EDITOR - As someone whose family has lived and worked on farmland in Ballinhassig for over five generations, with our farm still thriving today, I wholeheartedly support the development of the Cork to Kinsale Greenway.

This project offers a unique opportunity to celebrate our landscape, connect communities, and create a lasting legacy of sustainable recreation and tourism. Our farm has weathered generations of change, and we believe the Greenway can be part of a positive future, one that respects the land while opening it up in thoughtful, inclusive ways.

However, it is deeply concerning that so many unsubstantiated claims have dominated public discourse around this initiative. Misinformation and fearmongering have too often drowned out reasoned voices. Those of us who support the Greenway have, at times, faced hostility and even threats simply for expressing our views at consultations and meetings. That is not the kind of community dialogue we should be fostering. I myself have been a victim of said threats for speaking positively when I too have land along the proposed corridors.

Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of visiting several Greenways across Ireland and witnessing firsthand the positive impact they’ve had, both locally and beyond. I have spoken to landowners and homeowners that were once part of the movement against the Greenways in their own areas. Many of these projects faced similar backlash during their planning stages, yet the concerns were ultimately proven unfounded and are now welcomed with open arms.

We must ensure that all perspectives are heard respectfully and that decisions are guided by facts, not fear. The Greenway has the potential to enrich rural life, support local businesses, and provide safe, scenic routes for families, cyclists, and walkers, all while coexisting with active farming. It also offers a vital connection to nature for those who may not otherwise have access.

Ultimately, nobody is going to lose their home and there are far more benefits to be gained than lost.

It would be encouraging for the Southern Star to be brave and challenge some of the claims being made by those against the project and ultimately write about some of the positives, without giving column inches to nothing but doom and gloom.

Conn Murphy

Ballinhassig

The Waterford Greenway, one of Munster’s most successful connectivity projects.

Where is Hornet Man when we need him?

EDITOR - An Asian hornet buzzing has prompted the Minister for Nature, Christopher O’ Sullivan, to don the superhero suit, of ‘Hornet Man’, to confront this invasive species.

Task force established, finance and resources put in place, and wellingtons on the ground. A Minister-driven prompt response to a viable threat to our native honeybee. As Hornet Man throws a haymaker punch to the Asian hornet perhaps, he might swoop over two other invaders threatening Irish wildlife.

Fox hunting with hounds and hare coursing are two invasive species imported from the UK. In 1753 on an estate in North Leicestershire, England, Hugo Meynell developed an organised method of breeding hunting dogs for speed and stamina aligned with scenting ability.  This created the activity of fox hunting with hounds.

As the foxhunting become the sport of the UK wealthy, it was not long before it made its way to the waiting Irish landed gentry. Its establishment in the Irish countryside lead to the Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association being set up in 1845.

Present day Ireland sees the countryside infested with fox hunting packs, torturing and killing foxes while causing disruption to rural living and working.

In 1590, live hare coursing was birthed when The Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, draws up the first code of laws, Laws of the Leash, for public open coursing in England. 1776 saw the setting up of the first open coursing club in Swaffham, Norfolk. In 1876, the first enclosed hare coursing meeting was run at Plumpton Park, England.

This version of coursing lasted up to 1914 when the last UK enclosed coursing meeting was held near Cardiff.  Open live hare coursing was banned in the UK from February 2005.

In the 1880s, organised hare coursing came to Ireland. In 1916, the Irish Coursing Club was established. Since then, the ICC has regulated the legal abuse and killing of the Irish hare-a species unique to Ireland.

Hare coursing represents an ongoing threat to the hare population while providing a distressing visual of two greyhounds being set upon an animal in an enclosed space, and betting on the outcome.

The original Hornet Man was a robotic caretaker of flowers.

Our current Ministerial incarnation should fly to the rescue and remove these two UK blown invasive species from the Irish countryside.

John Tierney

Association of Hunt Saboteurs

Presidents from the past, while we wait for the next

EDITOR - The campaign to elect the next President of Ireland is not fully up and running yet. While we wait, I like to look at some presidents and visitors to Áras an Uachtarain like General Montgomery of WWII fame, keen to meet President De Valera.

Eamon de Valera was elected for two terms as president, first in 1959 and again aged 84 in 1966. He was involved in the1916 Rising, War of Independence, Civil War, he was Taoiseach during WWII and attended the funerals of President John F.  Kennedy in 1963 and of those shot dead on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.

Erskine Childers succeeded him in the 1973 election, but died in 1974. He was a minister in Fianna Fáil governments. His father was in the War of Independence and executed during the Civil War.

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in 1974; unelected. He was a judge on the European Court of Justice. He believed he and the office of the president was so publicly disrespected by the coalition government, because he had legal concerns about a security Bill they wanted him to sign into law. He had referred it to the Supreme Court to check its constitutionality, and he did sign it into law. He resigned, however, as a form of protest in 1976 after almost two years in office. He was a dignified man with a love of the Irish language, and a cultured president who gave a history and architectural tour of Áras an Uachtarain to RTÉ in 1976.

Mary Robinson, our first woman president, was elected in 1990 and is still in public life. She visited Egypt’s border with Gaza last month to hear of problems in getting food aid into war-torn Gaza.

The current president, Michael D. Higgins, also speaks strongly on human rights and the suffering of the ongoing war in Gaza. He has criticised the EU for not responding adequately to the Gaza crisis. He may be remembered as our foremost humanitarian president.

Mary Sullivan,

Cork