Coursing clubs helping to protect hare population

A pursuit often demonised – and, indeed, once referred to as a ‘blood sport’ – coursing and those associated with it have been working hard to change the sport’s image in recent times, no more so than in Loughrea where a proactive, family orientated club has existed since 1929.

Up until the early 1990s, before the muzzling of greyhounds came in, Loughrea Coursing Club secretary Jack Mahony admits up to 20 of the 80 hares required to run a coursing meeting could be injured or killed but not so anymore.

Indeed, when Loughrea Coursing Club ran its annual meeting a fortnight ago, 74 hares were used at the event with all 74 returned again to their natural habitat under the watchful supervision of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

“Coursing got an awful lot of bad press through the ‘60s and ‘70s until, I suppose really, muzzling came in around ‘93,” begins Mahony. “However, it is very much regulated from this point of view now. The National Parks and Wildlife will check everything is in order before we run our meet.”

Initially, when the Green Party sought to bring in a law muzzling the greyhounds 22 years ago, Mahony acknowledges the coursing industry would have resented the interference. However, he says the move has strengthened the sport.

He also believes there would not be a hare left in Ireland were it not for the coursing clubs, highlighting that the illegal hunters using ‘lurcher’ dogs who kill the hares for sport is threatening to decimate the hare population in Ireland.

“When we catch hares on a Sunday – we need to catch between 70 and 80 hares to run our meeting so hares won’t be run twice in the one day – we bring them in and we dose them and we inject them. They are fed the best – sheaf oats, carrots and those kinds of things.

“They are also given plenty of freedom and, as I said, they are let go again after our meetings nowadays. Going back through the years, you might catch 80 hares and you might lose 20 [at the meet]. That day though has finished now.”

For those unfamiliar with coursing, the winning greyhound is the one who turns the hare first. The hare is run once and that it is – hence the reason for the large number of hares required. The Sundays spent catching the hares, Mahony explains, are an event in themselves.

“A huge amount of the local GAA lads – Johnny and Vinnie Maher, the Mahonys and Stephen Morgan – love coming out for the Sunday. There is a great young population in the club, compared to other clubs. There is a great connection between the GAA and the coursing club.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.