THE Horse and Jockey Hotel was the venue chosen for the seminar hosted by the Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association last Thursday and it tackled the challenges facing rural life and hunting in particular in these vegan-oriented times.

A more fitting and appropriate venue it would be hard to find for a hunt function. Located near Cashel in the heart of Co Tipperary, it is a hotel which prides itself on its racing connections. All its meeting rooms are named after the great champions of the past with the Arkle suite closely followed by similar meeting rooms such as the Winning Fair and Istabraq. The bar has really historic hunt pictures way back to the 1930s including a meet of the long defunct Thurles and Kilshane Harriers at the pub.

The keynote speaker on the night was Tim Bonner, CEO of Countryside Alliance UK. He was something of a late stand-in as the original speaker was to have been Polly Portwin, no stranger to these shores as she regularly hunts with Scarteen, getting over from the UK for many of the better meets. A former master of the Bicester and hunting editor of the Horse and Hound, she is now campaign director of the Countryside Alliance. However, fate was to intervene as only last week Portwin unfortunately took a heavy fall while field mastering during an Autumn Hunting morning resulting in a crushed vertebra and and a long spell in a body cast.

The seminar had been preceded by the AGM of the Masters of Foxhounds which gave an opportunity for catching up with hunting news since last season. The Derrynaflan Theatre with a seating capacity of 250 was packed by the huge attendance from all over the country with both foxhounds and harrier packs equally represented.

Legal advice

After a short address and welcome from chairman David Lalor MFA, the proceedings were opened by hunting barrister Liam Nolan. From Tullow, Nolan hunts with the Carlow Farmers and practises on the Dublin and South Eastern circuit. He spoke on the law as it related to trespass be it hunts and their followers and the other side of the coin how hunts and landowners can protect themselves from unwanted hunt protesters. His message was that trespass generally is not a criminal offence but rather a civil matter between the property owner and the trespasser. From a liability point of view, Nolan differentiated between recreational visitors and outright trespassers.

Tim Bonner followed. At college, he hunted the Wye College Beagles before going to become a free range chicken farmer in Devon. While not a horseman, his brother Chris who hunts with Hursley Hambelton, is assistant trainer to Andrew Balding. Tim has been a the forefront of the battle with animal rights activists in the UK whose ultimate aim in not just to stop all kinds of hunting, shooting and fishing but to create a vegan society where livestock faming and meat-eating would be banned. These campaigners are very well funded, much better than Countryside Alliance, despite the fact that CA has over 100,000 members and by Irish standards, a substantial income.

From hard won experience, Bonner spoke of dealing with anti-hunt protesters who turn up and will do all they can to disrupt hunting on the day including blowing hunting horns just as the huntsman is casting. He commented that over the years many of them have become very proficient and would be capable of winning horn-blowing competitions in the unlikely event of them entering.

While the disruption on the day is bad, the real battle is being fought on social media with hunting expeditions being looked on as an opportunity to get damaging pictures which can be flashed around the world long before hounds are back in their kennels. The protesters, who usually come attired in balaclavas (which is not illegal), will do all they can to provoke mounted followers to get into a physical confrontation which will be filmed on their body cams. Despite the provocation, this should be avoided at all costs and matters should be left to the local gardaí and hunt stewards, appointed and trained for such occasions.

While in Ireland, these protests are regarded as a particularly English problem, two new groups sprung up last season here. One is based in Galway and another in the southeast with perhaps more to follow so it is something for which the Irish hunting community must prepare.

Challenges

After a lively question and answer session, the seminar moved on to the next speaker, James Norton, a lifelong hunting enthusiast and hunting author (he wrote the history of the South County Dublin Harriers) who, for many years, hunted the Westmeath Beagles. In addition, he was PRO for the IMFHA and negotiated with the politicians of the day at the highest level. An outstanding speaker, Norton gave a challenging address on the state of hunting in Ireland. Coming from the insurance industry where he is a senior executive, he compared (unfavourably) management practices between those running hunting and business. He spoke of the lack of expertise in print and broadcast media not to mention social media where the real battle is being fought. He also referred to the lack of finance available to run any kind of media campaign or deal with media or political issues.

A question and answer session followed where, in general, the meeting largely agreed with his assessment. In a closing address, chairman David Lalor whose family have a lifelong association with the Laois Foxhounds, spoke of the difficulty in recruiting young people to become office holders in the management of hunting. The IMFHA have sought without success a Dublin-based younger person to handle their PR. In the meantime, the hard working voluntary committee of the foxhounds and their opposite numbers in the Harrier Association are putting long hours and late nights keeping hunting in the healthy state it currently enjoys in Ireland.