Ireland’s Urban Horses

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ireland’s housing estates continue to ring to the sound of horses with patches of grass used for grazing and garages as stables. Horses used to be an integral part of cities across Europe until the middle of the 20th century. But in Ireland, no matter how hard the authorities have tried to dissuade residents from keeping horses, the tradition survives. Although horses have long been associated with the travelling community, Irish people from all backgrounds have a passion for owning them. For those on lower incomes, that’s often in housing estates and even in city centres. Some horses can be bought for the price of a packet of cigarettes and although there are supposedly strict ownership rules, these are routinely flouted. The authorities are caught between trying to protect animal welfare and respecting a key part of Irish culture. For Assignment, Katie Flannery travels to Limerick and Dublin to hear about urban horses there. Produced by Bob Howard. (Photo by Bob Howard)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Namulanta combo here and I'm excited to tell you that my award-winning podcast,
0:06.4	Dear Dota, is back for his second season and it's available now.
0:11.5	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:14.7	Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC.
0:18.2	Join me, Katie Flannery, as I take you on a journey across Ireland from Limerick to Dublin
0:23.7	to tell you the story of why people in urban areas are so besotted with keeping horses.
0:29.5	I'm in the middle of the Moirass housing estate in Limerick, the third largest city in
0:37.7	the Republic of Ireland located on the west coast along the River Shannon.
0:43.0	Moirass has many families on low incomes and they can struggle to find work.
0:48.7	One thing though, above all, gives young people here a sense of purpose and joy.
0:53.5	That's owning a horse.
0:55.5	My uncle got me into horses, then my dad, you know, my late-package, working with horses.
1:01.3	Luke Cantolin is 23 years old and has grown up in Moirass.
1:05.4	He's dressed in khaki and wearing shades alongside a black beanie hat.
1:10.6	Just about every patch of grass in the estate has a horse grazing on it and the lock-up
1:15.2	garages where you would probably expect to find a car are actually made into makeshift
1:20.0	stables.
1:21.9	And whereas in many cities in Europe we're working class people no longer own horses
1:26.4	in an urban setting, here in Ireland it's still commonplace.
1:30.8	Luke says horses keep him grounded.
1:34.0	I had a child when I was 16, 16, I left school and I just stuck with horses ever since.
1:39.0	To be honest, there's not our own here for us, not a thing, so I'll be having these
	...

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