Desmond gets award

JERRY DESMOND, Chief Executive of the Irish Coursing Club, was awarded a prestigious ‘Lifetime Commitment’ award by Irish Country Sports and Country Life (ICS&CL) magazine, at an awards ceremony in Shane’s Castle, Co. Antrim, recently.

The magazine is Ireland’s largest field sports publication and the awards ceremony was initiated to recognise people who have made an outstanding contribution to the well-being of Irish field sports.

Albert Titterington, editor of ICS&CL, said: “Jerry Desmond has held the positions of Chief Executive of the Irish Coursing Club, Editor of the Sporting Press newspaper and Manager of Clonmel Racecourse since 1986 and is respected by all Ireland’s major field sports bodies.”

Desmond is a member of the Countryside Alliance Ireland Board, a member of FACE Ireland (the European lobbying body for field sports) and has served as chairman of this body in the past.”

When deciding on the award ICS&CL took into account the fact that Desmond and the ICC have successfully steered the organisation through two decades of progressive change, most notably the introduction of compulsory muzzling of all coursing dogs in 1993.

Desmond and the ICC also robustly faced the challenges of the ‘Gregory Bill’ in 1993 (to ban coursing in the Republic of Ireland) and more recently the Special Protection Order introduced by Angela Smith in 2004 in Northern Ireland.

“I am delighted to be the recipient of this prestigious award and accept it on behalf of the Executive, staff and volunteers of the ICC,” said Desmond.