Letters to the Editor: Farmers and dog owners can be friends
'A nominal charge per adult and per dog could be a modest income stream for the landowner, supplemented by any additional farm businesses on site.' Stock picture: iStock
The words of Albert Einstein — “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity” — could be the solution source to ending the crisis of livestock worrying by dogs while creating a viable rural business.
Recreational dog owners want a safe space to walk their dogs in the countryside while enjoying nature’s health benefits.
They do not want to interfere or impede the work of the farmer. Likewise, the presence of dog walkers on the land is a source of security and a chance to interact with people for the landowner.
To meet in this opportunity middle, what about a business idea for a farmer to develop a dog-walking loop around their farm alongside a free-running exercise area?
This would allow dog walkers to walk around the farm in a fenced-off loop walk with a designated start and finish area. For dogs who need to run off steam, a fenced enclosure could be an additional area next to the trail. Here, dogs can be left off the lead and allowed to run.
A nominal charge per adult and per dog could be a modest income stream for the landowner, supplemented by any additional farm businesses on site such as a farm shop, a coffee/tea hut, or accommodation options.
Creating a looped dog walk trail on farms would be paw prints in the journey to get more people into the countryside in a safe and controlled way.
Calls to ban dogs from the countryside do not foster a positive farmer and non-farmer relationship.
Farming and grants are not strangers. A grant scheme can be found for a farmer who wants to develop a tail trail on their farm. As Einstein might say, it is not rocket science to develop a looped dog walking trail around a farm.
Dog owners and farmers do not need to be in conflict. All that is needed is a desire to achieve a solution that benefits all.
Like any tribe in society, there is a minority of dog owners who see the world through their own eyes. For them, they regard civility and respect as swear words.
Such dog owners do not represent those who know that having a dog is a responsibility and that dog welfare must equal human welfare.
While farmers are rightly the top dog when it comes to managing their land, a blanket ban on responsible dog walking only creates unnecessary conflict.
Locating common ground would allow both farming and responsible canine recreation to coexist and thrive in our beautiful landscape.
I received my ADHD diagnosis at 19 years old.
During my Leaving Cert year, I suffered from anxiety and depression. My mental health took a sharp decline. My work ethic depleted, my results diminished, and I became paralysed by anxiety. The fear of rejection was consuming. I went from being a diligent student to one who didn’t care if she made it to June. This wasn’t typical exam stress. It was the culmination of undiagnosed ADHD.
Years of masking, trying to focus, and low self-esteem led to this point. It all could have been avoided with a better understanding of ADHD, particularly in women.
My diagnosis was a shock to many because I was perceived to be “doing well”. I got good results, I was well behaved, and I seemed to have it all together. I was chatty, sure, but I didn’t fit society’s perception of what ADHD looks like. That false image of ADHD is exactly what allows so many of us to fall through the cracks.
There’s an infuriating misunderstanding surrounding ADHD. It goes far beyond struggling to concentrate or sit still. It often feels like an excess of attention. You experience the world in a heightened way, acutely aware of everything, unable to filter what matters.
When you’ve been corrected more than most, you feel “perceived criticism” far more intensely. Throw in emotional dysregulation and you’re left with low self-esteem and a need for perfection just to feel a sense of relief, not pride.
It’s not laziness. It’s paralysis. The dread of starting a task can be overwhelming.
In the absence of understanding, those of us with ADHD feel profound disappointment. We feel rejection deeply. We’re constantly made to feel “too much” and “never enough”.
“The only necessity for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.”
Now the most powerful people in the world are stopping the aid to keep people alive in the poorest countries and using the wealth to provide weapons to murder innocent women and children.
What the Israeli military are doing in Gaza is the devil’s work. What did these innocent children do to deserve this?
Our leaders seem to be more worried about tariffs and trade and extreme capitalism and that is why evil is thriving in the world. May God save our little children.
I read Brian Ward’s letter on over-spending on defence by lifting the defence budget from 0.2% to the proposed Nato/US level of 5%.
In order to reach strengths, buy new equipment, and establish training programmes, a spend of about €5bn in year one, followed by €4bn for at least five years to bed in the new equipment and for associated training.
With €5bn, one could add two new 4,000-tonne corvettes to the naval service, plus two helicopters, 12 interceptor aircraft to the air corps, and a range of air defences and artillery to the army, also miscellaneous mine warfare craft for naval use.
Defence from the 1960s has been cleaned out and weakened by the State, including major barrack and fort closures, reducing overall strength from 14,500 to 9,500 personnel.
The mission of the Defence Forces needs to be rewritten and be specific, as the order of battle must meet the perceived needs and take into account current pre-emptive strikes by certain UN members.
Brian Ward’s letter of July 5 (Ireland cannot spend €25.5bn on defence) incorrectly asserts that I have called for Ireland to “spend 5% of its GDP on the military”.
In so doing, he is creating a straw man argument, only to rather grandly and triumphantly knock it down.
Either that, or he simply did not read the excellent, evidence-based June 27 article by Cormac O’Keeffe that he quotes in his letter.
That article draws from figures provided by the Department of Defence on the level of defence spend in Ireland. No one on either side of the defence investment debate has ever called for such a level of investment in Irish defence.
Indeed, at our current level of 0.2% of GDP, this would represent a 20-fold increase in defence investment.
In considering the decades of underinvestment in Irish defence and security, an increase to even 1% of GDP would represent a seismic change in Ireland’s approach to defence.
Indeed, the 2022 Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces notes that Level of Ambition (LOA) 3 (conventional capability) would entail “developing full spectrum defence capabilities to protect Ireland and its people to an extent comparable to similar-sized countries in Europe”.
This would only be achieved well after the move to LOA 2 (enhanced capability), to be achieved by 2028, and would involve a significantly increased budget of almost €3bn — but nowhere near the suggested or imagined €25bn.
Of course, there is no law against anyone dreaming up false arguments and then bravely winning them, and Mr Ward is in good company in this regard.
A recent Newstalk radio interview by renowned economist Colm McCarthy — he of the 1987 ‘An Bord Snip’ and the 2010 ‘An Bord Snip Nua’ reports — also created a similar false straw man argument by imagining that there are calls to increase the defence budget to €25bn, or 5% of GDP, and providing a multitude of reasons why this should not happen.
Defence Forces personnel and their families will remember that it was Mr McCarthy’s recommended slashing of the Defence Forces following the last recession that closed countless barracks, froze recruitment, and led to the 2012 reorganisation, which has been disastrous for the organisation.
All public debate, no matter how robust, on investment in national defence and security in Ireland should be welcome. But let’s keep it honest.
