Protest over hare coursing in Co Cork park which is town's 'lifeline'

Coursing club has been using  Millstreet Town Park for its Christmas meeting since 1961

Protesters against hare coursing in Millstreet.

Protesters held signs and waved banners in a Cork town today in protest at hare coursing in their local park.

Millstreet Town Park closes to the public from December 6 to January 1 to allow controversial hare coursing to take place there on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The tradition, which started in the 1950s and 60s, is causing tensions with increasing numbers of people calling for an end to the practice which some say is cruel and has no place in modern Ireland.

Some 60 people protested against coursing in the park in Millstreet today, local protestor Siobhán Bourke, said.

"Watching terrified hares crammed into cages and then used as live bait for greyhounds was very distressing", she said.

It was my first time seeing hare coursing in real life. It was surreal, like being in a different era. Seeing frightened hares stuck in boxes. Grown men shouting and screaming at terrified hares. I know it’s some people’s tradition but it’s quite disturbing.

“One woman protesting was 85 or 86. She lives by the park and has no back yard so the park is her garden. She said that she really misses it when the park is closed for the coursing.

“The protest was all very peaceful though.” 

Coursing is to continue tomorrow and the park, a community-run resource, will then be reopened to the public from 5pm.

Millstreet Coursing Club said in a statement issued to The Corkman before Christmas that the club “has been an integral part of the Millstreet Community since 1913”.

“Since 1961, the Coursing Club has been using the Millstreet Town Park facility for its Christmas meeting.

“The Rules and Regulations of the Town Park explicitly provide for the use of the Town Park by the Coursing Club and the Coursing Club was responsible for providing the funding to purchase the Town Park in 1956.” 

However, Ms Bourke said that many different groups have helped fund the park over the years and that only a small group of local people are involved in the coursing.

Millstreet Coursing Club also said that historically, the Town Park closed for three months to accommodate coursing but this was reduced to one month as a compromise.

Last year, the park did not close for December as it usually does due to rocketing Covid numbers, which allowed many local residents to enjoy the amenity over Christmas for the first time.

Ms Bourke said that having access to the park that Christmas made many people realise how important it was to keep open to the public year-round.

The park is the only place many people can go to exercise safely in the dark month of December and it has become a lifeline to many throughout the pandemic, she said.

“The park’s closure is a massive blow for our elderly citizens,” she said.

“And there are people with no back yards. The park is their yard. Kids can’t go and play football there over the holidays.

"Last year, everyone had the most wonderful Christmas in the park. It’s not fair that these few people are dictating what happens in our park."