Bad Hare Days is The Kilkenny Advertiser’s ‘Old Kilkenny’ columnist’s newest literary offering recounting a story of the author’s high profile involvement in the Irish anti-hare coursing campaign.
John is renowned for his anti-blood sports opinions and in his book which has been published in the UK, he recalls how witnessing scenes of cruelty in a field where hares were being netted for coursing opened his eyes for the first time to the downside of Ireland’s field sport tradition.
He joined the campaign against blood sports, with coursing high on the list of activities that animal welfare people wanted banned by law. This they sought to achieve by picketing coursing events, letter writing on the subject, and lobbying politicians.
But he found that taking a strong public stand on a deeply emotive and controversial issue almost always carries a price tag.
Much of the book focuses on what happened when radical activists linked to the so-called Animal Liberation Front resorted to sabotaging coursing venues and releasing hares from captivity.
John insists he had no connection with the militant elements but that, despite this, he was tried five times in the 1980s for alleged intimidation of coursing club members and officials and landowners who permitted hare coursing on their fields.
There were two mistrials, another trial ended with a hung jury, a fourth resulted in a unanimous Not Guilty verdict, and a fifth case was withdrawn in the District Court before being sent for trial.
Between September 1986 and March 1990 he was arrested eleven times, mainly under the anti-terrorist Offences Against the State Act (Section 30 ) and questioned about alleged ALF actions directed hare coursing. He describes these interview sessions in detail.
The book is written in a novelistic style and all names of legal personnel and some place names are changed for legal reasons.
Bad Hare Days costs €12.99 and is available from Kilkenny bookshops or from amazon.co.uk
