Foot-and-mouth disease ‘came to Ireland from England’

T.W. Russell accuses some Irish farmers of ‘reprehensible conduct’

Irish cattle dealers and farmers have claimed that the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that has destroyed the cattle export business in the first half of the year ‘came to Ireland from England’. The claims were made at a meeting of the Council of Agriculture in Dublin.

T.W. Russell, M.P. told the gathering at the Agricultural College in Glasnevin that the re-appearance of the disease in Sussex and Hertfordshire in England before Christmas preceded its discovery in Ireland. This, he said, was also what had happened on previous occasions.

Mr. Russell said that Ireland was free from disease at the time of the outbreaks in England and remained so for a month until foot-and-mouth was detected at various Irish locations, including Kildare and Cork. He called for the establishment of an official government inquiry into the origins of the recent outbreak.

Professor Mary Daly of UCD discusses the impact of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in early 1914 on the Irish economy

Mr. Russell also condemned the actions of some Irish farmers who attempted to conceal the fact that they had purchased calves in areas that were known to have been infected. He said he believed that the farmers were not trying to conceal the existence of foot-and-mouth in their calves, but rather believed that they were disease-free and wished to be free to keep them without restrictions.

This, he said, was ‘reprehensible conduct’ which had led to the development of foot-and-mouth in areas that would otherwise have remained clear. It also led to a failure to eradicate the disease in a timely manner.

Mr. Russell concluded: ‘It would be impossible to estimate how greatly the country has suffered in money and in character from this lack of a sense of public obligation on the part of a few individuals who, in a selfish and short-sighted attempt to conserve what they considered to be their own interests, sacrificed those of their neighbours and of the Irish livestock trade as a whole.’

The current outbreak of foot-and-mouth has now been curtailed to north County Cork, having been eradicated in Dublin, Kildare and Tipperary.