Further to our earlier posts about Limerick Council leader John Sheahan calling for an ‘open season’ on hen harriers (see here, here and here), this is his response:
Reply to “OPEN SEASON “remark
Dear Sirs,
I wish to thank you for writing to me to express your views in relation to an article that appeared recently in the Limerick Leader newspaper.
In the article in question I made reference to “OPEN SEASON” on the hen harrier if certain changes were not made. This remark infers that I advocate that this bird of prey be hunted similar to wild game that is hunted at certain times of the year. This inference was entirely unintended and I apologise for any upset my comment may have caused. I wish to clarify that my comment was meant in the context of my political battle with the Irish Government to seek a proper plan whereby the landowners and particularly, the farmers are not out of pocket by a designation that hamstrings them from earning their livelihood. This, unfortunately, is the case at present.
I refer in my article to a situation whereby I believe all can co-exist. I ask would you seek to be compensated if your Government or local council made changes that devalued your property or adversely affected your ability to make a livelihood. The records show that the overwhelming majority of landowners do not receive any compensation. When the SPA designation was introduced it was done in tandem with a compensation package to accommodate landowners. However, the scheme was axed in the very early stages leaving farmers out of pocket and their livelihoods threatened.
I hope I have provided you with some idea of the level of frustration experienced by landowners in the affected areas. I would ask you, in the best interests of the Hen Harrier, to support me and lobby the Government and the powers that be in Europe for a properly managed and adequately funded plan of conservation so we, all as creatures of this world, can live in harmony.
Yours faithfully,
John Sheahan
Raptor Persecution UK 
This retraction should be printed in the Limerick Leader!
I suspect that a great many “landowners” came into that “ownership” by the good fortune of being born to the previous “owner” of the land. I suspect that their view is that the land is theirs and theirs alone to profit from. There are many others, not only in Limerick, but in the entire world who do not have the opportunity to own land or to anticipate being compensated not being allowed to destroy that gift of nature that dwells upon it. That land will still be there after they have gone (and their children & grandchildren) and the other living entities that call that land their home will still continue to share it (with whomsoever deludes themselves with the concept of ownership of that land) and prosper on it. Unless, that is, some human who believes through some archaic “droit de seigneur” that he can change the purpose of the land (to the detriment of all else) to bring him an income that will preclude him having to work for a living. I suggest that Councillor Sheahan has a little too much respect for the money-grubbing landowners who figure on the state giving them handouts and rather too little to the other creatures that share that same land (since time immemorial) and who have to eke out their own existence unaided. Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not – rather like many landowners………
When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
Being a cynic this is a “desperate damage limitation” statement
Beautifully written. Typical response to a crass statement made by someone in government. One of the first qualifications required by anyone in politics is the ability to wriggle out of a hole.
Absolute tosh! Keep the petition rolling and keep flooding him with emails. Surely, even with this lame response, his positions are untenable.
He still does not get it, the harriers and the SPA are not a burden, they are a fact that has to be accomodated.
An area of moorland that is good for harriers is simply not suitable for forestry. There is no way that you should be compensated from the public purse for not destroying an area of land that is of importance to the nation.
What a stack of horse shit….
So, let me get this right. He’s now saying that Hen Harriers are stopping wealthy landowners from making a livelihood from their land and they should get compensation?
From Cllr Sheahans statement, the obvious problem here was created when the government axed the scheme to support farmers… why has Cllr Sheahan not so vociferously declared his outrage at the scheme not being brought back. It is clearly the obvious solution. It is the government and Dept of Agriculture who have pushed farmers to the brink of economic oblivion in misappropriating funds in the wrongs places, notably subsidies for forestry in SPAs (paid by the tax payer) as opposed to a commitment to young farmers livelihoods and the obligations under European Law. The IFA should set Cllr Sheahan straight and oust him out. Forestry is not the answer for us, but there are many forestry companies pressurising farmers to convert open managed grassland and marginal land to forestry, offering promises of huge payouts, and in turn destroying the land. We need the financial support and incentives that were offered during the designation process to be honoured and the long term security that the rightful designation of these land offers, the fact the majority of landowners do not receive “compensation” is your failing Cllr Sheahan. The Cllr’s legacy as the last ever Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council will be to undermine the livelihoods of farmers for short sighted monetary gain from forestry, an industry that is ruining the areas the Cllr’s party Minister for the Environment Jim Deenihan is entrusted to protect. The statements Cllr Sheahan have made are an embarrassment to our proud farming heritage, an insult to the farming community, and made our European delegation a laughing stock in the corridors of Brussels. A man holding public office and representing us in Europe inciting wide scale criminality calling for the extermination of one of Irelands rarest protected species is contrary to the public interest and he should stand down and hand back the chain of office hanging round his neck to the shamed people of Limerick and Eire.
Good points well made!
Good call, Ernie O’Malley!
This story looks set to continue. We’ve just done an interview for the Sunday Times (Ireland) so there may be a piece in there. Unfortunately, the Times online is subscription only so if anyone happens to buy a copy on Sunday and can scan the article, we’d be pleased to read it. Cheers.
Has the idea ever been floated for our government to pay regular yearly compensation to driven grouse-moor owners for grouse chicks lost to hen harriers on the condition they leave the harriers ALONE ?
Is it naive of me to think of this as maybe part of a solution ? Or has it been raised or tested in the past and buried for some reason or other ?
I’ve a sneaking suspicion the grouse-moor owners would simply take the money and carry on as before with their trapping, shooting and poisoning . . .
It might take a huge campaign to convince the government to begin any such compensation scheme, but when Cameron first came into power he talked about being ‘the greenest government ever’. I rapidly became convinced otherwise, however – and that conviction remains.
You simply can not pay people not to break the law!
I agree.
But i have to wonder about my bias against grouse moors, yes all of them – artificial monocultures is how i see them, especially after visiting Norway – although there may be exceptions that i’m not aware of. To me it is wrong to pay people not to break the law but farmers around White-tailed Eagles get compensation and i don’t have a problem with that.
In my mind the difference apart from my admitted bias is that farmers in general are extremely tolerant of the eagles. They may even be despised but there seems to have been very little persecution so they are not getting paid not to break the law.
But i am sure my logic and bias is not the same as the governments or the RSPB so i am not sure why they compensate farmers but not grouse moor owners. It could simply be a question of rarity. It would probably be prohibitively costly to compensate grouse moor owners especially for the numbers they claim to lose.
It is a tricky ethical dilemma and if someone else has some clarity i would like to hear it.
Isn’t supplementary feeding also a kind of compromise with criminals but to me that is the best solution yet?
By the way i wrote to John Sheahan informing that his letter was just playing both sides of the fence unless it was printed in the Limerick Leader
The farmers are compensated because they claimed (against the research) that the eagles were taking significant numbers of lambs. They moaned long and hard in the Scottish Farmer and lobbied so intensely that the ministers abandoned scientific reason. So they are now getting money for old rope. You will notice that the jealous farmers who ONLY have goldies to contend with are now snorting off in the direction of the public trough.
Grouse however are not domestic livestock -so compensation is not viable (one wild animal is killing another so can I have some money for the stress please?). Its interesting that the poisoners and their employers have never asked for compensation for released birds on low land shoots….probably nervous about the wild bird/domestic livestock debate.
Nice u turn with your reply cllr, your headline has done more harm than you’ll ever know, their are trigger happy people who see that as a sick kind of permission! I suggest reading about the harriers and their importance to the surrounding natural ecology before making such idiotic statements! These creatures should be protected at all cost, or do we see them go the way of the DODO bird.
Unlikely considering on a European scale harriers are under no threat as a species themselves.
So it’s ok to see them extinct here in ireland as long as that are in Europe! So we can have a hugely costly reintroduction programme like the white tailed sea eagles! Come on. Who’s side are you on?
Aw c’mon give the man a break. He’s obviously being controlled by that evil wee leprechaun who’s got him by the hair!
Just goes to show Grouseman how enlightened European land managers are, where they have far more raptors & far more raptor species, unlike so many of the sad & sick who “manage” the land this side of the North Sea.
I’ve just finished a week’s hill walking in the west and Tayside. Only one pair of buzzards seen throughout that whole period – no other raptors at all. Landowners are THE problem – huge swathes of ground burnt for a monoculture of heather and the killing of anything seen as vermin. Norway is a good example of an alternative as they tend to have community ownership as opposed to one entity ‘owning’ the land and abusing their ownership for sporting purposes. Hunting is also very popular in Norway though as on Raasay it’s community owned. Tourists who want to see raptors etc contribute far more than grouse shooters do.
This “apology” seemingly makes no retraction on his earlier statements. If Cllr Sheahan doesn’t get his own way (which seems to be to pay land owners to be law abiding citizens – I wish I were paid to simply not break the law!) does he still think the answer is to call “open season” on the hen harrier? I can’t believe he has the audacity to ask for the support of the general public! Claiming that his previous statements were made out of frustration is no excuse and makes them no less damaging. This man cannot be allowed to continue to represent Ireland in the EU.