"Eight hares appear on the slope of the field, running as if for their lives, all in single file. Four peel off and vanish round the other side of the slope. Two disappear into the rushes, jumping and boxing and rolling over.
"Surely March is the month for hare-madness? This was the last day of April. Which is the greater wonder? To see hares behaving thus at so late a date or simply to see eight hares in one field at one time? Can it be that the snow of winter held off the normal mating season? Anyway, eight hares, a sight for sore and jaded eyes in Ireland today."
That was the first Time's Eye of all, published on May 10th, 1982 - in this newspaper, of course. Today, from the same vantage point you see - no hares at all. They have vanished from the area. Why? The otters have gone, but it is possible they have just moved up-river or down-river. The fact about hares is that they have been relentlessly hunted down by men with dogs. Hence, for miles around, gates to farmland often carry notices: "No hunting dogs" or "Hunting dogs will be shot."
For long, not a hare to be seen on those slopes mentioned in 1982. Then one was seen and there were reports of a pair of young ones tucked up behind a clump of weeds, as if put into a reasonably safe place by the mother to enjoy the sun. Or so one hears.
But, a couple of weeks ago, two men walking with dogs along the same horizon with which this piece opened. Didn't see them catch or chase anything. James Fairley in An Irish Beast Book, points out that there are two hares in Ireland. "The Irish hare is a sub-species, in other words a distinct race, of the Arctic hare. The second, the brown hare, is found in Ireland in the extreme north-west. The Irish hare is smaller, has a larger head but the most clear-cut features are colouring of the tail and the length of the ears.
The tail of the brown hare is brown on the upper side and the white under-surface cannot be seen. The Irish hare's tail is entirely white and its ears are short and barely reach the nose-tip when stretched towards it. With the brown, the ears would extend beyond the end of the nose.
Fairley remarks that by this criterion the hare on the old threepenny piece was not an Irish hare.
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