only licensed stag hunt in the country.

National Hunt jockey Paul Carberry, who is a Ward Union member, wrote an open letter to Taoiseach Brian Cowen last week warning him that Fianna Fáil TDs would pay the price at the next election if the ban was implemented.

One of the speakers at tonight’s rally in the Trim Castle Hotel will be businessman and Dragons’ Den member Gavin Duffy who accused Mr Gormley of “having a death wish” towards the hunt.

“For people who live in rural Ireland . . . we cannot understand how the one hunt that does not kill its quarry – the purpose of the stag hunt is not to kill the stag – is being targeted in this way.”

A commitment to ban stag hunting was included in the revised programme for Government agreed between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil earlier this year. A spokesman for Mr Gormley said yesterday that heads of the Bill were already agreed by Government and detailed legislation was being prepared.

Mr Duffy, a hunt supporter, said the Ward Union had support from across the hunting community and the proposed ban was causing alarm among those involved in wider country pursuits such as “hunting, shooting and fishing”.

The union brought hounds to the gates of Leinster House, the Custom House, the headquarters for the Department of the Environment, and to Navan Racecourse yesterday to publicise the meeting.

Ward Union secretary Ronan Griffin said its members were “not going to stand for” stag hunting being banned.

He accused the minister of singling out the hunt after losing a High Court action which placed onerous restrictions on it, including one that the hunt could pursue the scent of the stag and not the stag itself, a move which was described as playing “football without a football”.

“Anybody who is involved with animals need to be very aware of the extreme animal rights agenda that the Green Party is trying to bring into this country,” he said.

Hunt fans to converge for monster rally

SCORES of Drogheda hunt enthusiasts are expected to attend a monster rally to be held in the Trim Castle Hotel, Trim on Monday week December 14th at 8pm in support of the Ward Union Hunt.

‘ The battle begins here. We have been planning our campaign quietly behind the scenes but it goes public from here,’ said Christy Reynolds, the Ward Union Chairman.

‘If John Gormley thinks he is going to end the Ward Union without this government facing a massive backlash he is kidding himself.’

The purpose of the monster rally is to gather all those who support hunting, fishing and shooting in the north east and inform them of the campaign strategy for the first six months of 2010.

Ronan Griffin, Secretary of the Ward Union says ‘ This is as much a media event as a political rally and we expect the TV news cameras will be at the rally,’ he explained. ‘It is not about speaking to hunting people, it is about starting the campaign to win support from the wider public.’

All local TDs from both Meath constituencies and North County Dublin are invited.

‘Politicians of all parties in the constituencies have been invited’, said Mr Reynolds. ‘I know people are very annoyed and vexed but we will still ask all attendees to respectfully listen to the TDs. We have to find out, particularly from the government party TDs, what is their position on the Ward Union?’

Drogheda man and hunting enthusiast Gavin Duffy will speak at the rally as will Francis Lally, who has organised and lead the anti pylon campaign so successfully in the Royal County.

From the Irish Independent

Ban on deer hunts using hounds a step closer

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1121/1224259235953.html

CABINET HAS approved heads of a Bill which will make deer-hunting with hounds an offence, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has confirmed.

Quad bike and jet-ski activities will be banned in environmentally sensitive locations, and financial penalties for breaches of the Wildlife Acts will be doubled.

An amendment to the 1976 and 2000 Acts will include a provision prohibiting deer hunting with a hound or pack of hounds. This will not have implications for pursuits such as fox-hunting, hare coursing and the shooting of deer.

“One of the reports I received . . . showed deer going across the road just in front of a car. That set off alarm bells for me, and it seemed to me that licensing this was just not feasible, particularly in a built-up, increasingly urbanised area, and that’s why I came to this conclusion,” Mr Gormley said.

Bringing about an end to stag-hunting was a commitment in the programme for government, renegotiated between Fianna Fáil and the Greens last month.

Prior to the agreement, Mr Gormley issued a licence to the Ward Union Hunt in Co Meath allowing hunting to continue until March of next year. This is the only licensed hunt in the country.

At that time, his spokesman said Mr Gormley remained opposed to the practice, but that refusing to issue the licence would require legislative change.

The Minister will get new powers to make regulations to prohibit or regulate the use of jet-skis, quad bikes, scramblers and off-road 4×4 vehicles in environmentally sensitive locations. He said he was amending the legislation to address issues “in relation to which Ireland is at present under pressure from the European Commission on foot of judgments of the European Court of Justice”.

Mr Gormley said Ireland had failed to address the impact of recreational activities that were detrimental to Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protected Areas (SPAs) across the country. “We wanted to make sure that we are not disturbing birds or harming protected flora and fauna,” Mr Gormley said.

Controversies around such activities have arisen in locations such as Lough Derravaragh in Co Westmeath, Mount Leinster and the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

Mr Gormley confirmed exemptions would be made for work vehicles, giving the example of farmers using quad bikes.

Meanwhile, financial penalties for Wildlife Acts breaches will be increased for the first time in almost a decade, having last been amended in the 2000 Act. A breach which would have incurred a fine of €500 will result in a €1,000 penalty, for instance.

The Minister will have powers to prohibit and regulate importation, transport and sale of what he called “invasive” species – African pond weed, wild rhododendron, zebra mussel and grey squirrel.

Hunting Seminar – An Industry and Sport under Threat

Hunting Seminar – An Industry and Sport under Threat.

At Tattersalls Ireland, Ratoath, Co. Meath on Sunday, 6th December, at 2.30 pm.  Hunt members, hunt staff and hunt officials are invited to attend.

For further information, please contact:
James Phelan 087 630 4240, or Joe Griffin 087 295 3276
or e-mail: imfhapro@gmail.com

Horse and Hound

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/291192.html

The coalition government of the Green Party and Fianna Fail has vowed to ban stag hunting in Ireland as soon as possible. The Hunting Association of Ireland (HAI) and Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association (IMFHA) have announced that fox hunting will follow if hunt supporters don’t take a more proactive stance.

 On 9 October, the government voted on its programme for government — or mission statement for the coming years — and this included a ban on stag hunting.

 Fox hunting and coursing were not mentioned, but the Green Party’s manifesto states it would like to see a ban on both sports.

 James Phelan of the IMFHA said: “We need to be more politically active so we don’t make the mistakes which allowed hunting to be banned in England and Wales.

 ”Nowhere else on the planet will you find the Tipperary double drains, the Blazers’ stonewalls, the single banks of Waterford and the knife-edge banks of Wexford, combined with the Irish-bred horses and communities involved. 

“The combination of all three is what makes Irish hunting so famous. Rural Ireland is standing up in their thousands to defend these traditions.”

 The Ward Union is Ireland’s only carted stag hunt and, under the terms of the programme for government, would cease to exist.

Ward Union hunt secretary Ronan Griffiths told H&H: “The decision to ban stag hunting has come as a real surprise. Evironment Minister John Gormley installed monitors to report on the condition of our deer and what happens when we hunt. Vets also examine the deer in the park and after hunting.

 ”Their view was that, with tweaks, we can exist in a modern era. Gormley is going against that.”

 He said the hunt would fight the ban through the courts.

 Lyall Plant, chief executive of Countryside Alliance Ireland, said: “The banning of the Ward Union is just the start. We are campaigning throughout Ireland with the HAI and IMFHA.

 ”We have contacted all the hunts, telling them to lobby their TDs [teachtaí dála, member of the Irish parliament] and councillors, and have had a positive reception, but unity is vital among all the country sports. We have got to get together and fight.”

 In 2006, Irish jockeys vowed to strike if a hunting ban was suggested in Ireland (news, 27 April 2006).

Read this news story in full in Horse & Hound (29 October, ‘09)

Letters page on the Irish Independent 17th October

Rural dwellers have had enough

In reply to Mr Fitzgerald’s letter in the Independent (Monday Oct. 12), the animal rights lobby has taken Ireland into dangerous territory in which we in rural communities stand united  in protecting what we hold dear.

The Green Party has moved away from it’s core principles in terms of sustainable energy, clean rivers, supporting agri-business and enabling communities to live and work in rural Ireland to an agenda led by animal rights activists who have far-reaching goals that could destroy the Irish countryside and its traditional way of life as we know it.

Live export of animals would disappear.  Coursing would disappear. Shooting and fishing would disappear.  The list is endless.

Ireland’s traditional sporting and agricultural traditions are united in opposition to the animal rights agenda of the Green Party.

Former MEP Patricia McKenna exposed the new power behind Mr Gormley and the Green Party recently — animal rights groups.

The minister spent two hours with the Irish animal rights activists in the run-up to the  referendum on Lisbon.  He also had time to take submissions on puppy farm legislation from groups in the UK who do not support traditonal field sports and have no mandate in the Republic of Ireland.  But he ignored a submission from the Hunting Association of Ireland (HAI) which represents 3000,000 Irish people whose sport contributes 34 million Euros  annually to the rural economy.

Country people in Ireland have been awoken and are standing up to an unrepresentative group who are trying to destroy our way of life.  We support and promote animal welfare but will stand united in the campaign against animal rights, to protect the countryside as we know it and love it.

James Phelan

Tags: Green Party

Hunting is a Green Party Issue

In the Monday issue of the Independent the political minefield in which Hunting must now operate was made painfully clear.  During the recent negotiations between the Green Party and the Government, Hunting was once again used as cheap bargaining tool.  In order for the government to achieve the Green’s approval for NAMA ten items of the Green’s  prioritized wish list were granted.  Number 3 on this list was “End Stag Hunting”.  This so called sweetner for the Green Party is a very bitter pill for the Hunting community in this country.  At least this current process of horse trading has removed any wool from our eyes.  Hunting has a major battle for survival on its hands.  For all of us who live in the countryside and love and enjoy country sports the time has come to make our voice heard.  Please make your voice heard by contacting your local TD and or writing to your local papers with the positive news about Hunting.  The news that over 300,000 people in this country participate in country sports and we are here to stay!  we will not be banned by cheap political antics from a party which is unrepresentative and uninformed about country life.

Tags: Green