Limerick gardai respond to men hunting with dogs on farmers' land

A CROWD of over 250 attended a Limerick IFA meeting on farm trespass and rural crime during which two farmers told of an incident that morning.

Staff in the Woodlands House Hotel had to get extra chairs to accommodate a bigger crowd than expected on Tuesday evening. Mr Lavery, the Limerick IFA chairman, said the attendance of over 250 reflected how concerned farmers are over trespassers.

There were a number of speakers including James Staines, IFA solicitor; Barry Carey, crime prevention executive with IFA, David Lyons, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Sergeant Frank O'Sullivan, Newcastle West garda station.

There were also a number of contributions from the floor including from two men who said men entered their land without permission that very morning in the Clarina area.

"There were five of them. They had lurchers with them. They went through a field with in-calf heifers. The whole place is terrorised with them,” said the farmer.

A second man stood up and said he too had had the same unwanted visitors on his farm in Clarina that Tuesday morning. He claimed they were from Tipperary Town.

"There is a hell of a lot of land between Tipperary Town and Clarina. They are only casing places to see what they could knock off. This needs to be stopped and stopped now. The gardai were called and in fairness to the guards they came on," said the farmer.

Limerick Live contacted gardai in relation to the incident. A spokesperson said gardaí responded to a report of a group of males hunting on land without the landowner’s permission in the Clarina area at approximately 11.45am on Tuesday, October 25. 

"The group was conveyed from the area and no arrests were made," said the garda spokesperson.

See next week’s Limerick Leader for full coverage of the meeting which lasted well over two and a half hours