Dancing with wolves is Green way of the future

Country Living with Francis Farragher

THE Green Party, in their relatively short existence, have had their ups and downs but in a world of ever-growing environmental awareness, there can be little doubt but that they have a role to play in the country’s political landscape.

Most of the time, what they say, makes a fair bit of sense in terms of reducing and eventually eradicating our dependence on fossil fuels; the need to protect our ecology and natural environment; and to produce our food in a more sustainable fashion.

But, every so now and then, with the try-line in view, they tend to drop the ball in the clumsiest of fashions. Could I really believe what I was hearing last week? Yes, the Greens want to reintroduce wolves to Ireland.

No, it wasn’t April 1 nor was it fake news. There was the leader of the Greens, one Eamon Ryan, making the case for the return of wolves to the Irish countryside, all by way of a great vision to turn our farmlands into one gigantic wildlife park.

For a minute or two, I thought of all the sheep farmers over the years that I’ve written stories about, whose flocks were savaged by marauding dogs, animals that should have been under domestic control – but weren’t – and who wreaked the most horrendous cruelty, often during night-time hours.

Publicity campaigns and damages claims against pet owners have helped at times to reduce the incidence of dog attacks, but at least this is a threat than in many cases can be contained.

There aren’t too many farms in Galway, or across the West of Ireland, who are more than a mile away from rough areas of cover – bushes, briars, trees and gorse – an environment that would make an ideal recluse for the new wolves of Ireland.

Maybe, we should all forget about farming, and revert back to leaving Ireland as a rural wilderness of no cars with wolves roving freely through the fields and forests while it might also be convenient to round-up the locals and move them all into the nearest town.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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