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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

NOVEMBER 2005

Rescued donkeys bring peace to bloodsoaked ancient battlefields

LISCARROLL, County Cork––In time the Donkey Sanctuary of Ireland may be remembered as the most significant institution in the history of the blood-soaked rolling hills of Liscarroll.


The 350 donkeys peacefully grazing at the impeccably tidy 30-acre visitor center and the equally well-managed 70-acre donkey retirement farm together form a living monument to a globally influential turning point in animal/human relations.


Donkeys are known to have lived at Knockardbane, the farm that became the visitor center, since 1926, when Donkey Sanctuary manager Paddy Barrett’s grandfather retired from a career as a police officer, and took up grazing livestock instead.


But in all likelihood donkeys have inhabited the site for almost as long as donkeys have been in Ireland.

ARAN founder John Carmody at the Donkey Sanctuary (Kim Bartlett)

At the highest point on Knockard-bane, as far from the office as visitors can walk within the fenced trails, a circle of half-buried white-painted stones highlight the earthworks that are the remaining traces of Cearbhall’s Fort, a now little remembered landmark in both Irish and equine history.


This is where Cearbhall MacDún-lainge, Lord of Osraighe, built the fortified cavalry stable for which he became known to his enemies as “Cearbhall MacDunghill.”


He was not called that to his face. Cearbhall was first recorded in history when he fought off an attack by Vikings who invaded overland from Dublin in 845. Alternately a foe and an ally of the Vikings, thwarting frequent attacks by both sea and land, between raids on rival regional warlords, Cearbhall for the next 43 years proved exceptionally adept at survival, if never quite strong enough to convert victories into conquest.


Cearbhall was most nearly defeated in 868. His longtime arch-foes from Leinster cornered him at Cearbhall’s Fort. Charging up the steep hill hellbent on effecting his quick demise, they reached the summit winded. A cavalry charge repelled and slaughtered them.

The name “Cearbhall” over time metamorphized into a description of his prized “skewbald” horses. While the term evolved on into “piebald” during the 19th century. “skewbald” became “Stewball,” the name of a wine-drinking horse kept by Sir Arthur Marvel. Stewball circa 1790 was entered into a match race in Kildare against Miss Portly, a gray mare of comparably dubious habits kept by Sir Ralph Gore.


Miss Portly took an early lead but stumbled and fell. Stewball, the winner, was remembered in a ballad first published in 1829, made famous in mid-20th century versions by The Weavers, Lonnie Donnegan, Joan Baez, and Peter Paul & Mary.


The remains of Cearbhall’s Fort overlook the ruins of Liscarroll Castle, among the largest Norman edifices in Ireland, believed to have been built by David Og de Barry circa 1280.


Garrett Barry, possibly a distant descendant of Og de Barry, in 1642 captured Limerick with an Irish rebel army of 1,500. Rallying the countryside, Barry had 6,000 men behind him, including 500 horsemen commanded by one Oliver Stephenson, when he stormed Liscarroll Castle in mid-July.


The victory lasted just two weeks.


Murrough O’Brien, Earl of Inchi-quinn, marched from Cork to take Liscarroll back. Stephenson captured Inchiquinn in an ill-timed charge, but Inchiquinn’s brother shot Stephenson dead through the eye-piece of his helmet. As Stephenson’s cavalry fell back, O’Brien counter-charged, killing more than 700 rebel riders and foot soldiers, capturing 50 rebel officers alive. All were hanged the next morning, effectively ending any threat the revolt posed to English rule.


Though there are plaques at the Donkey Sanctuary identifying the fortifications, more signage describes the ancient lime kiln just behind the office, used for centuries to make mortar for brickwork.


The Barrett family commitment to making peace rather than war turned from agriculture to humane work in 1964, when Paddy Barrett’s father took a job as field inspector for the Irish SPCA. From time to time during the next 17 years he occasionally impounded abused animals, especially donkeys, who at the time were still heavily used in Ireland for farm labor and rural transport. Having nowhere else to take them, he brought them home.


This was the beginning of the Barrett Animal Sanctuary. Succeeding his father with the Irish SPCA, Paddy Barrett formally incorporated the sanctuary in 1982, left the Irish SPCA to manage the sanctuary fulltime in 1987, and a year later formally affiliated with the Donkey Sanctuary of the United Kingdom, founded in 1969 by Elisabeth Svensden.


To hear Paddy Barrett, he and his family knew nothing about donkeys before Svensden became involved, and not much about anything else; but Paddy is an Irish story-teller. The official Donkey Sanctuary version is that Svensden began helping to fund site improvements because she was favorably impressed with how much the Barrett family was doing for donkeys with so little by way of public support.

Paddy Barrett, manager of the Donkey Sanctuary of Ireland (Kim Bartlett)

Renamed the Donkey Sanctuary of Ireland, the project eventually expanded to Hannigan’s Farm, on another hilltop on the far side of the main road to Liscarroll. Today incoming donkeys go first to Hannigan’s Farm, for examination, any necessary veterinary treatement, and quarantine and extended care, if appropriate.


Many donkeys stay at Hannigan’s Farm for the remainder of their lives, but those who are the best prospects for adoption or demonstrate the most interest in human companionship are taken to Knockardbane.


Adopted donkeys are in effect on loan. The Donkey Sanctuary retains legal title to them, and may recall them at any time if visits by the Donkey Sanctuary inspectors find any sign of mistreatment.


The Donkey Sanctuary outreach to Ireland yielded such encouraging results that Svendsen followed up by introducing field clinics to help donkeys in Mexico in 1984, conducted since 1991 with help from the International League for the Protection of Horses. The Donkey Sanctuary also started donkey clinics in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1986, adding mobile units in 1994, and built a complete donkey hospital in 1999 at the Addis Ababa University veterinary school.


Svendsen opened the Lamu Donkey Sanctuary on an island off the coast of Kenya in 1987. Since 1994 Donkey Sanctuary has also funded a donkey hospital and harness workshop at the Kenya SPCA in Nairobi.


Donkey Sanctuary affiliates in Gurgaon, Bhatti, and Ahmedabad, India, debuted in 1998, 2003, and 2004.
El Refugio del Burrito, a Donkey Sanctuary affiliate in Spain, opened in 2003.


[Contact the Donkey Sanctuary of Ireland c/o Liscarroll, Mallow, Co. Cork; telephone 353-22-48398; fax 353-22-48489; <donkey@-indigo.ie>; <www.thedonkeysanctuary.ie>. Contact the Donkey Sanctuary U.K. c/o Sidmouth, Devon, EX10 0NU; telephone 44-01395-578222; fax 01395 579266; <thedonkeysanctuary@compuserve.com>; <www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk>.]

Carmody caught with clothes on

CAREW––Animal Rights Action Network campaigns coordinator John Carmody, 23, may be the most often exposed activist in Ireland, but ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett did manage to photograph him––twice––with all his clothes on.


A more typical portrayal would show Carmody hunched over his laptop computer wherever he can connect, e-mailing the effervescently upbeat ARAN newsletter around the world, coordinating countless events and demonstrations on behalf of half a dozen international advocacy groups, and answering his cell telephone every five minutes.


Effectively a fulltime animal rights activist since age 16, Carmody takes clerical and sales jobs when he must to make ends meet. The laptop is ARAN’s only “office,” other than Carmody’s bedroom, at his parents’ home in Carew, a Limerick suburb where goats and horses graze in green strips, and where, he insists, some neighbors at times drag horses indoors.


A work ethic, frugality, and emotional intensity that has Carmody frequently bursting into tears in response to either animal or human suffering better characterize him than occasional nude demonstrations.


Yet the photos most often posted on web sites, tending to be best remembered, show Carmody leading nude demos against the fur trade and Australian live sheep exports, and as a two-time participant in the PETA-sponsored “Running of the Nudes” protest against bullfighting in Pamplona, Spain.


“ARAN continues to grow on a monthly basis,” Carmody proclaims. “We are now working with more activists, more members of the public, more groups here in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and around the world, along with maintaining the strong presence we continue to hold in the media. What is so encouraging,” Carmody continues, “is that people are becoming more aware of cruelty to animals, and if they have the free time, they are wanting to do anything they possibly can to stand up against the industries that continue to exploit animals.


“We are making progress here in Ireland,” Carmody insists, “and thanks to everyone who continues to help our work for animals, along with other groups across the country and around the world that are working just as hard to fight animal abuse, we are a family and we need to stay strong and committed to each other in order to win for the animals we all so dearly love.”

[Contact ARAN c/o P.O. Box 722, Kildare, Ireland; telephone 353-87-62-75579; e-mail <arancampaigns@eircom.net>.]