LIVE: Tipperary farmers and residents attend protest at farm acquired by Coolmore

More than 70 protesters attended a Hedgerows Ireland demonstration at Parkville farm outside Clonmel on Thursday evening.

The demonstration related to  Parkville farm, a 65 acre family holding sold to Coolmore in March of this year for in excess of €38,000  per acre. 

The crowd was composed of a mixture of local residents who are opposed to Coolmore's application to Tipperary County Council to demolish a farm complex on the Parkville farm and Tipperary farmers who are frustrated in their attempts to compete for the purchase of such properties.

The protest was also to demand that Coolmore immediately cease their practice of removing all trees, hedgerows and other landscape features from land they acquire for their tillage operation. The hedgerows and trees in Parkville are 200 years old and a biodiversity haven for owls and other birds and mammals including badgers.

Alan Moore spoke on behalf of Hedgerows Ireland, John Hurley the dairy farmer and Daniel Long, also a local dairy farmer and journalist , spoke passionately about the need for a State intervention to curb rampant land acquisition.