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GHOSTS, VAMPIRES, WITCHES and werewolves: Ireland’s haunted past is not for the faint-hearted.
The rather brave author and photographer Tarquin Blake visited some of the sites for his new book, Haunted Ireland, taking photographs that make the stories feel all the more visceral.
Here are the stories of two of the locations featured in the book, and Tarquin has kindly filled us in on their terrifying past…
Leap Castle’s dark and sinister history has led to its reputation as being by far the most haunted castle in Western Europe. In the 16th century, the castle was the main stronghold of the O’Carrolls, fierce and powerful Irish chieftains, who ruled over the surrounding territory of Ely, and termed themselves, ‘Princes of Ely’.
John O’Carroll started building the castle, and when he died of the plague in 1489, his son, Mulroney, became head of the O’Carroll clan and completed its construction.When Mulroney died in 1532 a bitter and incredibly bloody fight for Leap Castle and the leadership of the O’Carroll clan erupted between cousins, illegitimate sons and namesakes, which lasted nearly 100 years.
The O’Carrols eventually lost their estates in the Cromwellian land confiscations and Leap Castle was granted to one of Cromwell’s Soldiers of Fortune, Jonathan Darby.
The castle then remained home to the Darby family for the next 350 years. In the early 1900s workmen found an oubliette, a trapdoor through which prisoners were pushed down to fall to their deaths.
A grim discovery
In the underground dungeon below, the grim discovery was made of approximately 150 human skeletons, seemingly the evidence of the brutal murderous activities carried out in the castle during the O’Carroll’s tenure several centuries earlier.Three full cartloads of bones and skulls were removed from the dungeon.
The lord of Leap at that time, Jonathan Charles Darby, also made the gruesome discovery of three upright skeletons sealed into one of the internal castle walls.He immediately ordered them bricked up, believing his ancestors must have had good reason to put them there in the first place.It was about this time that Darby’s wife, Mildred or as she preferred to be called, Milly, began dabbling in the occult.
She held a number of séances at the castle which seemed to awaken a myriad of ghosts.Milly wrote a lengthy article describing the various otherworldly inhabitants of the castle, which was published in the December 1908 edition of the Occult Review magazine. Word soon spread and Leap Castle became headline news in newspapers all over Europe.
Milly described one of her ghostly encounters:
Suddenly, two hands were laid on my shoulders. I turned around sharply and saw… a grey “Thing” standing a couple of feet from me, with its bent arms raised, as if it were cursing me.. so sinister, repulsive and devilish.
Other apparitions included a tall lady dressed entirely in red, with her hand holding a dagger, raised menacingly in the air; and a dark monk-like figure wearing a black habit wandering about often in broad daylight. Milly’s husband had the castle exorcised firstly by the local rector (Protestant), and then by the parish priest, but both failed to rid the castles of its ghosts.
Milly and her husband’s time at Leap was cut short during the Troubles of 1922. On the night of 30 July, when the couple were away, IRA irregulars broke into the castle and burnt it to the ground. The castle then remained a gaunt burnt out ruin for over fifty years.
In 1974, the ruin was brought by Peter Bartlett, he had it exorcised again and then began to restore the castle. Following his death in 1989, Leap was brought by the Ryans, who continued with its restoration, transforming it into their fine family home. According to Sean Ryan, the castle is still badly haunted and many people have witnessed otherworldly activity in recent years.
Hidden in a dark, dank forest near Clogher in County Fermanagh, this abandoned cottage was the scene of a well-documented poltergeist manifestation. The occupants of the cottage, along with their belongings, have long since disappeared. The grim structure, however, still remains much as it was during this violent and demonic haunting.
The widow, Mrs Bridget Murphy, born in 1870, lived in the cottage with her son, James, and her six daughters, Annie, Mary, Teressa, Bridget, Catherine and Jane. Trouble started in the autumn of 1914, when one gloomy, cold and wet evening, Mrs Murphy was sitting by the fire with her daughter, Annie.
Suddenly they heard mysterious footsteps coming from the ceiling and then loud tapping on the wall behind them. The three youngest girls, who were in the adjoining room, began screaming in terror.In the following days the cottage became infested with a poltergeist, whose activity manifested itself with ever increasing vigour.
“Suddenly, the bedclothes were thrown across the room.”
Two priests, Father Peter Smyth and Father Eugene Coyle, offered support to the family, and both witnessed shocking and unexplained events. On one occasion a sheet was laid out on an empty bed where the young Murphy girls slept. Soon a human form was seen to bubble out under the sheet and then raise itself into a terrifying animal shape before suddenly collapsing.No possible cause for this bizarre and horrifying activity could be found.
When sitting on the bed, the priests described a feeling like snakes moving under them.A snoring sound was heard coming from the dark areas of the room, followed by spitting and then hissing. When the children returned to the bed, there were sounds like a kicking horse and then, suddenly, the bedclothes were thrown across the room.One priest stood with his hand on the bed and challenged the poltergeist.
He described the feeling of a rat moving around his hand under the sheet, followed by the shocking sensation of an eel twisting round his wrist but no further – not daring to touch his consecrated hand.On one occasion Mrs Murphy told one of the priests that it was her daughter Annie who was affected and that it appeared that the manifestations were centred on her. A series of tests was carried out with Mrs Murphy and Annie taking it in turns to lie across the bed.
Whenever Annie lay down, a rushing sound was heard passing from the ceiling, down the wall and into the bed. When Mrs Murphy took her turn lying on the bed, no such manifestations appeared.
No exorcism was ever carried out at Cooneen and the Murphy family eventually sought refuge by emigrating to America. After their departure, no further appearance of the poltergeist was recorded.
The priests who investigated the case all suffered badly from their interactions with the poltergeist; one priest had a nervous breakdown, another developed spinal meningitis and a third facial paralysis.
Stories taken from Haunted Ireland by Tarquin Blake. Read our full interview with Tarquin about the book here.
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This is a wise move on the Mnister’s part and hare coursing, a highly disruptive and viciously cruel practice, probably contributed to the problem.
However, the ban must now be made permanent…in the same way that a Northern Ireland Minister suspended hare coursing on conservationist grounds, following which a complete ban was introduced in 2011.
The disease threat is just one challenge to the hare in Ireland. The well documented cruelty of coursing, added to multiple threats to its survival (e.g loss of habitat resulting from urbanization and aggressive modern agriculture, capture by coursing fans for “blooding” of greyhounds etc ) make the case for a total ban stronger than ever.
I have been campaigning for the protection of the Irish Hare from ghoulish coursing clubs for decades. I have looked on as hares were mauled or had their bones crushed on muck encrusted, rain-sodden coursing fields. In the middle of last year’s blizzard, the “sport” continued unabated…with hares forced to run and skid in Arctic conditions before pairs of dogs as hail stones lashed the baiting venue in Clonmel.
This news today is the first ray of light in many years.
The greyhound industry is falling apart. Thank God. Today the demise of two greyhound tracks, at Lifford and Longford, was announced.
Soon, I hope, the capture of hares for use as live bait by gangs of thugs posing as “sportspeople” will be a criminal offence, like cock fighting and bear baiting.
Dogs and hares alike should be allowed to live their humble lives in peace.
@John Fitzgerald: As the licence is now suspended. What are you going to pro-actively do to protect the Irish Hare from this disease? I don’t need a lecture on coursing or its effect on you or your opinion on it. A constructive answer to a serious question is all that is required at a moment in time where the hare population could be decimated.
@Laura McCarthy:
The suspension of the license is a major first step to fully protecting the Irish Hare. The next step is to ban hare coursing and introduce tough fines and prison terms for anyone who seeks to use hares as live bait, whether in coursing or for pre-coursing blooding sessions.
Nobody remotely linked to hare coursing or other forms of animal cruelty should be consulted on this matter. LIkewise, we wouldn’t consult badger baiters on how to protect badgers, or allow dog fight gangs to advise on the welfare of dogs.
@John Fitzgerald: Exactly. You will work on a ban. But will do nothing for the Irish Hare. Thank you for confirming my concerns. It is all bluster and a faux concern for the Irish Hare to serve your own personal agendas.
@Laura McCarthy: Lol but a ban on coursing is exactly “doing something for the Irish Hare”. Probably the best thing which can happen for them.
@John Fitzgerald: oh fuxc off would you with your agenda and your fake concern…..Great move,is right,caused by coursing,jesus get a life ….
@John Fitzgerald: may coursing live on. It is a sport that has its heritage in Irish Society
@Laura McCarthy: John Fitzgerald is a well known anti hunt, anti shooting anti anything you’d care to mention. Says everything to suit his own agenda in the hope that enough idiots will read his blather and believe.
@Seamus Murphy: Its actually very very simple..taking a gentle beautiful creature and setting two dogs on it so that some mindless morons can lay bets on the outcome is a vile practise…..you and your kind will have no luck for participating in this activity.
This ban is long overdue , coursing is a stain on our country and culture.
@Joseph Molloy: think you will find that hare coursing -along with greyhound racing ,fox hunting and pheasant shooting as so called ‘sports’
have “their heritage ” firmly embedded in the past times of the ‘english gentry ‘ from the 1700′s more than from an ‘irish society’ point. these ‘sports’ were the privilege of the landed gentry ,the rich and well to do ,who used the lands on their ill gotten estates to pursue such activities – any ‘irish’ person who was involved would only be so because their ‘master’ needed someone to ‘beat’ the hares out of hiding ,if an irish person was found to be in possession of a hare ,pheasant ,rabbit or fish that may or may not have come from the ‘masters’ lands they would face jail ,deportation or hanging ! “irish society my arse ” !
@John Fitzgerald
Another one of these ignorant antis, it has been proved by a number of studies that where there are coursing clubs in Ireland , there is 4 times the population of hares, the hares are released back into the wild where they were caught.
This has nothing to do with coursing but the bandwagon tree huggers are using it as another way to knock rural Ireland, to these antis I say go away and wash themselves and get a job and give something back to society.
@Gerry Campbell:
Idiotic lazy comment. My concern is not fake, unlike that of people who say they love the hare and then set dogs on the animal and stand around laughing as the hare is mauled and tossed about like a broken toy. The hare doesn’t deserve to be afflicted by disease. Nor it deserve coursing clubs.
@Seamus Murphy:
Crass comment typical of S Murphy and his ilk. We heard all the same arguments made for cock fighting and badger baiting… more badgers and cocks where you had these sports …the cocks and the badgers loved fighting/baiting and the baiters/fight organizers looked after their victims. Those field sports eventually got the chop, as hare coursing will. The present ban needs to be made permanent. The greyhound industry is on the way out. Don’t forget to close the door after ye lads, and switch off the lights.
@francis walsh:
Officially hares after back into wild post-coursing. In fact they are sold on to other clubs at up to 80 Euro apiece. Even when actually released a waiting trapper can net them again.
The studies you refer have been debunked. Only one coursing clubs was involved and the results were rigged.
Interestingly, cockfighters always claimed there were more cocks where their “sport” thrived. Any excuse. Bear baiters claimed they loved the bears, even when the dogs were ripping them apart. The greyhound industry, coursing included, is in terminal decline. Let’s kick it into the garbage heap and bury it for good.
Hares and greyhounds alike will then be free from the sickos who have made their lives a hell-on-earth.
That’s basically rabbit Ebola, poor little things
@Linda Kirby: Yes Linda, given to rabbits by farmers even without crops on their land, and ask any farmer to let you get a few rabbits on his land ye might as well ask him for the lend of a fiver. They would rather poison rabbits before they would let ya catch a few for yer dinner.
@Clint Sofie: Dont think theres many Chineese farmers running you and ur whippets off private property…..
@Clint Sofie: So you think farmers have found a poison which is capable of spreading a virus, and are using this poison to spread the Rabbit haemorrhagic virus amongst the rabbit population on their lands ? Load of old waffle.
@Tommy Roche: There is form from myxamatosis, back in the day. Infected rabbits were sold…
@Clint Sofie: that’s a bad dose of paranoia you have there. But I’m sure there’s a pill out there to help you.
@Gerry Campbell: Where did your non-existant Irish-Chinese farmers come into it? Irish farmers are renowned for being the most miserable and tight-fisted people in the land. Unless there is a ‘grant’ in it for them they are never to be seen, except, perhaps at the bog-ball ‘big matches’. Ask a farmer for a fiver is right, the PAYE workers of the country subsidise them up to the eyeballs but they will never put so much as a single cent back into the exchequer.
@Pat Farrelly: ‘bog ball’? Think the last time I used that was in primary school to try to look cool.
@Pat Farrelly: You really are a very ignorant person. Have you ever tried farming a small farm in Ireland?
I remember as a child seeing hundreds of bunnies and hares dying on the roads ..wandering out because they could no longer see and were in so much pain leading to a slow agonising death. I think it was mexamatosis…it was awful.
Perhaps the suspicion in me but is this possible again? As in created within Ireland? I know rabbits are good hoppers but to get from China to here? Nah!
@Celia Murphy: The last foot & mouth outbreak here originated in Argentina without the extensive landbridge that exists from continental Europe to China.
Article says RHD was found first here in DOMESTIC rabbits so pet trade or imported feeds could having spread it.
You can be sure that human trade spread the disease not nature.
The anti coursing fraternity will now stand idly by. They will watch the NPWS and the Department seek the help of volunteers in coursing clubs to protect the Irish hare from this disease. It’s so easy to level criticism, yet when something like this happens, the only ones who will be actively protecting the Irish hare are those involved in coursing.
@Laura McCarthy: so they’ll being kind to be cruel?
@Karen Wellington: Precisely as I said, “easy to level criticism”, so your post is not surprising, in fact it is typical. Where are those who are against coursing now, and what are they going to do to protect the Irish Hare? If the Irish Hare meant anything of substance to them, a line in the sand would be drawn. A plan to work with the NPWS and the coursing clubs would also be established, up until this episode is over. But no, that won’t happen. They will just sit on the fence and watch the coursing clubs do the work.
@Laura McCarthy:
We won’t stand by. We’ll work to ensure that the ban is made permanent. The disease threat will be there for years to come, so hare coursing cannot be allowed, apart altogether from the well proven animal cruelty that is an integral part of the “sport”. Coursing clubs have been the hare’s number predator. They’ve claimed to be concerned about illegal or “unregulated” coursing of hares, yet top coursing officials were caught doing exactly that, week after week, earlier this year. Coursing clubs are NOT the protectors of hares, any more than criminal gangs could be entrusted to give talks on career guidance in our schools. No hare netting license should ever again be handed over to those “sportspeople”…their days are now surely numbered.
@John Fitzgerald: Exactly. You will work on a ban. But will do nothing for the Irish Hare. Thank you for confirming my concerns. All bluster and a faux concern for the Irish Hare to serve your own personal agendas.
@Laura McCarthy: What sort of mixed up, crazy logic is that? It is them that are spreading the disease, that’s why their licences have been revoked?!?
@Laura McCarthy: I’d have no issue working with the NPWS on this, wouldn’t want to associate the kind of deviant who courses though. Once the NPWS issue a statement on their plan of action I’ll do what I can (assuming they even want the public’s help).
@Michael Evans: The licence was granted yesterday. So no, the coursing clubs are not spreading the disease.
@Laura McCarthy:
We won’t be sitting the fence. But coursing clubs are not friends of the hare. They set them us as live bait. They stand around, laughing and cheering, or marking their grimy betting cards, as the terrified hares are mauled or tossed about on the “sporting” venues. The “work” of coursing clubs is to set dogs on hares…so sick humans can get a thrill. Properly qualified conservationists will address the disease issue…not gangs of idiotic hare worriers of the kind we recently saw on the RTE documentary skulking about on an island, terrorizing hares, using terriers as well as greyhounds to hound them… and laughing their heads off at the suffering of these gentle creatures. Imaging availing of the “services” of those latter-day cavemen to look after hares!
@John Fitzgerald: Thanks for the answer. Again it resorts to long winded repetitive statements that lack any substance to the matter in hand.
@Laura McCarthy:
If, as seems likely from your posts, you condone hare coursing, you cannot expect to be taken seriously on the subject of hare protection or welfare.
@Laura McCarthy: Care to share what you would like the anti-coursing group to do? What is their personal agenda, I’m seriously interested. Surely most people would see a ban on coursing to be positive, no?
@Michael Evans:
You’ve hit the nail on the head Michael. Hares when captured by coursing clubs are kept in cramped and unnatural conditions, ideal for the spreading of disease. The Minister had no choice but to refuse the license.
@John Fitzgerald: That is your opinion. But I will be helping the NPWS where possible and I will be ACTIVELY trying to stop the spread of this disease. You will still be typing.
@Laura McCarthy:
I’ve addressed the issue. Under no circumstances should coursing clubs be allowed to “look after ” hares. They have a long track record of subjecting hares to horrific acts of cruelty for “sport”…As a major further step towards protecting hares, coursing must be criminalized.
@Trevor Wallace: At last a constructive post. I would like them to show some substance to their beliefs. Seeking a ban where a licence is suspended makes no sense. It appears to me the Irish Hare is an after thought, its demise or extinction being for a greater good. The ICABS run themselves as a limited company, they sit on a large cash reserve that is at its largest level in over 5 years. This is business to them. The hare is inconsequential. If not then why are cash reserves not being utilised to benefit welfare/animal protection etc?
@John Fitzgerald: No you have not addressed the issue. The question was – what are the anti coursing fraternity going to do to protect the irish hare? From your answers, it is blatantly obvious that your answer is – nothing.
@Laura McCarthy: Jesus Laura if we all had your attitude sure we should throw in the towel now.
@Laura McCarthy:
A silly cheap shot. Coursing clubs want hares for their own use…to serve as live bait in a sick blood sport. Even their claim to be opposed to “unregulated” coursing was recently debunked when some of the biggest names in the greyhound industry were caught red-handed engaging in unlicensed hare baiting. People who facilitate the torture of hares and employ dispatchers to break their necks, prior to tossing them in heaps away from public view, are NOT to be trusted with hare welfare and protection. I know exactly what goes on at coursing events, and what happens before and after each fixture. And I know why cameras aren’t welcome and why animal welfare observers have been threatened and assaulted. Coursing depends for its survival on cover-up and lies. It’s on suspension right now. It’s time it faced the chopping block.
@John Fitzgerald: John. Stop digging. You have no answer on how to protect the Irish Hare. You have resorted to the same narrative and it lacks any substance to the matter in hand. I respect your opinion but perhaps you should sit this one out.
@Laura McCarthy:
Wrong again. WE are campaigning for the kind of legislation that would give COMPLETE protection to the hare. Not the kind of “protection” that gives an special exemption to coursing clubs…exempting them from the anti cruelty laws that apply to everyone else. Taking coursing clubs out of the equation IS a major step towards protecting the Irish Hare. Allowing such people to continue with their mind-boggling cruelty to hares is definitely not an option.
@Laura McCarthy:
Yes, a clear line in the sand…no more hare coursing. Death from mauling or having your bones crushed is every bit as painful as succumbing to disease. Apart from which…hare coursing can actively contribute to the spreading of disease.
@Michael Evans: wow. classy reply.
@John Fitzgerald: well said john seems some are trying to play the trophy hunter excuse, “we’re killing the animals to protect them and conserve them”. Most people know this is bull and no longer want to see cruelty to animsls
@John Fitzgerald: What good is that protection going to be if there is no Irish Hare? You can not see the wood from the trees on this one. You can not offer anything to protect the hare to this present threat.
@Laura McCarthy: and yours have been real classy. Go back to smoking cigars
@Laura McCarthy: you haven’t actually said what your great plan is though?please tell us what you will personally do to save the hare
@Laura McCarthy: this is completely hypocritical of you. Address the barbaric cruelty of coursing. Your only concern for the hare is in the context of their use and abuse for the cruel sport you love. Your days of enjoyment for animal cruelty are numbered.
@Laura McCarthy:
Are you a supporter of hare coursing?
@Laura McCarthy:
Protection of the Irish Hare must include, at a minimum, a complete ban on hare coursing. Other measures will follow. In the same way, if you discovered that people were being abused in some house of horror, your first priority would be to rescue them…then, once they out of harm’s way, other essential measures would be taken to help them recover from the ordeal. What would be the point of saving a hare from disease and then handing him over to people known to be abusive towards hares… in a way that is banned most other jurisdictions? So, again…disease is bad, but hare coursing is too. The hare needs protection from disease AND coursing clubs.
@marianne ryan: You must be unaware that their is a vaccine. Who do you think is going to catch the hare population to administer this?
@Laura McCarthy:
I have answered your question, but you dislike my answer.
You have not answered mine: Are you a supporter of live hare coursing?
@Laura McCarthy:
I wouldn’t trust a gang of badger baiters to vaccinate badgers. Nor should we allow coursing clubs to have any contact whatsoever with hares.
@Laura McCarthy:
Correction: Coursing clubs do NOT protect hares. They capture them for use as live bait. There many videos on YouTube showing how they “protect” those unfortunate animals.
@Laura McCarthy: Can you read? ‘Licences are to be suspended because hare coursing is considered to contribute to the spread’. It’s there in black and white should you decide to let you brain washed mind soak q up new information.
@Michael Evans:
Exactly, they contribute to the spread of disease, and coursers themselves have a nasty disease of their own…a severe addiction to animal cruelty.
@John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@John Fitzgerald: @John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@John Fitzgerald: @John Fitzgerald: I don’t think I will refer to you as Dr. Watson any time soon
@Laura McCarthy: Accurate reply! Anyone who can sit there defending this cruel sport has obviously been brain washed and probably from a young age. I’d hazard a guess that Diddy used to bring you for lovely days out to watch the Hares being ripped apart and It’s now just a fun activity for you, whereas the rest of us can see exactly what it is.. a sick sport to amuse brain dead people that have little else to amuse them.
@Laura McCarthy: They would be better off being whipped out than being used for your sick amusement.
@Michael Evans: *wiped
@Laura McCarthy: Oh the old ‘pick on the spelling when you have nothing else to say’ :D I’ll let my spell check know that you are not best pleased.
@Michael Evans: *daddy
Go back to school and learn how to spell.
@John Fitzgerald: you just stay nice and comfy up there on your moral pedestal. I’ve been hearing your nonsense for years and you’re still no closer to your imaginary utopia than ever, thankfully.
@Laura McCarthy: to be honest, not only does a ban make no sense, it also makes no difference. But hey, it sounds like the government care and are reacting positively to the tv propaganda, sorry programme! So all is well!
@Laura McCarthy: Whinny little spoiled children call their Daddy’s, Diddy. Like tom chew through y other posts for grammatical errors/spelling errors? Feel free. It is the sign of someone who has lost their argument. Pathetic really!
@Michael Evans: *whiny
@Seamus Murphy:
Getting closer every day to the end of the greyhound industry. It’s falling apart. Two more tracks closing down and hare coursing suspended. The whole big sprawling dung-heap is collapsing, and the ringleaders are running for cover. The RTE programme only told us all what we already knew, but it spelt the beginning of the end for a vile industry.
@Laura McCarthy: will you please explain yourself ? Your comment makes no sense. Leave the hares to their natural life in the wild. What else would anyone do. Surely you don’t expect him to go out and vaccinate them all !
@Laura McCarthy: well ‘protection’ will do a dam sight more for the irish hare than having them run into the ground by dogs on a track or ripped to pieces if caught – how you can even think that you can ‘protect’ something by trying to kill it is beyond any logic !
@Laura McCarthy: what is the point of ”administering a vaccine” if your just going to let a pack of dogs tear the poor creature apart at a later date ?
@Laura McCarthy: when will you be vaccinating just in case anyone wants to help you?
@John Fitzgerald: Thats not working towards anything but your own agenda. The hares NOW is what is being talked about.
The ban you want wont help with the problem now.
So what are you willing to do NOW.
NOW comes up a lot in this post but never all of yours
@John Fitzgerald: Again your policy and not doing anything now. I am not a fan of coursing but you are anti everything.
so instead of banning coursing because of cruelty , he just suspends it for a while . strange .
@RJ.Fallon: its good its banned for now, but yes it should absolutely be abolished permanently because its cruel and disgusting.
Laura McCarthy, you say those opposed to hare coursing will stand idly by on the fence, while the coursers volunteer their services to protect the hare. What, in fact, will they actually be doing to prevent the spread of this virus? Enlighten us please?
@Ban Bloodsports: Who do you think is going to administer the vaccine?
@Laura McCarthy: i dont know -maybe qualified vets from the dept of agriculture perhaps ? maybe not – just let a bunch of unqualified ‘country sports’ people do it instead !!!
Keep letting people from other countries in.
@David Fitzgerald: yeah shur don’t they all bring their rabbits with em. Forever being confiscated at customs…numpty
@David Fitzgerald: Do you have any idea at all how animal diseases spread? It’s not like racism, you don’t catch it through stupidity.
@Edmund Murphy: 7.1 that may be my most toxic comment ever. Felt oddly good.
@David Fitzgerald: You win the award for Internet idiot of the week! Congratulations !
@David Fitzgerald: come out from under your bed, David. There are no ‘muzlamik infidels’ around.
@David Fitzgerald: you are brain dead
This weapon gives out Licence’s to torture animals?
seventeen times more hares where there’s coursing, according to Queen’s University, and DJ Histon, CEO of the Irish Coursing Club, BUT here’s the thing. That particular study was carried out IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE HARE COURSERS!!!! Just one club was surveyed, East Donegal, and the coursers did the counting. I REST MY CASE!!!!
@Ban Bloodsports: Hi, what are ICABS doing with their €220,000 cash reserve?
@Laura McCarthy:
Changing the subject now “Laura” because your claims about alleged benefits of coursing have been rubbished?
@John Fitzgerald: Coming from the master of avoidance, I shall take that as a compliment.
You have yet to illustrate one concrete way you will help prevent the spread of this disease? You have (unlike me) completely avoided the subject matter of the article. You have (true to form) simply copied and pasted your old emotive comments on coursing. People have grown tiresome of the same ramblings. Once the surface is scratched your ideals lack any substance. I respect your opinion, you may not respect mine.
By the way, rubbished by who? As far as I can see it is a published study and remains so. Just because it does not suit the agenda it must be rubbished? Much like the decimation of the hare population in the UK. To factually correct you, Stormont did not ban coursing, Westminster did.
@John Fitzgerald: Whilst I have strayed from the subject momentarily (if you read my comments the above is the only one, I don’t think anyone else on this thread can say the same), why does ICABS, a limited company posess €220,000 of a cash reserve? Why do they have a donate now button on their website? They are not a registered charity and this appears to me to be the illegal operation of a charity whilst also breaking company law.
I don’t expect an answer, but it sure is food for thought.
Anyway, I shall now sign off, I actually have a life.
@Laura McCarthy: what are you doing to help them? ICABS campaign against bloodsports they aren’t a wildlife preservation group. It’s not up to them to combat the disease that is down to the dept. Why are you so threatened by people that put themselves out to help defenceless animals? The only ‘agenda’ is to protect innocent lives. Why is that so hard to swallow? Are you involved in the greyhound industry perhaps?
How did that get over Hare!?
Art Garfunkel is on a semi-lob
That it’s illegal in somewhere as backward as northern Ireland with its ban on same sex marriage etc and not illegal in the republic of Ireland just like the inhumane slaughter halal, shows just how far this little place has to go in respecting all of our inhabitants, instead of bending over backwards to accomadate the ungrateful
There used to be an open coursing club around us which my family were heavily involved in. I remember as a kid having feeders set up in fields and hares would be fed molasses and oats which would be topped up on a weekly basis. An enclosure was created using 4miles of rabbit wire where hares would be allowed to breed unharmed and un touched by both the coursing club and predators, 2 legged and 4 legged. The gates would be opened every year to allow the hares into surrounding territories.
The hare population was probably the healthiest in the country. Open coursing was carried out every autumn and winter on a weekly basis coursing up to 32 hares on the big day with over 100 people from surrounding areas coming as beaters. A death while inevitable was rare and a sad moment for all those who partook.
Unfortunately since the committee fell apart due to a row the here numbers have depleted to a point where I haven’t seen one in years. No one cares more about the hare than coursing people. Rural crime has become a big concern as the club acted like a community protection against unwanted two legged animals in which any got such a message as I’d presume it was known not to come around the area.
I must say I’m totally against park coursing. The idea of boxing the hare and releasing it into an unknown field with only one exit is cruel. Many of these hares are sold on to other meetings and just live whatever life they have in a box. It really bugs me when people know nothing about country life try and tell us what is good and bad and throw a blanket over the whole lot of us. Talk to real open coursing people and ask how much the hare means to them.
@Post Moloney: why does anyone get sport out of terrorising an animal? Its 2019 not 1719. Just let animals live as nature intended
@marianne ryan: exactly
@marianne ryan: animals are terrorised in the natural world as well, in case you didn’t realise we are also part of that.. the anthropomorphization of animals through the likes off Disney movies has led to this unnatural way that most humans now unfortunately think.. it’s not abnormal for a hare to feel threatened.. as I outlined above it’s perfectly natural in their own environment.. I don’t feel people with the least active experience in it should have such a big say in it.. how about we target the illegal trapping and park coursing instead..
@Post Moloney: condoning animal cruelty of any kind is unacceptable fook country life. inbred bunch of hicks
It doesn’t explain exactly how coursing leads to further spreading diseases.
@Dexter: coursing leads to further (and unnecessary and cruel) decimation of a species that’s also now under a natural threat. They can’t issue a suspension on the disease but they can suspend people’s licenses to torture and kill hares.
@Karen Wellington: Factually incorrect. You should read the Quercus report. There are more hares where coursing clubs are active. The hare population in the UK was decimated when a ban on coursing was introduced. This is never addressed by anti coursing campaigners as facts and figure do not suit the narrative.
@Laura McCarthy:
Rubbish, that report was based on research involving only one coursing club and was contaminated by the direct involvement of coursing officials. Coursing apologists have stopped citing it, as even they know at this stage that it’s a non-runner. Re illegal coursing, legal coursers are heavily involved in illegal coursing and poaching, as you well know. Coursing clubs pose a major disease spreading threat and should be closed down immediately. Or at the very least every coursing club should carry a health warning similar to the one cigarette packets. They can cause serious damage to the health and well-being of hares. If you don’t believe it, just look at the pictures of hares getting mauled, forcibly struck, and tossed high into the air by dogs…with all those allegedly hare-loving guys and gals watching, well wrapped up in their winter gear and lapping up the “fun”, as they call it.
@John Fitzgerald: and the UK angle? Doesn’t fit the narrative, does it.
@Laura McCarthy:
The fact that people other than coursing clubs also torture hares for fun doesn’t make hare coursing any less objectionable. Whataboutery is always the last resort of the coursers when they know they’ve lost the argument.
@John Fitzgerald: waffle, no substance. Coursing allowed = hares in abundance. Coursing banned = hares in dramatic decline.
There is no “whataboutery”, it is factual.
@Laura McCarthy:
@ John Fitzgerald
What a very confusing debate you guys are having, it would be much less confusing if Laura would say if she is a supporter of hare coursing or opposed to hare coursing?
@Eddie O’Neill: I support the preservation of the Irish Hare. Anything else in the context of these posts or this article is irrelevant.
@Laura McCarthy: So you are opposed to hare coursing?
@Laura McCarthy: What are the reasons why you support the preservation of the Irish hare?
@Laura McCarthy: hare coursing= terror, cruelty, suffering, sadism. Ban on same: coursers fined or locked up and their cars crushed by court order. Hare coursers can share cells with the lurcher men they claim to despise. They might find just how much they have in common. Interesting that where coursing is illegal offenders have to be separated from other criminals for their safety. Claims that coursing benefits hares have been totally discredited. One coursing club was involved in a sham project and allowed to rig the results. The project findings were examined In depth by ni assembly members considering a ban on coursing and completely rejected as unsound, unsafe, and clearly biased in favour of coursing. Having studied the report carefully the assembly members voted to ban coursing. The ban was backed by unionists and nationalists in a moving display of cross-community agreement. Politicians who had differed on so many issues were brought together in a spirit of harmony in opposition to one of the world’s most cruel and cowardly bloodsports.
@Eddie O’Neill: The same reasons the Gladiators looked after their Lions.
@Laura McCarthy: or maybe people find people who engage in hare coursing sick to get pleasure out of watching animals terrified
@John Fitzgerald: Cars crused, what about wipping them in public or killing their first born. Get a grip. You mania will scare people away from supporting you
The Hopping Dead
Must call the vet to check on extra vaccinations for my dwarf bunny.
Josephina Madigan is like all the rest of Fine Gael TD’s a joke when it comes animal welfare, this disease has been around for at least 2 years but NPWS wait until now to act on it.
I had one too many beers recently and I wobbled home like a mixi rabbit
The hare was on the Irish coin and like the salmon needs to be protected
However in this case one wonders if the ban is counterproductive.
It leaves it all to the foxes to rid the population of the diseased hares which it will not be able to do .
a disgusting practice which needs to be outlawed. hares are gentle creatures and no animal deserves to be treated in such a barbaric way.
What else will the future bring???
Absolute rubbish , rabbit numbers have been decimated in the last 10 yrs due to rhd. Don’t know why it’s news now.
@Brian Connaughton: exactly, worked it’s way up through cork Waterford Wexford Carlow and Kildare. Wiped the rabbit population out here about six years ago, perfectly healthy looking rabbits dropping dead with blood running from their noses.
@Brian Connaughton: there’s hundreds of them round my place. Walk around the fields in the morning and you’d think the cows had been in the field all night, there’s so much grass eaten.
@A O Shea: wrong… I got at least 6 wild rabbits in my garden most evenings
have your say