400 sign petition to stop bullfighting coming to Kilkenny on back of spoof article
By COLIN BARTLEY
MORE than 300 people have signed a petition asking President Michael D. Higgins and Kilkenny manager Brian Cody to block the construction of a Bullfighting Ring in Kilkenny.
The online petition has been created on the campaign website www.change.org asking people to ‘Stop Ireland from Bringing the Cruel Bullfight to Kilkenny, Ireland!’
The idea was proposed in the satirical website www.meanwhileinireland.com earlier this week and claimed the arena would be built beside ‘Nolan (Nowlan) Park’ as a joint project between Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny GAA. It would be used to teach Kilkenny hurlers the art of bullfighting as part of their training schedule.
Quoting the invented Mayor of Kilkenny, Tommy O’Shea – also named on the petition, the article made a veiled dig at Kilkenny hurling.
“The great traditions of tenaciousness are obvious in our county’s hurling teams.
“Although we seem to have lost that ‘killer instinct’ over the last few years, what better way to get it back than to have our senior squad do a bit of bullfighting? It can’t do them any harm.”
The article even jokingly quoted Brian Cody, claiming two matadors were being added to the Cats coaching ticket.
The article, penned in the ‘CRAIC’ section of the website starts by saying: “A brand new bullfighting arena is to be opened in Kilkenny,” but it appears some people missed the ‘CRAIC’ and have taken the story at face value.
It led one concerned person launching a petition to voice her fury over the idea. In just three hours, the petition gathered 200 signatures.
The person who set-up the petition was not shy in displaying her abhorrence to the practice while remaining mystified as to why Ireland would want to participate in animal torture.
“When one thinks of Ireland, one thinks of a happy place with friendly people, rolling green hills where cows and bulls roam freely, Irish dancing, and some pub crawling too, but certainly not the torturing of bulls to death in an inescapable ring of jeering fans.
“When we think of magical Ireland, we think of poets and writers, and kind people – not brute savages who torture animals for entertainment purposes!”
