THE strength of people power, backed by political will, has certainly proved it can move mountains in the past but we now have a mountain to climb to keep equestrian sports in the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown.

Confirmation came yesterday afternoon from Sport Ireland that there are no plans to include equestrian sports in the future of the sports campus.

Since Irish Horse World highlighted the campus masterplan to tear out the 10-year-old Olympic standard all-weather equestrian arena, and the nearby grass arena, and reinstate the Walled Garden to its original purpose as Abbotstown House’s vegetable garden, alarm bells have been ringing loud in the Irish equestrian sector.

While the draft campus plan did contain plans for the arena’s relocation as well as a cross-country course, Abbotstown’s masterplan, released last November, did not feature it.

What’s more worrying is that there seems to be a lack of political impetus - our efforts to elicit a comment from the ministerial arm of the Department of Sport effectively received polite short shrift, with a redirect to Sport Ireland. The latter confirmed yesterday to us that there are no plans to include equestrian sports in the new vision for the stunning sports campus at Abbotstown.

A petition to keep equestrian sports in the campus, started by Donal Milmo-Penny (see his letter on these pages), has now received over 3,000 signatures in the last seven days. The people have had their say alright but is anyone listening?

Horse Sport Ireland weighed in mid-week releasing a statement, maintaining ‘constant communication channels’ remain open with Sport Ireland over Abbotstown’s future plans.

Little more than a decade on after its launch, and with the Paris Olympics around the corner, the death knell of Irish equestrian sports as an active participant in our national sporting landscape has now been sounded. The poet John Donne’s famous words spring to mind:

‘Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee’.