Last July, your intrepid Gombeen Nation had a post on Smithfield Horse Market. It argued for the closure of the market - or at least some kind of regulation for the transactions that take place there.
Anyone who ventures from the more comfortable suburbs of Dublin will be aware of people buying horses at this dodgy fair, and then taking no responsibility for them thereafter. The green areas of places such as Finglas are cluttered with neglected - or ill-treated - horses running wild, once Anto has lost interest.
The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has repeatedly called for regulation of the market, with micro-chipping of the horses traded there. Some wag suggested micro-chipping of the people who frequent it might be a better approach. See Animal cruelty in Ireland and Smithfield Market
The authorities, of course, have done nothing, despite the existence of a free-for-all horse market in the centre of a capital city being an inherently dangerous entity. I personally know of someone who was innocently driving down the quays a couple of years back, and was surprised to see a horse dash out and leave a few hoofmarks in the side of her car. This is Ireland, after all.
Maybe this latest incident will make the Powers That Be take some sort of action?
Big thanks to Irishforfecksake for the Shooting at Irish Horse fair video.
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6 comments:
I just got this from Irish Blog Awards site: Congratulations on short listing!
Political 2011 – Shortlists
Posted: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:33:02 +0000
Best Political Blog
– Sponsored by Politics.ie
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twentymajor.net
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gombeennation.blogspot.com
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I wont be able to tune into Gombeen Nation so often ( it’s a busy year for me) …but I admire this blogs pioneering spirit. Every thing changes, that Gombeen Dinosaur FF has been felled, tho it has taken a crash that leaves us with an economy like the aftermath of a war to do it…GN can take credit for being no friend of FF. Keep on blogging in the free world- your efforts don’t go un praised.
Thanks Anna. Always good to know!
So, there's no truth to the rumour that it was just a rubberbandits video rehearsal?
Dirtydog
Read this a few months back. Very sad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/europe/21ireland.html
As you say it is Ireland - Murphy's law and all that. I have to say this incidence yesterday was somewhat surprising, as the sadistic nature of the cruelty inflicted there, was nearly always confined to creatures that can't fight back.
I was one who wanted this insanity closed but now I'm not so sure. You see the cruelty is there for all to see, if it was confined to an innocuous and anonomymous field in the middle of nowhere, then who knows what sadistic cruelty would be perpetuated on defenseless animals.
I'm sick, tired and weary of the sadism which passes for normal discourse in this bloody country. It is not normal to behave in this way. It's not normal to keep a horse in the living room or back garden of a house. It is not normal to beat a horse or any other creature to within a breath of their life, for the fun if it. It is not normal to buy a horse or dog unless you can look after it. WHY ARE THESE BASIC RULES OF NORMALITY AND CIVILISATION NOT ADHERED HERE? WHY? Em, would it be because no one really gives a toss. Animals today, humans tomorrow humans today, animals tomorrow. Or is it that sadism is really what it's all about here? Looks like it.
@ Dirty Dog. You know, it's not far off a Rubberbandits promo, is it? Life and art, and all that.
@ Russell. Thanks for the link - what must the rest of the world think when they read about, and see stuff like this?
@ Dakota. I'm equally flummoxed. It's like there is a sizable lumpen underclass here in Ireland, the like of which I have not seen elsewhere. Russell's post above from the New York Times sums it up really, with the character chasing horses around a Dunsink field to sell at Smithfield. Ironic that the area contains Dunsink Observatory, the director of which was once a certain William Rowan Hamilton, the man who discovered quaternions.
How far we have come in our little Republic.
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