Paul Murphy labels fox hunting 'cruel, barbaric' and urges ban
Paul Murphy spoke in the Dáil on fox hunting and the bill before the House, condemning fox hunting as a "cruel, barbaric" practice and urging lawmakers to ban it or allow free votes. He accused the minister of defending an indefensible tradition and argued the practice is not pest control but bloodsport.
Paul Murphy accused the minister of defending "cruel, barbaric practices" and of using misinformation and divisive rhetoric to justify organised fox hunting. He described the activity as the organised killing of foxes for entertainment and rejected the claim that it is a legitimate form of pest control.
Paul Murphy invoked the recent presidential campaign to illustrate public opposition to fox hunting, saying the issue exposed a candidate as out of touch. He argued the anti-fox hunting candidate prevailed while the pro-fox hunting figure lost, and warned that the Dáil vote risked repeating that disconnect with public opinion.
He set out the distinction between fox hunting and other forms of hunting discussed in the bill, saying the bill specifically addresses fox hunting and would not ban shooting. He supported a ban on trail hunting where it is used to mask continued fox hunting, while noting that drag hunting could continue.
Paul Murphy directly challenged Sinn Féin to change its position or at least permit a free vote, asserting that a long-term continuation of fox hunting in the state is unlikely. He urged members to vote with the public majority, citing support from figures such as Saoirse McHugh and Catherine Connolly in opposing fox hunting and calling for immediate bans on similarly cruel practices.
Main accusation
Paul Murphy accused the minister of defending "cruel, barbaric practices" and of using misinformation and divisive rhetoric to justify organised fox hunting. He described the activity as the organised killing of foxes for entertainment and rejected the claim that it is a legitimate form of pest control.
Presidential election example
Paul Murphy invoked the recent presidential campaign to illustrate public opposition to fox hunting, saying the issue exposed a candidate as out of touch. He argued the anti-fox hunting candidate prevailed while the pro-fox hunting figure lost, and warned that the Dáil vote risked repeating that disconnect with public opinion.
Policy details - trail and drag hunting
He set out the distinction between fox hunting and other forms of hunting discussed in the bill, saying the bill specifically addresses fox hunting and would not ban shooting. He supported a ban on trail hunting where it is used to mask continued fox hunting, while noting that drag hunting could continue.
Appeal to Sinn Féin and the vote tonight
Paul Murphy directly challenged Sinn Féin to change its position or at least permit a free vote, asserting that a long-term continuation of fox hunting in the state is unlikely. He urged members to vote with the public majority, citing support from figures such as Saoirse McHugh and Catherine Connolly in opposing fox hunting and calling for immediate bans on similarly cruel practices.
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Transcript
Minister, you're defending the indefensible, and I think you know it. You're defending cruel, barbaric practices. You're defending the organised killing for human entertainment of a tiny minority of foxes. And then you try to do it in a way to suggest that it shouldn't be divided along urban and rural lines. Having simply two minutes previously saying that this is a wedge issue for us, designed to be emotive and confrontational, and there's many other rural activities we'd like to ban. So on the one hand you say we shouldn't be pitching it as urban and rural, we agree, but on the other hand you are doing precisely that. You say that we are presenting this as a binary issue. I mean, I don't know, you weren't clear on what non-binary way you want to present it. Some of us are opposed to fox hunting. We're opposed to this cruel, barbaric practice. We think that it must go the way of dogfighting. I don't know if you had a problem with the banning of dogfighting. We're opposed to the way of badger baiting. It should be banned immediately. Others don't agree with that. You think that this should continue. That is a binary issue. I'm sorry if that offends you in some way. When you're mentioning, I think you didn't say rural pursuit, instead you went for rural activities. Because, of course, it brings us back into the presidential election, whereby fox hunting played an unexpectedly outsized role in the campaign, as an illustration of how incredibly out of touch Heather Humphries was. With her continued invocation of rural pursuits and her enthusiastic support for fox hunting, not shared by the vast majority of the public. And it was, you know, in the end, the anti-fox hunting candidate won. One, the pro-foxing hunting candidate lost. And it was a strong illustration for people of this person is wildly out of touch. It's therefore deeply ironic that we're going to have a vote tonight in the Dáil, where it seems that the three big parties are going to continue to be out of touch, not take the lesson of that presidential election, election, and vote to allow this cruel practice to continue. The other arguments that you made, I mean, the only way you can defend the indefensible is with misinformation and a divisive approach. The suggestion that this is about pest control. I mean, firstly, to be clear, it's misinformation to say that our bill bans shooting of foxes. Shooting of foxes, of course it doesn't. Explicitly doesn't. Hunting. Fox hunting. Fox hunting. If you have a problem with the... It's about fox hunting, right? That's what the bill is about. People can go and read it online. If you had a problem, and this is what you would often do, if you agreed with... So if you want to come back in the sum up and say, we agree with the ban on fox hunting, but we have a problem with some of the wording the way that it's done, no problem. Then what it's done is it's passed at second stage, and it's amended at committee stage. The point in terms of the ban on trail hunting is there, because precisely this has been used in Britain as a way of continuing kind of undercover, underground fox hunting, and therefore, but there's no ban specified, and we support the possibility of the continuation of drag hunting. But let's be real in terms of the argument about pest control. Saoirse McHugh makes a really good point in the paper today. I don't think anybody believes that getting a pack of 50 dogs and 50 people on horseback to chase a single fox to exhaustion is a reasonable or efficient form of pest control. Foxes are no threat to anyone or anyone's livelihood. They are beautiful, intelligent animals that play a vital role in our ecosystem. Tearing them limb from limb is not a sport. It is not an ancient Irish tradition. It is not a rural pursuit. It's an alien bloodlust imported into this country by a colonial aristocracy. The Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association was established in 1845 during the famine that Seamus referred to. While ordinary people were starving to death, there was aristocrats in red coats riding around on horseback torturing animals to death. That's what this tradition is about. And I have to put it to Sinn Féin. What are you thinking? What are you thinking about supporting this colonial practice? If you don't come to your senses, if you don't change your party's position on this, I hope at the very least you will allow a free vote. Surely you know that this is going to be done away with. Like, we are not in 20 years' time going to have a continuation of fox hunting in this country. Surely a majority of the Sinn Féin membership supports a ban on fox hunting. I certainly know those I worked with in the presidential campaign were laughing at Heather Humphreys and her support of rural pursuits and her defence of fox hunting and supporting Catherine Connolly opposed it. If not, surely some of you will break with the party with and vote with the people who are overwhelmingly opposed, urban or rural, overwhelmingly opposed to fox hunting. Thank you. Thank you.