Rural Ireland Says Enough

crowsnightmare

www.risecampaign.ie need as many signatures as possible & there is a protest in Waterford at the Green Party conference on Sat 27th. It's time for all sports people to come together on this one or there will be no country sports left for future generations if Gormley & his crew get their way. please sign petition, also on FB. thanks

marlin vs

I'll be there.

daveob007

done it also

bunny shooter

Signed and am currently collecting signatures and hope to attend rally

No6

Ruby Walsh mentioned it today in a pre Cheltenham Interview in the Irish Times.

marlin vs

This really need's to be supported by as many as possible,it'll be our turn next, they won't stop at stag-hunting.

Sparks

I do wish they'd widen their target a bit to not just take in the greens, but also the power behind the greens. Last I checked, it wasn't a green who banned an entire shooting sport...

marlin vs

Sparks wrote: »

I do wish they'd widen their target a bit to not just take in the greens, but also the power behind the greens. Last I checked, it wasn't a green who banned an entire shooting sport...

True, but hopefully this is only the start.

CJhaughey

Sparks wrote: »

I do wish they'd widen their target a bit to not just take in the greens, but also the power behind the greens. Last I checked, it wasn't a green who banned an entire shooting sport...

I agree, but the GP have a whole section in their manifesto that is dedicated to anti field sports.
The FF party just say nothing and then stab you in the back ala Ahern.

oldzed

Well guys , who is travelling in the morning??

Traumadoc

I will go down to it.

marlin vs

I'll be there ,but it's handy for me as I live in Waterford,there's selectronic signs up coming into Waterford from every side, the're expecting major traffic delay's, I hope it's well attended.

Traumadoc

Great turnout, great weather.

Carpenter

Done

Sparks

Video of one of the speechs at the RISE meeting:

http://qik.com/video/5709348

And photos:

http://twitpic.com/1b8xw1
http://twitpic.com/1b8usd
http://twitpic.com/1b9eh6
http://twitpic.com/1b9ge1
http://twitpic.com/1b9ff1
(all photos from Gavin Sheridan)


Looks like something around a thousand people or so.

Sparks

More video :
http://qik.com/video/5709348

It wasn't me!

This was getting news coverage on the radio when I was driving into college. Hopefully it has some effect now.

Sparks

I dunno IWM.
There's a thousand people there, out of 200,000.
And everyone remembers how the anti-Iraq-war protests (which were tens if not hundreds of millions, worldwide) didn't change anything.
And you can even hear it in that video - lots of making fun of the greens, near-apologising for Fianna Fail at one point, but no suggested course of action beyond "lets vote them out when they next ask us to vote".
It's good to have the protest, it drives up the visibility in the media, and that alone makes it worthwhile - I just wouldn't expect that the protest will change anything (at least not by itself).
Think marathon, not sprint!

It wasn't me!

Sparks wrote: »

I dunno IWM.
There's a thousand people there, out of 200,000.
And everyone remembers how the anti-Iraq-war protests (which were tens if not hundreds of millions, worldwide) didn't change anything.
And you can even hear it in that video - lots of making fun of the greens, near-apologising for Fianna Fail at one point, but no suggested course of action beyond "lets vote them out when they next ask us to vote".
It's good to have the protest, it drives up the visibility in the media, and that alone makes it worthwhile - I just wouldn't expect that the protest will change anything (at least not by itself).
Think marathon, not sprint!

I'm more thinking:

Here's an opportunity for a publicly visible group of shooting and rural people to be seen as an example. If there are a thousand people there, and faces can be seen, then there are many, many friends and colleagues and family members out there looking on, thinking, "I didn't know Derek was involved in shooting and such." It's an opportunity, if it's articulate, well-presented and generally an elegant display, to have a lot of people go "I know that bloke; he's a nice fella. Into shooting eh? Must have a chat with him about that sometime." It just seems like a glorious PR opportunity, if politically toothless.

Sparks

It wasn't me! wrote: »

It just seems like a glorious PR opportunity, if politically toothless.

That's what I was trying to say

It wasn't me!

Sparks wrote: »

That's what I was trying to say

Oh, then we're in complete agreement.

johngalway

I had prior commitments today so couldn't go. On my way home I was listening to Newstalk, they put the number at 5,000?

Birdnuts

Can I just clarify something - What field sports are the GP proposing to ban exactly?? ie. What is in the bill as opposed to the hysterical rantings evident on the recent PK frontline programme??.:)

bunny shooter

Birdnuts wrote: »

Can I just clarify something - What field sports are the GP proposing to ban exactly?? ie. What is in the bill as opposed to the hysterical rantings evident on the recent PK frontline programme??.:)

Best thing for you to do is look on their/your website most of us here have

http://www.greenparty.ie/en/policies/animal_welfare/animal_welfare_policy

I shoot & fish and I see this attempt to ban the Ward Union Hunt as the beginning of the end of my way of life.

I do not agree with their type of hunting BUT in my opinion each to their own and I will support them as it's their legal form of hunting today and mine tommorrow !

Birdnuts

bunny shooter wrote: »

Best thing for you to do is look on their/your website most of us here have

http://www.greenparty.ie/en/policies/animal_welfare/animal_welfare_policy

I shoot & fish and I see this attempt to ban the Ward Union Hunt as the beginning of the end of my way of life.

I do not agree with their type of hunting BUT in my opinion each to their own and I will support them as it's their legal form of hunting today and mine tommorrow !

I don't think you have anything to worry about given Gormley's statement tonight and the fact that the GP won't be around in any viable form after the next election which is not far away in any case;)

greenpeter

Green party convention trough earth hour, lights on all over the shop:rolleyes:


Didn't make it today but looked like there was a good turn out, fair play to all who went.

bunny shooter

Birdnuts wrote: »

I don't think you have anything to worry about given Gormley's statement tonight

Do you seriously believe what he says ? He can/will change his mind in 10 minutes depending on what suits him :rolleyes:

Birdnuts wrote: »

and the fact that the GP won't be around in any viable form after the next election which is not far away in any case;)

Hopefully they will be purged from Irish politics soon and their bedfellows Fianna Fail with them

This feeble attempt to appease the people actually living in rural Ireland that he and his party have alienated and upset is too little too late IMO :mad:

Birdnuts

bunny shooter wrote: »

their bedfellows Fianna Fail with them

That we can both agree on;)

bunny shooter

Birdnuts wrote: »

That we can both agree on;)

Until recently I was a staunch FF supporter and never will be again !!!

They are just a bit too right wing for me

marlin vs

What a turn-out! I was surprised to see so many people to turn up, my anxiety about the march was put to bed, I met so many people from so many different counties today, I have to say fair play to all that came.

oldzed

I was in the crowd today and it was a great march , I hope it is the start of something good . I have a hoarse throat from shouting at a hotel but it sure feels good . Rise estimated the crowd at 5000 but the gardai estimated it at around 8000 , if I can figure out how to add a few photos I will stick them up later .There was a great cross section of the community from falconers ,shooters , pony clubs , hunts , coursing, fishing, stalkers etc etc. Gavin duffy from dragons den gave a great speech he is a brilliant orator and I hope to here more from him in the future.there were people there from as far away as monaghan .tyrone , galway and god knows where else . I found it a truly uplifting experience and for once feel like there is hope for the future. I finished off the day with a march in clonmel to save our local hospital . I have never marched against anything before in my life but I think I will be getting the hang of it . by the way the counter protest consisted of a total 4 people hiding behind a banner grumbling about bloodsports and as usual they had as much or more radio coverage as the 8000 rise supporters ,ZED , ps well done to everyone who went I recognised quite a few heads there today

marlin vs

Some pictures.

fodda

From their policies

Renewable Energy is the only way forward for Ireland creating local employment.

End to meat factory and supermarket control of food means local produced food. All of this good for farmers and local employment.

Phasing out of factory farming thus making more food produced as it once was, so good for farmers and also more need for those who control pests.

Just banning horse and hound hunting and giving alternatives to those people, nothing on shooting or fishing.

Maybe their policies may actually benefit shooting and country folk.

Sparks

I dunno - do we even have the capacity to be self-sufficient nationally in all the basic foodstuffs anymore?

ianoo

a few more pics of a great day

fair play to all who turned out from all corners of the country

there was easily 6-8000 people there at one stage it stretched the whole lenght of the quays

ian

oldzed

some pics from today:)

SpringerF

Whoever took this photo deserves his place in history.
It should become the front piece of the rise campaign.

Brilliant simply Brilliant

aylazara

hi , wonderful day to day, great turn out . i was a there today as stewart, nice peace full protest. i just feel i was very dissapointed wiith the rte coverage of such a huge event. rise was never mentioned once.everyone put a huge amount of effort between orginisation and travel and every thing. let us keep it going, we can get them out before they do damage to our countryside. well done all.

bunny shooter

Love the picture of the counter demo...All four of them?...Wouldn't you think the other 10-11 would have left the conference to stand with them :rolleyes:

Birdnuts

oldzed wrote: »

I was in the crowd today and it was a great march , I hope it is the start of something good . I have a hoarse throat from shouting at a hotel but it sure feels good . Rise estimated the crowd at 5000 but the gardai estimated it at around 8000 , if I can figure out how to add a few photos I will stick them up later .There was a great cross section of the community from falconers ,shooters , pony clubs , hunts , coursing, fishing, stalkers etc etc. Gavin duffy from dragons den gave a great speech he is a brilliant orator and I hope to here more from him in the future.there were people there from as far away as monaghan .tyrone , galway and god knows where else . I found it a truly uplifting experience and for once feel like there is hope for the future. I finished off the day with a march in clonmel to save our local hospital . I have never marched against anything before in my life but I think I will be getting the hang of it . by the way the counter protest consisted of a total 4 people hiding behind a banner grumbling about bloodsports and as usual they had as much or more radio coverage as the 8000 rise supporters ,ZED , ps well done to everyone who went I recognised quite a few heads there today

Gavin Duffy is a dangerous egotist who doesn't give a dam about the ordinary GC member around the country(who by the way are in no way affected by this simple updating of Irelands primitive animal welfare legislation) and simply wants to whip up unfounded hysteria among ordinary sporting folk for his own selfish aims - ie. to protect the Ward hunt which is a hangover from the dieing days of the British empire in Ireland. This chap is the same breed as one Edward Haughey and is problly hoping for a knighhood for his efforts at maintaining a very British upper class tradition:rolleyes:

bunny shooter

The Greens & Fianna Fail presumed the Ward Union Hunt would be thrown to the dogs and now the terrible truth has dawned that they now have the whole fieldsport community backing them against this unjust legislation :cool:

Birdnuts, if the Greens had controlled their looney fringe this might not be happening :P

Traumadoc

Birdnuts wrote: »

Gavin Duffy is a dangerous egotist who doesn't give a dam about the ordinary GC member around the country(who by the way are in no way affected by this simple updating of Irelands primitive animal welfare legislation) and simply wants to whip up unfounded hysteria among ordinary sporting folk for his own selfish aims - ie. to protect the Ward hunt which is a hangover from the dieing days of the British empire in Ireland. This chap is the same breed as one Edward Haughey and is problly hoping for a knighhood for his efforts at maintaining a very British upper class tradition:rolleyes:

Kind of ironic then that the Antis at the march had English accents, and are funded by a British high street chain.

The anti-upper class thing does not work in Ireland .

Rosahane

bunny shooter wrote: »

Love the picture of the counter demo...All four of them?...Wouldn't you think the other 10-11 would have left the conference to stand with them :rolleyes:

That is unfair to them!

The antis have 20 members not 15:D

I enjoyed Gormless's comments about seeing their policies through in the interests of democracy, particularly since the Greens have 5% support:rolleyes:

Grizzly 45

Just got home today from a 12 day work search on the continent.Really Pi%%ed that I missed this:mad:.But well done to all who turned out and organised this.So of the "hundreds " who support anti fieldsports in Ireland they could only muster 6??? And a
"minority" sport could put 6to 8 thousand on the street??:D:D
Be worried Greens and FF!!! Be VERY Worried!!!
I would suggest upgrading the old CVs.You might be needing them soon.:D:D:D

endasmail

Birdnuts wrote: »

Gavin Duffy is a dangerous egotist who doesn't give a dam about the ordinary GC member around the country(who by the way are in no way affected by this simple updating of Irelands primitive animal welfare legislation) and simply wants to whip up unfounded hysteria among ordinary sporting folk for his own selfish aims - ie. to protect the Ward hunt which is a hangover from the dieing days of the British empire in Ireland. This chap is the same breed as one Edward Haughey and is problly hoping for a knighhood for his efforts at maintaining a very British upper class tradition:rolleyes:

as far as i know
gavin duffy is not a member of the ward union and hunts out of kildare
am open to correction

Sparks

From the Sunday Business Post:

Red light for Greens’ move against stag hunt
28 March 2010 BY TOM McGURK

I suspect that some Green Party members, at their conference in Waterford this weekend, have been enjoying a growing sense of satisfaction.

They now have two senior ministers and two juniors in government and, very soon, environment minister John Gormley will attempt to ban Meath’s Ward Union hunt. But I have a feeling that new Green junior minister Mary White - seeing the protest outside the conference by Rural Ireland Says Enough (Rise) - will be fixated by what she’s reading in her tea leaves. She is, of course, the Greens’ only rural TD but, given the equestrian and hunting background of her constituency in Carlow/ Kilkenny, her parliamentary future now looks grim.

A few months ago, a crowd of thousands - led by local Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness - turned up at Gowran Park in Kilkenny at a rally to protect traditional rural sports. They were unimaginably angry and - in a new sight for Irish politics - the wrath of the ‘pony-mums’ was on display.

White knows very well what I mean. The hunting ban and other animal legislation represented the Green leadership’s deal with the party’s lunatic fringe to get them to support Lisbon - and the Ward Union hunt is about to pay the price.

Watching the Greens and others attack the Ward Union hunt on television last week for its alleged cruelty, I was struck by their extraordinary arrogance and moral self-righteousness.

Our own homegrown, suburban Taliban were telling decent rural people - whose DNA has a thousand generations of animal husbandry - that they knew better. There was even one who wanted the hunt banned because ‘‘some of the big property developers are members’’.

Has class politics arrived in Ireland at last? I didn’t know the Greens had a North Korean branch, but are we now to assume that places like the Royal Irish Yacht Club, the Kildare Street Club and the K Club had better watch out?

What is fascinating about the Greens’ position on hunting - and on rural sports in general - is how they have managed to turn the particular into the universal, and then pretend it’s a moral imperative.

To argue about animal cruelty in field sports, and to ignore utterly the overall and compelling context of our free market economy’s wider relationship with the complete spectrum of animal husbandry, is the work of an ideologue, not an idealist. Here is as compelling a brew of muesli and moral relativism as you will find. You’ll look hard to find Francis of Assisi on a bicycle around here.

Perhaps it’s time to have a grownup look at their argument. For a start, all animal husbandry since the beginning of the domestication of animals has involved varying degrees of intrinsic cruelty. Is it not cruel in the first place to capture animals from the wild, imprison and then enslave them - to bend them totally to our purposes? In fact, at the outset we divided the entire animal kingdom in two - those we regarded as useful to us, and the rest which were not useful and which we regarded as pests.

Countless millions of animals and birds have been kept in a state of intrinsic cruelty to supply our food needs. Regarding a few farmers and their hounds chasing a fox or a stag across the countryside as somehow the epitome of cruelty, while ignoring the wider context of how we treat animals, is simply being disingenuous.

Is fox-hunting somehow intrinsically and morally more cruel than a veal calf doomed all its life to live in a cage, or a hen among thousands in the darkened prison of a broiler house, spending its entire life in a space four times its body size? Is it worse than the store bullock (dehorned and post-castration) locked up on slated floors, being deliberately over-fed and doomed never to see daylight?

Every day, millions of animals and birds have their throats cut, their necks broken, are electrocuted to death or drowned. Every day, thousands are hung up on chains by halal butchers, have their throats cut and are allowed to bleed to death. (Come to think of it, when will we see the anti-hunting brigade picketing halal butchers?)

And since fox are only vermin, can we compare hunting them with how we deal with the rest of our vermin? What about the rat we legally poison who will swell for 48 hours and then die an agonising death; the mice smashed to death in traps; or the crows and other birds we legally shoot to ‘‘curb vermin’’, as the Department of Agriculture puts it? Would the Greens prefer we poisoned the foxes or shot them, running the real risk of wounded foxes dying slow, agonising deaths?

Incidentally, on the same television programme, some of the Greens were extolling the virtues of the new hunting legislation in England - a country where, one has to say, moral relativism has finally disappeared up its own hypocritical fundament. How else to explain a society which happily bans foxhunting and legalises abortion up to and including 24 weeks?

The current Green anti-rural campaign is, of course, political suicide. The right of the native Irish to enjoy the ownership and pleasure of the land their ancestors died in the ditches to regain is not something that will be lightly surrendered. The Greens are stirring up feelings that are so deep in the Irish cultural and emotional memory that they may be about to inflict generational damage on Fianna Fáil. Rural Fianna Fáil TDs (much more than the suburban deputies) are discovering how the Greens are threatening their traditional support base.

Already, Meath Fianna Fáil TDs Mary Wallace, Johnny Brady, Thomas Byrne and even minister Noel Dempsey are facing an enormous dilemma over the Ward Union hunt. I suspect that, before this is all over, there will be more than stags jumping the ditches down Navan way. Fianna Fáil’s electoral survival in Meath will be difficult enough - and the Ward Union issue could be the tipping point.

As I understand it, there is a already a group of 14 to18 Fianna Fáil rural TD’s who are actively considering taking a stand on Gormley’s move to ban the hunt. In a country where a government once fell over Vat on children’s shoes, surely the red lights are already flashing? Tally ho!

bunny shooter

Was grand until he lumped shooting in with poison :rolleyes:

Birdnuts

bunny shooter wrote: »

Was grand until he lumped shooting in with poison :rolleyes:

Indeed, though I agree with most of the rest of the article which highlights the stupidity and clumsiness of th Green Party who instead of dealing properly with legitimate animal welfare issues in this country have instead made the likes of Gavin Duffy look like some poor oppressed minority:rolleyes:

Birdnuts

Looking at some of the banners in the protest on the previous page the people behind RISE would be well advised to disassociate themselves from those puppy farm types responsible for much cruelty to dogs as well as churning out thousands of "damaged" puppies every year which are then bought by well meaning members of the public. They are trying to avoid tighter laws which would focus more light on their cruel and disgusting activities which are crying out for stiffer laws and inspection regimes. They are no doubt turning up at these protests to hide their own selfish interests in preventing animal welfare laws tightened.:mad:

bunny shooter

I would be against "puppy farms" myself.

However, without demand for puppies there would be no "puppy farms"?

The Celtic Tiger and the noveau rich all want "pedigree" dogs of various breeds and are willing to pay for "pedigree" puppies.

When I was young (er ) nearly everyone had a mongrel dog that needed a home when it ws a puppy 'cause somebody's bitch "got out" while on heat.

How many puppies and dogs are destroyed each year by councils in the dog pound?

And how many "pedigree" puppies are registered with IKC?

Birdnuts

bunny shooter wrote: »

I would be against "puppy farms" myself.

However, without demand for puppies there would be no "puppy farms"?

The Celtic Tiger and the noveau rich all want "pedigree" dogs of various breeds and are willing to pay for "pedigree" puppies.

When I was young (er ) nearly everyone had a mongrel dog that needed a home when it ws a puppy 'cause somebody's bitch "got out" while on heat.

How many puppies and dogs are destroyed each year by councils in the dog pound?

And how many "pedigree" puppies are registered with IKC?

Thats why the whole business needs to be inspected and registered to weed out the scumbags, as well as a countrywide mass neutering, micro-chipping drive for all non-working, non-breeding dogs. This would end the scandal and waste that is the slaughter of thousands of perfectly healthy dogs every year. This should have been done years ago(like the UK, Germany etc.), instead we now have a total shambles thanx to our poxy politicians.

Is it any wonder the country is up the creek in every way when our so called leaders cannot even get something as simple as this right without making a complete balls up of the issue:mad: