May I suggest that any time anybody sees a piece of writing that begins "A recent study claims" or "New research shows" that they analyse the piece carefully for two things.

Firstly, try to work out who is trying to sell something to us. Secondly, if that is not clear, try to guess exactly which of the named scientists are desperately scrabbling for a new grant or funding of some sort to keep them in their life of well-paid sloth.

Virtually all the "science" I have seen reported recently is simply misleading or pointless PR for one of those two objectives.

We would all be much better off if the "scientists" involved got a productive job and left the money for something more beneficial to the world.

It's time to ban this bloodsport

Philip Donnelly's opinions expressed in his letter titled 'Hunting is a sport to be preserved' on September 12 are seriously questionable. How can he possibly suggest that because greyhounds are muzzled during coursing, the hares are not in any danger?

The reality is that hares suffer appalling injuries on the coursing fields. Some are so severely mauled that they die or need to be put down.

He argues that hunting is something "mankind has engaged in for thousands of years" and thus should continue. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see the absurdity of this argument. If society were still to engage in every practice it had, we would still promote such practices as child labour and slavery. We did not become a progressive and civilised society by living in the past.

Furthering his argument for the continuation of hare coursing he said that "hare coursing is a field sport that sees hound and hare compete in the way nature intended". The word 'sport' implies a match between equals, however in hare coursing the odds are stacked against the hare from the beginning.

Firstly, there are two dogs and only one hare and the hare is very rarely a match against the speed, strength and agility of the greyhound.

The Irish hare is declining in numbers and I am disappointed at the news that Minister John Gormley has issued another licence to the Irish Coursing Club.

For the sake of animal welfare let's hope Mr Gormley sees sense with regard to the licensing of the Ward Union so that this will be the first bloodsport to be banned in Ireland.

Gormley's hare-raising hypocrisy

How ironic that a Government department entrusted to safeguard the welfare of the Irish hare species has given the go-ahead to yet another season of coursing.

The licence issued allows the forceful removal from the Irish countryside of thousands of hares. It's a cold-hearted netting assault that marks the beginning of a long ordeal for this most timid of our native creatures.

"It is impossible to completely avoid stress in hares once you manhandle them and take them out of their natural environment," a vet attached to the Irish Coursing Club is on record as admitting. "Stress can come in many shapes and forms and as long as you have the hare in captivity, he is prone to it -- resulting in his disability and even death at times. I believe a lot of damage can be done to hares by rough handling and netting."

The Department of the Environment's licence not only steamrolls over this, but also over the sickening evidence of hare suffering recorded by its own National Parks and Wildlife Service division.

Wildlife rangers have been logging the horrors of coursing for years and copies of their reports, obtained by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, explicitly convey the cruelty.

It is this succession of abuses that underlines why a majority want the Government to reconsider its facilitation of coursing. We ask them to continue calling on Minister John Gormley (minister@environ.ie) to spare the hare the cruelty of coursing and end this despicable blood sport.

I'm still an atheist . . . thank God!

A Leavy (Letters, Sept 12) is totally incorrect in the assertion that atheists have faith in the same way as believers.

Religious faith is a belief in something despite the evidence.

Atheists choose to believe in what can be proven by empirical evidence.

Saying atheists have faith is akin to saying that bald is a hair colour.

As for the question: "Who lit the fuse for the big bang?", as posed by your contributor, science has yet to answer, but it is well on the road to an answer using astronomy, logic and critical thinking -- unlike religion, which may never answer the question of who created the alleged creator.

Second partition of our nation

The recent and ongoing industrial debacle at Shannon airport highlights what the majority of the Irish people have been quite content to ignore for over 85 years. That is, the continuing partition of this country.

The situation now facing Shannon, and the consequent effects on businesses throughout the mid-west region, is a direct result of the partition of Ireland; it is a result of the border that, though physically almost removed from Ireland, still allows the British and 26-county governments a free hand in the manipulation of both economies as they see fit, for their own profit.

Where else on earth would one be able to find, on an island of only 200 by 300 miles, populated by a mere five million people, two separate and distinct economies, both being played off against each other for the benefit of the pocket-books of those who keep the partition-for-profit game going strong? Nowhere, surely, but occupied Ireland.

We must ask ourselves -- how would Aer Lingus be able to remain in Ireland, yet still move their business to an area of this country where they could legally pay their employees less and manipulate a cheaper workforce?

If it were a case of Ireland being a unified country, under a single economy, they would naturally not be able to commit such industrial gerrymandering. The situation in Shannon should also serve to bring home to those who are content to ignore partition one basic fact: it CAN and WILL have a detrimental effect on everyone on this island, with one exception -- the wealthy class, for whom it means only profit.

Let's stop ruining our heritage sites

I visited the Hill of Tara, and surrounding heritage-rich area recently.

The ancient Bronze Age hill fort of Rath Lugh, just across the Gabhra valley from Tara, is itself an imposing structure and lies directly in the path of the proposed motorway. Already this hill has been partly damaged by the diggers.

Rath Lugh fort itself is over 100 yards across and sits amongst other smaller forts on a glacial esker rising around 100ft above the valley floor. It is covered in broadleaf trees -- a rare-enough aspect of the landscape and environment. (see www.tarapixie.net)

Incredibly the motorway route has been aligned directly across the western side of this ancient and clearly important archaeological site -- and, as many are now aware through media coverage, continues onwards to completely obliterate the Lismullen fort with its wood henge -- another site of great archaeological and historical value.

Even a child, if asked to mark out a road through this valley, would have curved it around these hills -- not our government bureaucrats who obviously drew the route on a map in an office in Dublin without the slightest regard for heritage, environment or even basic common sense.

With our new ever-so-slightly Greenish Government supposedly encouraging sustainable development, the obvious requirement is for a reappraisal of the options for helping people travel more quickly and efficiently between places north and south of the Tara-Skryne valley.

If roads must be improved for the ever-increasing numbers of cars, then we ought at least to plan them sensibly.