The final day of the National Hare Coursing Festival is taking place in Clonmel this afternoon.
Running up until 3pm, the event has seen thousands of people flock to Powerstown Racecourse from all over the country.
Yesterday saw protesters from the Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports in attendance.
Tipp FM journalist Sandra Quinn was at the course today to find out why these people go to the festival.
“Since I’m knee high to a grasshopper, my father has dogs at home, mother and father and we’ve been literally brought up in dogs,” Aoife O’Gorman from Killenaule said.
Tom Pa O’Connor from Kerry added “coursing is a great game, if it’s ran right, but no one likes to see a hare being killed, I wouldn’t kill a hare and we’ve more dogs than anyone, no one likes to see a hare being killed.
“Once the coursing is ran right, the dogs are muzzled, and the good hares are slipped, the coursing here is outstanding, outstanding, but that’s the way coursing should be ran.”
Fine Gael Councillor in Macroom Eileen Lynch and member of the ICC executive board, Eileen Lynch told Tipp FM coursing is a long standing tradition in her family and she’s been coming since she was about four-years-old and the Clonmel festival attracts up to 10,000 people a day.
A woman from Clare has been travelling to the Tipperary festival for about ten years now, as her fiance is a big fan and now it’s a big part of both of their lives.
