Trim Rally

A clear and unambiguous message to Fianna Fail TDs: vote down Gormley’s Bills next week or pay the price by losing your seat’
Speech by Des Crofton, National Director, National Association of Regional Game Councils at the RISE! Rally, Trim, County Meath on Saturday 26th June. The RISE! Campaign has organised the Rally to give the people of Meath, North Dublin and beyond, an opportunity to show their support for the Ward Union Hunt, which John Gormley proposes to ban.

The revised programme for government agreed between Fianna Fail and the Green Party will go into the records as one the most shameful deals ever perpetrated on rural people by an Irish Government. Field sports are under attack and I am sorry to say our own Government is leading it. And lest there be any doubt about it, the blame rests entirely with Fianna Fail. When Fianna Fail agreed to allocate responsibility for hunting to a Green Minister, it was tantamount to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coup. The Fianna Fail/Green deal on the Ward Union Stag Hunt and on puppy farms is about to become the most politically costly act by Fianna Fail in terms of so much goodwill squandered at such a high cost. Some Fianna Fail backbenchers have said their party was “sleep walked” into this deal by Noel Dempsey. If they realise that, then they should wake up!

NARGC is here today to demonstrate its solidarity with all field sports in Ireland but especially with the Ward Union Stag Hunt. We are here to tell Minister Gormley and Fianna Fail that they are on the brink of being taught a lesson which they will never forget. Fianna Fail may have thought the Rod Licence Dispute was traumatic for politicians, but they haven’t seen anything yet. If Gormley’s Bills are passed into law, it is Fianna Fail who is to blame and I want to assure them that the revolt from rural Ireland will be their worst nightmare and it is only just starting. I say to them, the field sports community not only have the numbers to put you out of office, but we are prepared to do just that. If we are forced down that road, we can and we will keep you out. You have demonstrated a complete disconnection with the people you purport to represent. Well, we are about to re-connect you.

They thought that by targeting a single hunt no one would raise an objection and that the sacrifice would satisfy the misguided political correctness of a Green agenda which has no connection to the realities or priorities of what the country faces. They were wrong, and we are here to show them just how wrong they got it. The NARGC is not in the business of sacrificing any field sport, no matter how small or how large. If we allow one to be banned we will be next because the Green agenda, despite what Gormley says, is to ban all field sports. Don’t believe the assurances he has been giving in media interviews. Can you believe a man who tells the media that all stakeholders, including hunters representatives, have been consulted when no such consultation has taken place while at the same time he is happy to consult with and take the advices of the anti hunting organisations? Only a fool would believe him and we are not fools. Today is the day when politicians should realise that they have run out of waffle time. No more double speak; no more sleight of hand; no more saying one thing but meaning another. Today is a day for plain speaking and plain meaning. Now let me speak plainly to the Fianna Fail backbenchers and Independents. If you vote for Gormley’s Bills, you damage us and our way of life. There will be no coming back from that and the Party Whip will be irrelevant for an out of work TD. If you vote with Gormley on any of his Bills, I advise you to start now looking up the vacancies pages in the daily papers. You are going to need that head start to find a new career when we put you on the dole queue alongside the tens of thousands who are already there because of your party’s mismanagement in Government.

In a country which is on its knees economically, destroyed by inept government, lack of financial regulation combined with a crooked banking system and not forgetting the greed of property developers, the Green party. has decided that the legislative priorities are these two pieces of legislation. What a perversion!!!

Rural people believe that their way of life is under attack and it is under attack and Fianna Fail is to blame for pandering to the Greens. While the Government may have survived the economic crisis and all the associated scandals, I am nonetheless reminded of the now immortal words of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds when he said “It is the little things which bring down governments”.

Let us be clear, sympathetic Fianna Fail backbenchers who tell us they must obey the Party Whip are no use to us. When they tell us that, they are in reality saying that they are going to destroy a part of our way of life and what we value, but they want us at the same time to give them our understanding and our votes. We will only win this battle by sending them a clear and unambiguous message – vote down Gormley’s Bills or pay the price with the loss of your seat at the next general election. If you pick a fight with one of us, you pick a fight with all of us. That should be the message to every backbencher no matter which Party, but especially Fianna Fail and the Independents.

Fine Gael, despite its own internal troubles recently, has given a written pledge which I hold, that when in Government, they will repeal any legislation now being passed by the current government which attacks hunting. We will hold them to the letter of that pledge.

ENDS

FURTHER INFORMATION:
Des Crofton, NARGC 087-2541827
Liam Cahill, RISE! 086-8174053

Hunting Association of Ireland Ltd., Friarstown Lodge, Grange, Kilmallock, Co Limerick
Tel: 00353 85 1100645 Email: hunting@hai.ie