Irish Extra December 2019
It sounds cliché, but were has the year gone. I write Irish Extra monthly as readers will know and each month it arrives through my letter box I read it and put it on the corner of my desk. I put each issue in a pile until the year end and then wrap them with a band and store them away. This seems to get faster every year and this year has been no different. Looking back over 2019 it was an incredibly busy year for me. My rabbit work was as busy as ever even with the decline in rabbit populations it seems thankfully my regular contracts were not affected too badly. It was an eventful year for country sports, least of all in Ireland.
2019 was the year of the salmon and while my Salmon fishing days were left behind with my youth I still feel very passionate about what is a truly incredible creature and one that my father and many men in my home district felt very passionate about and spent a large portion of time pursuing. The Salmon was celebrated in many ways in Ireland in 2019 as well as internationally. Here over the last decade we have had absolutely outstanding work carried out by Noel Carr and the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers, an Irish based Salmon and sea trout conservation group who have done phenomenal work in the conservation of wild stocks and raising awareness on the plight of the salmon to a public who rarely hears the correct side of story.
The early part of the year was when I travelled to Germany to my good friend Julia Szeremeta who had selected, reared and trained my puppy “Cider” who has now grown into a fantastic young hunter. My most recent excursion was with “Cider” and we walked the local bogs where she flushed a few Snipe and eventually a fox which she ran to ground, bolted and then hunted again! “Cider” is as big as a good Hob ferret but has the heart of a Lion and 2019 has been all the brighter with her here.
It seems “Misinformation” or “Fake News” was a quite a hit in 2019 and even in our own small area there were incidents involving claims of poisoning of local wildlife by hunters no less and it seemed that these claims again reared there head late this month when claims were again made that the shooting and hunting community had been laying poison for foxes and various wildlife, all of course which were totally spurious of no substance whatsoever. These sort of outlandish claims, probably all connected to a few individuals who are quite obviously misinformed, anti hunting and totally unintelligent by dint of making claims that country sports enthusiasts would actually seek to poison wildlife are while absolutely farcical, also quite damaging. The public Hoover up this sort of nonsense and automatically confuse matters which leads to nothing but unjustified bad will against the country sports community.
July saw Ireland host the ICTSF World English sporting Championships. An event which went down in the books as outstanding and had competitors from 16 different countries and was won by USA competitor Derrick Mein in the triple A class with a total of 183 points. This month was a highlight for as young “Cider” at only a few months old did exceptionally well at a blood tracking event held by Field Sports Ireland and presented by Larry Taffe who gave a packed lecture room a great insight into the world of the blood tracker!
A lead ban has been on the cards in 2019 and I reported back in June when I received some correspondence from the NARGC who were working hard for their members and doing what they could against a poorly inform decision to remove lead. It is as we speak still ongoing and we can only hope for a balanced decision.
In August I took a look at Grouse in Ireland and was delighted to report that the ongoing work and conservation of the Irish Red Grouse Association was paying dividends and numbers where on the up. The Grouse is simply not as prevalent in Ireland as it is in the UK for various reasons including Geography, but thankfully with work from organisations such as IRGA the numbers are thankfully on the increase. This news was dampened slightly by the discovery of the RHD2 virus in two counties. A discovery which was worrying for everyone involved in the country side. The discovery did create a temporary ban on the licensing of organised coursing due to concerns over management of the disease, however in a U turn by the National Parks and Wildlife this was overturned and a plan was put into place to allow coursing while monitoring and surveying hares in risk areas.
So on reflection, an eventful year on the Country Sports calendar for us all with many highs and a few lows but all in all I feel country sports in Ireland is in as good a position as could be hoped all considered. While we have much opposition to our way of life we must also remember that this opposition is a minority of misinformed individuals. I always take every opportunity to explain to non hunting people when I have an opportunity that hunting, shooting, fishing and all country sports is natural, conservation minded and is always carried out with animal welfare in mind and that without it we would simply have no countryside. The proof is in the pudding and it is for the benefit of nature and conservation that we what we do.
It is as we speak almost Christmas. The peak of the season, or time of year where we hopefully have the opportunity to miss a day or two from the grindstone, enjoy the countryside at its finest and work your dogs, get a few shots, ride to the hounds or do whatever makes you happy in the outdoors. Whatever you do, do it safe, enjoy it well and have a a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful New Year and thank you to each and every reader and to all at the Countrymans Weekly for another year!
Until Next Year….Good Hunting!