The floorboards in the house hadn’t been touched for more than 50 years, so when we finally lifted some at the start of this year it wasn’t surprising to uncover a collection of random items tucked between the creaky old joists. Among them were cardboard milk cartons from Hughes Bros Ltd in Rathfarnham, set up by three brothers who established Ireland’s first pasteurisation plant in 1924.
One discovery stood out above the rest: an old cupronickel threepence coin, or “3d”, featuring an Irish hare – the design work of the English artist Percy Metcalfe, who was commissioned to create the first coinage for the Irish Free State, which began circulating in the winter of 1928. The hare was part of a broader set of coins, divided into two themes: the pig, hen, bull and ram, symbolising farm life and produce; and the wolfhound, woodcock, hare, salmon and horse, reflecting the world of hunting.
Roughly the size of a coat button, Metcalfe’s Irish hare appears in profile, facing left and alert, as if poised to leap into motion. Its head is lifted, ears laid back flat along the curve of its arched back, while its muscular and powerful legs are drawn in close beneath the body, braced and ready to jump.
By pure chance, just a few days after we had cleared out the room, Joe Duffy was on RTÉ’s Liveline talking with his callers about their interactions with the Irish hare. Sheila phoned to share her story about a tiny hare that her dog brought into the house years earlier. She fed it warm, sugared milk from a baby’s bottle, which it gulped down. The hare, she told Duffy, was “absolutely fabulous” – tame as anything with her family, but wild, wary and skittish with anyone else.
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The Irish hare has long been tied to fairies and the spirit world. Another Joe, from Cork, told listeners a story from 50 years back. He was driving late one wet November night when a hare began running in front of his car, matching his speed at 45 miles an hour before vanishing into a field. He knew it was bad luck to harm a hare, but later his father told him he shouldn’t have followed it – hares, his father said, were from another world. Another caller, Patsy, chimed in with his memories of a priest he knew who travelled by pony and cart. If the priest ever spotted a hare on the road, he would stop, get out, and walk around the cart three times, just to keep bad luck at bay.
Technically, it’s a type of mountain hare, but it carries distinct genes that set it apart
The Irish hare and humans go back a long way. It’s been here since before the last ice age, evolving in isolation for thousands of years. Unlike the European rabbit and the brown hare, which arrived only in the past few hundred years, the Irish hare is unique and found nowhere else in the world. Technically, it’s a type of mountain hare, but it carries distinct genes that set it apart, shaping its size and the colour of its coat. Unlike the mountain hare, the Irish hare doesn’t turn white in winter.
We’re not the only ones to connect with these mystical creatures. Raising Hare, English author Chloe Dalton’s bestselling debut, tells how she found a newborn hare one February morning during the Covid years, and how the bond she formed with the little female transformed her life.
Hares are the only game species in England and Wales that can be shot year-round – a grim fact, given that their population has plummeted by more than 80 per cent in the past century. Last month Dalton launched a petition urging the UK government to introduce a legally binding closed season for hares, protecting them from January to September.
Despite its unique status, the Irish hare is poorly studied. And while its population is believed to be stable, it faces real threats from habitat loss and a warming climate. It doesn’t enjoy full protection under Irish law either. Between September and February, the Irish hare can legally be shot or hunted with packs of beagles and harriers. Ireland, Spain and Portugal are the last remaining countries in Europe where hares can be legally chased by dogs, either in open hunts or in so-called “closed” coursing fields, where hares are first captured and then released for the chase.
Each year, some 6,000 wild hares are taken under licence. They’re given a 75 metre head start in the coursing field before two muzzled greyhounds are set loose; the winner is the first dog to force the hare to turn. After spending about two months in captivity, the hares are then released.
A few years ago, in research funded by the National Parks & Wildlife Service, researchers from Queen’s University Belfast set out to track the fate of hares released after coursing. They fitted 40 hares with GPS-radio collars and monitored them over six months. Half of the hares had been previously captured and coursed. The results showed no significant difference between the coursed and uncoursed hares: they didn’t experience higher mortality rates, nor did their movements differ meaningfully.
This research is unlikely to sway those determined to see hare coursing banned. In 2019, the same year Irish politicians in the Dáil declared a national biodiversity crisis, a Red C poll, commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, found 77 per cent of Irish people supported ending live hare coursing. Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore introduced the Protection of Hares Bill, which has garnered cross-party backing. The Bill is short and to the point: it seeks to ban the practice, stating that “it shall not be lawful to engage in live hare coursing” under the Wildlife Act.
The Irish hare’s ability to rely on its speed and agility to escape predators is why it’s used in hare coursing. As awareness grows and the debate surrounding coursing intensifies, it remains to be seen whether future generations will choose to protect this unique species or allow the practice to persist.
