Sulky protest to be held on Saturday as Minister 'open' to new legislation

Sarah Slater

A large protest over the use of sulkies on national roads is to take place on Saturday, May 9th.

The peaceful protest has been organised following the death of a horse in a collision in Clonmel, Co Tipperary in March while it was involved in a sulky race.

Last month, sulky racing on the busy N7 near Naas, Co Kildare in busy Friday commuter traffic was filmed, and the incident raised concerns over the practice under road traffic legislation, which strictly prohibits the presence of horses and horse-drawn vehicles on motorways.

Saturday’s march will take place in Clonmel at 3pm from Irishtown to the Plaza area of the town and is being organised by Labour councillor Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan.

Local Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy is calling for a “consistent national framework” governing the use of horse-drawn vehicles on the country’s roads

Party colleague Barry Ward for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has also highlighted the issue and has questioned the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan over the number of prosecutions in the past five years specifically related to sulky racing and related offences.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath is also demanding “urgent action” and a “clampdown” on sulky racing.

Minister O’Callaghan said this week that he is “open to bringing in new legislation” to deal with the issues of sulkies on public roads.

The Minister has outlined in the last number of weeks that ‘in respect of reporting concerns, members of the public can attend a Garda Station to make a complaint about criminality related to sulky racing and provide video footage in support of their complaint. 

“They will be required to make a statement, prove authenticity of the video footage and undertake to attend Court as a witness in the event of Court proceedings.”

In future, it is planned to provide a technical online platform to enable members of the public to submit video evidence. This will require the development of a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) by An Garda Síochána to store, manage and process any footage received.

This system will support the use of an online portal to facilitate the uploading and submission of video footage to gardai by the public. Garda authorities envisage that the portal will be developed this year.

The Munster Party for Animal Welfare, along with My Lovely Horse charities are urging members of the public to attend and end what they are calling the “unsafe and abusive use of horses in road-based sulky activity”.

Currently, sulky racing and related issues are primarily animal welfare-related. Legislation concerning animal welfare and its implementation fall within the remit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Garda authorities have said that there is no structured crime or offence category or arrest reason specific to sulky racing on the PULSE system, based around traffic offences.

The number of such offences brought before the courts in the past year or longer is not recorded, according to garda in a statement.

Deputy Murphy said the death of the horse in Co Tipperary and ongoing sulky racing nationwide “exposesa deeply concerning reality where young individuals were placed in control of powerful animals on public roads, creating a clear danger to themselves, to other road users, and ultimately to the animal itself.”

My Lovely Horse My Lovely Horse charity is calling for a ban on the use of sulkies on public roads.

A charity spokesperson said: “A living animal. sentient, sensitive and easily frightened lost its life in a situation it should never have been in.

“The horse was exposed to fast-moving traffic, noise, and pressure that no animal can reasonably be expected to cope with. When things go wrong in those situations, they go wrong quickly, and the consequences are devastating.”

In a statement, the charity pointed out that the use of sulkies on public roads creates conditions where “control can be lost in an instant, putting horses, drivers, and the public at risk”.

“Despite this, enforcement of existing laws remains inconsistent, and meaningful consequences are rare,” the charity claimed.

The group called for a ban on the use of sulkies on public roads, the establishment and proper resourcing of a dedicated Animal Crime Unit, enforcement of existing animal welfare and road safety laws, prosecutions where breaches occur and increased funding for animal welfare organisations.