The continuing slaughter of hares should shame the nation

Hares survived the Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, and would have been here for millennia before it

Ireland is not civilised as long as it continues to allow the killing of hares by greyhounds 'for sport'.

AS a child, I saw hare coursing. I heard a hare screaming as it was torn apart by two greyhounds. Each dog struggled to tear it away from the other. I didn't like it. It disturbed me. I guess I was about eleven years old. I believe it was in Co Tipperary, near Thurles. My father had taken me.

If I said it was bloody awful, I'd mean it literally. At that time, greyhounds wore no muzzles at such 'sporting events'. I can't imagine who it was sport for, other than the dogs, the clubbable coursers, and the blood-thirsty spectators, of which I wasn't one.