Sir, - John Fitzgerald's letter (July 23rd) is in favour of a referendum in Ireland on "blood sports". It might be useful for me to give an accurate account of the background to this suggestion before highlighting the obvious flaws in such a proposal.
On July 3rd, Michael Foster MP decided to withdraw from the UK House of Commons his Bill to criminalise hunting with dogs. This doomed bill was finally brought down by its own sponsor after 13 months in which we saw almost half-a-million people take to the streets of London to express their support for the countryside, for farming and for hunting, shooting and fishing. Foster failed and the countryside won.
Following the death of Foster's Bill, the Home Office Minister, George Howarth, said in a reply to Jackie Ballard that he was considering "several approaches to the question of hunting with hounds . . . including the option of local referendums."
In reply to the suggestion that a similar referendum should be held in Ireland, I would like to make the following points:
Hunting already takes place through a form of local referendum as the farmers and landowners in each hunt county (and we have 84 horseback and 150 foot packs) make the decision as to who does or who doesn't hunt over their land. Why not let these people who know best and are most affected by hunting make their choice?
What if the referendum was carried in some constituencies (like some of the Dublin ones) where there is no fox-hunting and overwhelmingly defeated in the strong hunting constituencies such as Tipperary, Galway, Cork, Westmeath and Meath? How would the proposed laws on hunting be enforced where differences occurred across the invisible boundaries between two counties or parishes?
What right would a Government have to decide if hunting with hounds took place on privately owned farms land? If they proposed such a flawed referendum, would they also ask the people if foxes should be snared, shot, poisoned or gassed?
Who would police the countryside and enforce these laws?
The only things that a proposal such as this would do is highlight the failure of government to protect minorities and the countryside, resulting in serious conflict between town and country. The voice of the countryside will be heard and will not be dictated to by a minority of animal rights activists. - Yours, etc., James E. Norton, PRO,
Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association, Newcastle, Co Dublin.