It is profoundly wrong to chase a defenceless animal to exhaustion and have it ripped apart by dogs and call that a sport. It is a barbaric and cruel practice that has no place in a modern society. It is a throwback to empire. It is a loathsome practice. Those are not my words. They are the words of backbenchers from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Those words ring true and matter. They should be reflected in votes. Tonight, in an act of indifference or cruelty, it appears those backbenchers will come into this Chamber and cast their votes against restricting fox hunting and for barbarism. It is truly galling to see three parties founded against colonialism supporting a colonial practice such as this. Fox hunting is not just inhumane savagery. It is also one of the last cultural vestiges of that colonialism. Local gentry are cosplaying as British aristocrats in an imported tradition that no Celt, Gael or Brit now engages in. The attempts to justify it as a form of pest control are ludicrous. Imagine the ridicule if Michael O'Leary and Dermot Desmond were to don loincloths and spears and go hunting for deer in the Phoenix Park and then justify it as pest control. It is so outrageous that it would be laughable if it were not the argument of the three big parties today. It is just wrong. It is wrong, wrong, wrong. The Social Democrats know what is wrong and what is right. The barbaric torture of animals is wrong. Upholding cruel colonial practices is wrong. Blood sports for the pleasure of the wealthy are wrong. Fox hunting is wrong and the parties and Deputies who vote against this Bill are wrong, too.

Sentiment score: -0.20