A QUARTET of trumpeting whooper swans flying north west over my local brae last week signalled that spring is finally stirring. These birds, having wintered on Irish loughs, shores and flooded fields, now drawn to their summer breeding grounds of Iceland, will be joined by others before they journey out above the North Atlantic Ocean, leaving Ireland to the embrace of spring.
Our emergence from winter also presents the spectacle of ‘mad March hares’ when female hares are seen to spar and repel over-zealous males in frantic boxing matches, trials of strength for potential suitors.
Ireland is home to two species of hare. The Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) introduced here in the 19th century is confined mostly to northern counties. Its Irish name, giorria (hare) gallda (foreign) acknowledges its addition to our fauna. It was often known here as the English hare or ‘thrush’ hare, the latter a reference to its speckled coat.
The native Mountain or Irish Hare, (Lepus timidus hibernicus) is one of Ireland’s oldest mammals, with bones of the animal found in Co Waterford dated at more than 28 000 years old. Irish mountain hares are sufficiently distinct from those in Britain and Europe, (by not having a white winter coat), to be regarded as a subspecies of the mountain hare with its full scientific name having the extra word ‘hibernicus’ to reflect this.
The mountain hare is found in all Irish counties. Its reddish-brown summer coat turns to grey-brown in winter. The tail of the mountain hare is much paler than that of the brown hare, a feature which helps distinguish the two species in the field. Their diet depends on habitat, with upland hares feeding on heather, sedges and willow and those on lowland pastures feeding on grasses, herbs and dandelions.
In cultures throughout the world, from America to the Far East, Africa to Europe, the hare is embedded in the folk myths of our ancestors. It is associated with the moon, the dawn, fertility, death, resurrection and fire.
In Celtic Britain and Ireland the hare was sacred. Boudicca, the British Celtic warrior queen, was said to have prayed to a hare goddess before going in to battle with the Romans and before planning which route her army should take, she released a hare from beneath her gown to show her which way to go.
There is also evidence of hares in ritual burial pits in Suffolk and Colchester. Eostre was the Celtic version of the Anglo-Saxon hare goddess Ostara who later gave her name to the festival of Easter and who was associated with resurrection during the turning of winter to spring. She was a ‘shape-shifter’ taking the form of a hare at each full moon. All hares were sacred to her and acted as messengers.
Hares were always respected in Ireland. Their meat was only eaten at the May festival of Bealtaine. In places a hare crossing the path was unlucky although the mammal was also linked to many folk cures with the hare’s foot carried as a charm and a way of preventing rheumatism. A tuft of fur from a hare was used to staunch bleeding and evil spirits were kept away from newborn babies whose faces were brushed with a hare’s foot.
As Christianity took hold across Europe, hares, viewed suspiciously as witches in animal form, were replaced by the rabbit, a less controversial symbol for Easter.
So, when you next see the bright eye of a hare, remember it carries with it millennia of mythology, folklore and tradition still celebrated across the world.
