Holbrook

But he was also a tireless champion of animal welfare. In 1993, he moved a Dail Private Members Bill to abolish live hare coursing. Despite the numerous pledges of support for a ban that campaigners had received from politicians over the years, the Bill was annihilated. Gregory had hoped that a free vote might have been allowed given the non-political nature of the issue.

But the three largest parties whipped their members into voting down the Bill. I was in the public gallery on the day and I will never forget the scene.

The Bill’s supporters had registered their votes within seconds, but those voting against took several minutes to pass through the little gateway to give the thumbs up to a form of animal-baiting that many of them had publicly denounced. Some of them walked with heads bowed; like a jury about to convict. The Bill was defeated by a massive 104 votes to 16.

But like other “heroic failures” of the past, the Bill did act as a spur to reform and social advancement. Its immediate consequence was the arrival of muzzling on the coursing fields. Though it never succeeded in eliminating the cruelty from the practise, this was a major first step towards abolition.

Secondly, by moving the Bill and taking on both the coursing clubs and their powerful political backers, Tony Gregory created an unprecedented public awareness of what hare coursing was all about. He demolished the misconceptions and sentimental half-truths that its advocates had lovingly wrapped around it in a protective canopy for decades.

Tony Gregory didn’t live to see the humble Irish Hare protected from cruelty. Coursing is still with us.

But on the day an enlightened government finds the courage to ban this medieval chamber of horrors, I reckon somebody “up there” will be smiling…

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, Phone: 056-7725543
(Author of Bad Hare Days, which contains three chapters devoted to Tony Gregory’s battle to save to save Ireland’s hare population from coursing)