Irish Extra December 2023
My good lady was putting up the Christmas tree as I wrote this evening. I stay out of the way but have to admit I love to see the trees and decorations going up every year. Christmas is a fantastic time and I feel really made all the better by sporting activities. It represents for me the height of the season: things are at their peak and we are all getting out as much as possible either to shoot, hunt or just enjoy the countryside. Traditionally for me, Christmas eve was a big day. I would usually slip off at 5 or 6 am in the morning and collect my friend and we would do some early morning ferreting, followed by a long rake with a couple of Teckels and a Lurcher hoping to spring a few rabbits or maybe a fox, rounding off the evening with some duck shooting and maybe even a quick flick of the lamp on the way home but times have changed a little with having two children, although I cant complain as both are keen country sports enthusiasts even at a young age and my daughter Isla who is 8 and I had a couple of very early mornings out stalking a few weeks back. She is very keen and was up and dressed before waking me on the first morning and the same on the second, claiming she had to do so as I am getting too old to wake before her! My son Harry is a little young yet to tag along at only 3 years old but is as keen as anyone else and has his own gun and enjoys shining the lamp out the back door and into the fields at night looking for “Floxes”!
A Christmas eve now may involve a walk through the fields with a few of the dogs and the children, or if Isla and I get away alone we may chance a duck along the river or down at the Moss below the house. I used to never understand the importance of children being involved in country sports, until I had children! But then you quickly realise that while it is important for us to continue to fight for what we do, it is even more important for us to fight for what they will do. I don’t think I am alone as a father of children when I say I hope that both of mine are shooting and hunting long after I am gone and I have informed my daughter that when I pop my clogs I wish to be cremated and loaded into some shotgun cartridges and 6.5 x 55 rounds so that I am hunting long after I have died!
Falconry, recognised by Unesco as a living Heritage & traditional sport is widely believed to have originated in in Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau and spread via cultural and trade links to other diverse regions including East Asia, North Africa, Europe, and later in the 16th century CE to much of the rest of the world. The earliest solid evidence for falconry, a pottery sherd depicting a bird of prey, comes from Tell Chuera site in modern day Syria, and dates from the third millennium BCE. Whilst the oldest rock art images of falconers are found in the Altai Mountain range which spans parts of Central and East Asia, dating from around 1000 BCE. By the early Middle Ages, falconry had spread considerably and is documented in many parts of the world, including in painted depictions on Chinese tombs from the Tang Period (618 – 907 CE).
The tradition became particularly popular along the Silk Roads amongst people living in the steppe regions of Central Asia. Indeed, the falcon was an important symbolic bird in ancient Mongolia. Along the Silk Roads, falconry, and in particular the practice of exchanging hunting birds as gifts was closely associated with diplomacy and cultural interactions between the various societies along these routes. Another of the ways in which the practice spread was via merchants who often carried knowledge of the practice, as well as the hunting birds themselves, back home with them after encountering falconry in parts of Central Asia and the Arabian Peninsula.
Today falconry remains integrated into communities as part of a social recreational practice and popular means of interacting with nature. Although it was originally predominantly a technique for acquiring food, the practice has evolved over time to become a traditional sport which has acquired many other values and a greater social significance. In particular it has become associated with camaraderie, sharing expressions of freedom, and a connection with nature. Furthermore, along the lengths of the Silk Roads, falconry has inspired a vast swathe of artistic creativity including books, manuscripts, poetry, paintings, and historical buildings. The falcon remains an important cultural symbol in many countries and is often used on postage stamps, coins and on coats of arms.
The year in review…
2023 has had its ups and down for field sports, we have saw drastic (I would say draconian) changes in legislation in Scotland, changes in Wales and here in Ireland with a lead ban alongside the removal of several duck species from the quarry list it would be easy to get down about things, however the management of the countryside is essential, facts are facts. So regardless of who is lobbying who to make these changes and pushing for legislation it can only go so far and I feel that point has been exceeded, it has gone from animal welfare to really becoming an almost silly game of how far can we be pushed, how ridiculous can we make the laws and how far from facts and reality can we go. I am often left with little to say when reading some of the absolute drivel that comes from the animal rights movement and no more so than recently when there was an uproar after it was revealed a government department in Ireland were putting into place a rabbit cull within a National Park. The rabbits had never been controlled aside from a club flying hawks at them a few times a year and the numbers were considered to be “Out of control” which wasn’t entirely accurate, however a cull was on the cards and the animal rights lobby were up in arms, firstly that the rabbits were going to be culled and secondly there was a plan to use ferrets that would “remove the rabbits eyes” underground” Then came the curtain call for me – They suggested to the government dept that the rabbits should be caught up, neutered and re released into the wild! The same person suggested the same thing to control the Irish Deer population, but then we also have an “expert” calling for the release of Wolves to do that!
I have, as always many people to thank from both myself and the country sports community. There is a small but very active community of people working behind the scenes to promote, protect and defend our way of life and although recognition is never something they seek, they very much deserve it. The Countryside Alliance & Gary McCartney, The Irish Working Terrier Federation, The Ulster Angling Association, The Ulster Farmers Union, the various hunts, hound packs, terrier and lurcher enthusiasts, shooters and anglers who all do their bit to support country sports. To Tracey and the team at the Countrymans Weekly who have supported all forms of country sports for many decades on both sides of the water, thank you.
Until Next time…Merry Christmas!