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The Healy-Raes embarrassing the country yet again

ohnonotgmail

Do these lads not get tired of embarrassing the country?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39050369

The Irish army should be called in to do battle with rhododendrons because the plants are "taking over" a national park, the government has been told.

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Atlantic Dawn

There needs to be a 2nd series of At Home With The Healy-Raes, can we start a crowd funding campaign?

[Deleted User]

He is right though. I'm from Killarney and know many people who have voluntarily gone around the park cutting down the rhododendrons because no one else will do it.

The deer are also a problem, which he also mentioned. Many people in the area have been in car accidents due to deer. A breakfast chef my Mother works with has been in 3 car accidents because of deer in the last few years.

Shame he can't pronounce rhododendron though..

Zaph

Special Circumstances wrote: »

The irony in starting a "those Healy Raes are awful clowns, aren't they, just listen to this...?" thread and it turns out they're not the clowns at all...

Ah no, to be fair, they are awful clowns. That they can actually highlight a genuine issue doesn't detract from their overwhelming clownliness.

Graces7

Lia_lia wrote: »

He is right though. I'm from Killarney and know many people who have voluntarily gone around the park cutting down the rhododendrons because no one else will do it.

The deer are also a problem, which he also mentioned. Many people in the area have been in car accidents due to deer. A breakfast chef my Mother works with has been in 3 car accidents because of deer in the last few years.

Shame he can't pronounce rhododendron though..

Not the deer; driving too fast when they know the deer are there. THREE TIMES? His fault!

Pinch Flat

The only reason the army should be called in is to carpet bomb the Healy-Raes.

whisky_galore

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Please respect our men and women in uniform.

God bless our postpersons and traffic wardens.

Donal55

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Do these lads not get tired of embarrassing the country?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39050369

They're no more an embarrassement than Enda Kenny, eg man with two pints, army guarding the ATMs and eh, has any one got that photo of Sarkozy giving Pinnochio a box?

Mr. Incognito

Five pages.

I hope theres a few pliars around to take hooks out of your mouths

[Deleted User]

Graces7 wrote: »

Not the deer; driving too fast when they know the deer are there. THREE TIMES? His fault!

I love the deer and hate to see them culled but it is what's happening.

And it's a her not a he. In fairness she's a breakfast chef so driving in at 4 in the morning when the deer are more likely to be around.

jmayo

Graces7 wrote: »

Not the deer; driving too fast when they know the deer are there. THREE TIMES? His fault!

Actually it can happen easy enough.
A few years ago while down that neck of the woods, I was travelling from Kenmare to Killarney at about 5.30 of a summers morning.

I came around one of those blind bends as the road goes along the upper lake to find a magnificent stag in the middle of the road.
Luckily he was not right near the bend or I would probably have hit him.
He took a look at me and jumped up what looked like a straight rock face and disappeared.

Beautiful animal, but he would do some damage to a car.

Graces7

And one from Danny

http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.ie/2017/02/danny-healy-rae-says-priests-could-be.html

who the fug

Funny enough I was explaining to a colleague what a pain rhododendrons are in Ireland, didn't they destroy a wood in Glengarif back in the seventies.

It really is amusing to see the amounts spent in London on Rhododendrons , Fuschia and American Holly all of which I would consider weeds

InTheTrees

I went on Google Streetview and looked at one of those sites in the 2nd BBC story.

This is southern tipp. Those shiny bushes are the rhodhies, they're all over the place, look to the right and they've spread all the way up the hill to the treeline. Nothing much can live in there and no new trees will be growing. The only thing slowing the spread is the forestry area. But you can see where they're growing under and around the trees by the bridge, those trees are looking thin and sick and they'll die off.

https://goo.gl/maps/L3S7GW1X8H62

jmayo

ScumLord wrote: »

I only briefly saw the headline and thought a Rhododendron was a shape and wondered what could he have against a shape.

If they could find a way of making money off these plants the farmers would have the country stripped bare in a few weeks.

Maybe you should learn a bit about farmers when you are learning something about invasive species. :rolleyes:

Ooh and while you are at it learn the difference between private property, commonage and national parks.

Widdershins

I didn't realise he represents the whole country.

Yourself isit

joeysoap wrote: »

Probably a fair fight.

The fear is the Irish army might lose.

Widdershins

Graces7 wrote: »

Not the deer; driving too fast when they know the deer are there. THREE TIMES? His fault!

Deer literally burst right out from the roadside hedges and I have had one land on the bonnet of my car, luckily nobody was harmed and the deer ran off looking unharmed, but it could have been serious and I wasn't driving fast. If one leaps out and lands on your car then that's not the fault of your driving speed.

I don't think culling is an answer because deer are one of those things we all have to be careful of when driving. We can't keep going around culling the native wildlife. There are far more problems with peoples pet dogs running out onto the road.

weekday

when fianna fail get back in in the near future, the healy-raes will be part of it

make kerry great again

Donal55

weekday wrote: »

when fianna fail get back in in the near future, the healy-raes will be part of it

make kerry great again

FF are back and in govt now. Don't let this 'supply & confidence' boll1x fool you.

jmayo

Widdershins wrote: »

Deer literally burst right out from the roadside hedges and I have had one land on the bonnet of my car, luckily nobody was harmed and the deer ran off looking unharmed, but it could have been serious and I wasn't driving fast. If one leaps out and lands on your car then that's not the fault of your driving speed.

I don't think culling is an answer because deer are one of those things we all have to be careful of when driving. We can't keep going around culling the native wildlife. There are far more problems with peoples pet dogs running out onto the road.

The primary reason for culling deer is not because they can be on the roads, it is because the areas cannot support the numbers.
And they have no natural predators to keep their numbers in check bar people with deer rifles.
Of course we could reintroduce the wolves and bears to do it naturally, but I get the feeling some people might have a fit if that was done.

Also some would like to see them culled because they are blamed for TB.

Widdershins

jmayo wrote: »

The primary reason for culling deer is not because they can be on the roads, it is because the areas cannot support the numbers.
And they have no natural predators to keep their numbers in check bar people with deer rifles.
Of course we could reintroduce the wolves and bears to do it naturally, but I get the feeling some people might have a fit if that was done.

Also some would like to see them culled because they are blamed for TB.

So damage to coilte forestry is the issue then? Otherwise the problem is self correcting. I'd prefer if we didn't have so much coniferous forestry to begin with. Deer are not all that rampant, ask anyone who hunts. They're not tripping over deer.

If wolves were reintroduced then people would be sorry they complained about fox.

Alun

Widdershins wrote: »

Deer are not all that rampant, ask anyone who hunts. They're not tripping over deer.

I'm a regular hillwalker in Wicklow, out every Saturday usually, and it would be a very rare day indeed that we didn't see at least 2 or 3 herds of deer during the day, they're everywhere. Even in the Glenealo Valley above Glendalough there are some quite big herds.

Maybe the hunters aren't straying too far away from the forest tracks where they can park their 4x4's, I don't know, but they're really not very hard to find.

topmanamillion

Widdershins wrote: »

So damage to coilte forestry is the issue then? Otherwise the problem is self correcting. I'd prefer if we didn't have so much coniferous forestry to begin with. Deer are not all that rampant, ask anyone who hunts. They're not tripping over deer.

If wolves were reintroduced then people would be sorry they complained about fox.

How is the problem self correcting?

Before I start I love deer but we must be practical about them. People invoking images of Bambi and whatever are not helping to solve the issue.

The issue is there are too many deer in the national herd for the area of habitat available. This is compounded as there are no predators to naturally manage numbers and in my view it is not feasible to re-introduce bear and wolves who need habitat ranges which simply aren't available in Ireland.

The need to control deer is multi facetted.
If stags aren't regularly culled then inbreeding takes over which causes all kinds of issues.
The role of a predator in the wild is to thin off sick, old and weak animals. Without that these animals just linger on in agony.

A recent report found a cull of between 17-50,000 deer is necessary to maintain a healthy heard. That's the reality of it.
http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/forestry-enviro/hunters-should-be-brought-in-to-cull-up-50000-deer-in-wicklow-report-35468150.html

jmayo

Widdershins wrote: »

Deer literally burst right out from the roadside hedges and I have had one land on the bonnet of my car, luckily nobody was harmed and the deer ran off looking unharmed, but it could have been serious and I wasn't driving fast. If one leaps out and lands on your car then that's not the fault of your driving speed.

I don't think culling is an answer because deer are one of those things we all have to be careful of when driving. We can't keep going around culling the native wildlife. There are far more problems with peoples pet dogs running out onto the road.

Widdershins wrote: »

So damage to coilte forestry is the issue then? Otherwise the problem is self correcting. I'd prefer if we didn't have so much coniferous forestry to begin with. Deer are not all that rampant, ask anyone who hunts. They're not tripping over deer.

If wolves were reintroduced then people would be sorry they complained about fox.

First off you tried to play it that culling was only because deer was coming onto roads and now you claim without culling the herd numbers are self correcting.
What the hell does that mean ?

Do you just want to wait for them to starve for the numbers to drop?

I don't know where you hunt, but Alun was right about Wicklow.
Also I know how deer have spread into parts of Mayo and Sligo which had no deer in the past.
And yes they do indeed use mountains and coilte forestry to spread.
The thing is they don't just stop at coilte forestry or state land.

ToddyDoody

Stars and Stripes wrote: »

Wait until one of them is elected to the European Parliament, God help us :rolleyes:

I wanted Jackie Healy-Rae to be Ceann Comhairle

Widdershins

jmayo wrote: »

First off you tried to play it that culling was only because deer was coming onto roads and now you claim without culling the herd numbers are self correcting.
What the hell does that mean ?

Do you just want to wait for them to starve for the numbers to drop?

I don't know where you hunt, but Alun was right about Wicklow.
Also I know how deer have spread into parts of Mayo and Sligo which had no deer in the past.
And yes they do indeed use mountains and coilte forestry to spread.
The thing is they don't just stop at coilte forestry or state land.

No, I was just responding to a post about deer on roads and culling. I never said they are culled because of that.

Yes we do have deer, and I'm not interested in arguing about how many it's appropriate to cull. That's always going to depend on a person's interests.

To the poster who mentioned conjuring images of Bambi..I don't think anyone has said that. I think people are a bit more intelligent than to only respect animals that are cute and cuddly.

weekday

ah djunno i was below in kerry dere de last week and dem rhodyendrans are shocking

mak kerry great agin

Míshásta

Widdershins wrote: »

So damage to coilte forestry is the issue then?

Damage to the native forest is the issue. Where large number of deer exist, the native trees and many under-shrubs fail to regenerate. Culling is necessary to control numbers because of the absence of natural predators. Just google the subject. All studies show that the deer numbers have expanded greatly and their range has greatly increased. They also cause a lot of damage to agricultural land.

Jack the Stripper

The Healy raes are like rhododendron themselves, expanding into north Kerry and Cork in next 12 months apparently. Don't have a link.

PARlance

I think the word Rhododendron needs to be culled. Far too long and weird.