On the vast scale of events pressing on Ireland this coming year, not many of us would consider the size of a Tipperary field of much importance. But a recent court case, which saw a Coolmore linked company plead guilty to offences relating to the destruction of hedgerows, could see it become the template for the ambitions of so many Irish farmers who dream of an unbroken landscape of vast pastures, industrial milking-parlours and stud-fencing.
The field in question is an illegally created 18.8-hectare enclosure at John Magnier’s Coolmore in County Tipperary. Under EU environmental regulations, anyone seeking to remove more than 500 metres of hedgerow, or to create fields larger than five hectares, must notify the Department of Agriculture in advance. That did not occur in this case. The land in question forms part of the wider Coolmore estate, which has, over decades, amassed more than 11,000 acres of farmland, often through the consolidation of smaller holdings.
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