Press Clippings

Rovi

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/hunters-turned-poachers-by-licence-error-47547.html

Hunters turned poachers by licence error
21 February 2010 By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent

A mistake in the state’s new firearms licence regime means that tens of thousands of shooters have been turned into poachers.

Almost none of the estimated 200,000 shotgun owners who had been granted permits since the licence was introduced last year was asked to sign a declaration permitting them to hunt wild fowl and other game, the Department of the Environment has confirmed.

The old licence included a declaration under the 1929 Wildlife Acts which gave the gun owner permission to shoot protected species, such as pheasant, duck, wildfowl and other game during hunting seasons. The Department of Justice introduced the new three-year licence to replace the old document.

However, the declaration was accidentally left out of the new document, meaning that thousands of shooters who hunted game while using the new licence did so illegally.

The DOE said officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) advised Justice of the requirement for the declaration to be included on the new licence. Justice was warned about the omission as late as last August by the National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC), which represents shootings clubs nationwide.

The change to the old licence, devised by the Department of Justice, came into operation before the start of the hunting season last year. However, the DOE said that Justice, which confirmed the error, had ‘‘unfortunately’’ left out the endorsement from the new certificate.

‘‘The new firearms certification does not appear to reflect the legal requirements of the existing wildlife and firearms law," the DOE said.

‘‘Consequently, it would appear that hunters who have been issued with new firearms certificates now find themselves in a legal quandary," it said.

Rovi

http://www.thepost.ie/agenda/last-line-of-defence-47447.html

NOTICE: This is a very long article, only part of which deals with the legal use of sporting firearms. That part in emboldened, and the remainder is reduced in size to save screen space.

Last line of defence
21 February 2010 By John Burke

When 90-year-old Winifred Cahill heard a noise in her house, she thought it was her son Seamus returning from working on the family farm. It was 3pmon a bright autumn day at the family’s home in Bree, Co Wexford. She called out: ‘‘Is that you, Seamus?" but did not hear the reply she expected.

A young man called back, in a taunting voice: ‘‘I have your money." He repeated the taunt a number of times to the startled woman.

Cahill’s first concern was that her 67year-old bachelor son had returned and had been hurt confronting the burglar. She followed the sound of the stranger’s voice to an adjoining room, where she saw a shabbily dressed young man sifting through a box containing letters and valuables.

She shouted at the man to get out of her widow with a metal tin containing money. The elderly woman was knocked to the ground, dazed, and the young man escaped through an open window.

Cahill’s case is not unique; indeed, it is typical of the type of burglary which captures public attention. According to Eamon Timmins of Age Action, the lobby group for older people, it is precisely the type of case which has dictated government policy on homeowners’ rights.

‘‘There is less of a news impact when a 30year-old person is burgled than there is when an 80-year-old’s house is broken into, so there’s an obvious emphasis placed in news reporting on attacks against older people," says Timmins, who is head of advocacy and communications with Age Action.

At the same time as Cahill’s break-in last September, the death of 82-year-old Paddy Barry after a suspected burglary was making national headlines. His grandson, the entertainer Keith Barry, told an RTE radio show that his elderly relative had sustained a broken arm during the burglary. A preliminary post mortem later indicated that Paddy Barry was not likely to have been physically attacked, and that his injuries were consistent with a fall.

The reported incidence of burglary in Ireland has risen sharply since early 2007, with both aggravated burglary and theft from a property increasing hugely.

‘‘There is no reliable formal burglary figures which I have ever seen which give a breakdown in terms of who is attacked and when or where," Timmins says.

Nonetheless, the upward trend in burglaries prompted a debate on home security which has led, in part, to controversial new legislation being launched in December. If passed, the legislation will empower homeowners to use lethal force to defend their property.

However, the proposal has been met with disquiet. Mark Kelly, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL),warned the Oireachtas Committee on Justice last month that it would ‘‘up the ante’’ and lead to burglars using greater force.

Under existing law, a householder who is burgled may defend their property, but must show that the use of force was proportionate.

Householders cannot lawfully kill a person solely because they are a burglar. Burglars had the right ‘‘not to be shot dead’’, Kelly said.

But under the controversial draft legislation proposed by the Law Reform Commission, homeowners will be permitted to justify the use of lethal force to prevent someone entering their property or damaging their home.

The draft Criminal Law (Defences) Bill 2009, published by the Law Reform Commission and launched by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern last December, will be enacted early this year.

‘‘The issue of security for older people is a catalyst in this debate but, as far as protecting older people in their homes, the whole issue of providing a law to enable people to use force is a red herring for older people.

They are the least likely to be able to defend themselves with force," Timmins says.

Despite living most of her life with scant regard for security, Cahill has installed CCTV both inside and outside her home; she insists she knows where her son is at all times and struggles to sleep through the night.

Since the attack six months ago, Cahill’s behaviour has changed, says her eldest son Larry, who lives in nearby Enniscorthy. She no longer enjoys spending time in the home where she has lived for more than half a century.

‘‘The house was always open, there was always neighbours calling and always a welcome to people who called," said one neighbour of the Cahills. Larry Cahill says that his mother now ‘‘jumps with fright’’ when anyone calls to the front door.

The robbery at his mother’s house has radically altered Larry Cahill’s attitude to homeowners’ rights. He says it was a subject he gave almost no attention to prior to the robbery last September. He admits that, when gardaí caught the suspected burglar, he felt an immense feeling of anger when he found himself almost face-to-face with the suspect at a Garda station.

‘‘When you think that this may be the person who broke into your mother’s house and hit out at her, it doesn’t take you long to agree that, if you came across someone like this in your own house, you wouldn’t hesitate to use force," he says.

But Cahill questions the benefit of a law that will empower homeowners to use force more decisively. He is convinced that it is the very people who cannot effectively defend themselves who are disproportionately the targets of burglary.

‘‘As far as I see it, around the countryside anyway, it’s older people who stand out as being vulnerable as the targets of these raids," he says.

However, Timmins notes that statistics don’t bear this out. In fact, older people are generally less likely to be the victims of crime. CSO data suggests that older people are safer when it comes to being the victim of violent crime. In fact, the risk of becoming a victim of any sort of crime falls dramatically once people pass their mid 40s.

A person aged between 25 and 44 has a one in 20 chance of being a victim of crime. That falls to one in 30 for those aged between 45 and 64.Over-65s have a one in 58 chance of being a victim of crime.

According to a 2006 Crime Council study, there were 105,700 victims of crime recorded in the state. Of these, 41,200 victims were aged 18 to 24,while 8,300 victims were aged 65 or older.

‘‘The issue of whether or not someone has the right to use reasonable force is irrelevant largely speaking for older people as they do not have the means to use such force. What is essential is that the government put its resources into practical measures which can prevent crime and reassure older people about the level of safety they feel in their home," Timmins says.

He lists a series of measures which would make an instant and demonstrable improvement to older people’s security: secure locks; burglar alarms; pendant alarms and enhanced community networks.

Age Action is awaiting a review at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs into a scheme to provide pendant alarms to older people. The alarms, worn around the neck, allow the wearer to make immediate contact with a base if they fall or have a sudden emergency, including a robbery.

The department temporarily suspended the scheme last year saying that it cost €5 million over 2008 and to the middle of 2009, double the previous annual spend.

Under the grant scheme, every person in the state over the age of 65 was entitled to financial assistance for the pendants, or for improved security to their homes. The scheme also meant that elderly people could avail of the €300 grant for the purchase and installation of the equipment - a significant cost to the senior citizen who also pays a monitoring fee, which works out at approximately €7.50 a month.

‘‘We’re concerned that, at the same time this new law is being tabled, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs is saying it is concerned over the cost of the pendant alarm scheme. As far as we can see, it has cost more because it is popular," Timmins says.

‘‘If society is serious about wanting to protect older people, then the focus must shift to preventing crime and making people feel safe. A pendant alarm is much more valuable to an older person than the legal entitlement to shoot a burglar," Timmins says.

An elderly neighbour of Winifred Cahill’s, John Doyle, had his house ransacked and burgled on the same day as Cahill.

‘‘They were being watched. That’s the only sensible conclusion. What are the chances that someone happened to pick John’s house when he wasn’t there, and also picked my mother’s house when Seamus was out in the fields?" Larry Cahill says.

‘‘There’s no firearm in the house. I think my mam would be afraid that. if there were one, it would be used against Seamus if he interrupted someone after they broke into the house. Lots of people who might otherwise keep a gun would have the same fear.

‘‘It’s not that the house is isolated and was a great target because it isn’t. That’s the surprising thing. There are plenty of neighbours’ houses around and there’s plenty of traffic."

After the robbery, Winifred Cahill was reluctant to report the robbery to the guards. When her daughter-in-law noticed a bruise on her hand, she told her what had happened, saying ‘‘let all harm go with it’’.

However, the family subsequently reported the break-in, and the suspect was arrested shortly after. Gardaí are awaiting directions from the DPP on charges.

Winifred Cahill selected the man from an identity parade. That parade involved the elderly woman sitting in a car along with her son while the suspect and five other men - locals from Enniscorthy who agreed to take part in the line-up - were paraded on the kerb beside the vehicle.

The only barrier between the elderly woman and her alleged attacker was the windscreen of a car. In a 2002 submission to the Oireachtas Justice Committee, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) bemoaned the lack of ID parades in Garda stations nationwide.

‘‘Still, Mam identified a fella from the group; she wasn’t put off," Larry Cahill says.

Had one of Winifred Cahill’s sons been out shooting in the fields that day and returned to find a burglar in their home, the prevailing law would have insisted that they show signs of retreating before they attempted to use force to expel the thief.

Some of the most high-profile crimes in the state have involved aggravated burglaries in which victims were left to die or in which homeowners acted with arguably excessive force.

The case of Padraig Nally was arguably one of the most divisive legal cases ever to come before the courts. The Mayo farmer was convicted of killing Traveller John Ward, a 42-year-old father of 11 from the Carrowbrowne halting site, at his home in Funshinaugh Cross, near Claremorris, in October 2004.

Nally was sentenced to six years for manslaughter.

He claimed that Ward planned to rob him and that he had shot him in self-defence.

He was subsequently acquitted after a successful appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal in which he claimed that the trial judge had misdirected the jury by allowing them to consider self-defence only as a partial defence. In its report, the Law Reform Commission noted the decision in the Nally case supported the assertion that killing in order to protect one’s property and dwelling home is lawful in some circumstances.

When he was interviewed by RTE Radio after the draft legislation was published last December, Nally said: ‘‘What about the people that have been killed in their own homes? There’s no talk at all about them."

This was a reference to the Mayoman Eddie Fitzmaurice, who was tied up and killed by a robber in his home in May 1998.

Nobody has ever been convicted of the Fitzmaurice killing, but the focus shifted onto a group of Travellers after seven members of a Traveller family were arrested in relation to the incident at a north Donegal halting site.

It later emerged that a Garda, Detective Sergeant John White, was found guilty by the Morris Tribunal of planting a shotgun at the halting site as part of the investigation into Fitzmaurice’s death. The Travellers were later arrested, but no charges were brought.

White denied any wrongdoing.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court was compelled to seek a direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, on the rights of burglars and the rights of householders who disturb them.

The advice was sought after an appeal was brought by a Waterford man against his conviction for the murder of Richard Forristal, an elderly horse breeder killed during a burglary at Forristal’s studfarm in 2005.

The man carrying out the burglary, Anthony Barnes, appealed on the basis that he was entitled to use self-defence to protect himself against an attack.

Barnes, who was 20a t the time of the killing, from Clonard Park, Ballybeg, Waterford city, was convicted by a jury of murdering the 68-year-old on July 21, 2005 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Barnes had claimed that, when he stabbed Forristal in the chest a number of times, he was defending himself from a knife attack by Forristal, who he said had chased him into a bedroom after interrupting the burglary.

Barnes’s legal team argued that Forristal acted unlawfully and that, instead of getting a knife, he should have contacted the Garda Síochána or should have left his house to get assistance.

Paul O’Higgins SC, for the DPP, submitted that the defence of self-defence could not be relied on by Barnes. He argued that the killing of Mr Forristal could never be lawful because it originated from the burglary and could never in law be an innocent act.

The Court of Criminal Appeal found against Barnes’s claim of self-defence and said that, while Forristal could not have killed him‘‘ simply for being a burglar’’, Barnes was an aggressor and may have reasonably expected to be lawfully met with retaliatory force to drive him off or to immobilise or detain him.

Comparatively, the killing of a householder can never be less than manslaughter by reason of the burglar’s initial aggression, the CCA found.

The legal position in the United States, in terms of homeowners’ rights in the event of a burglary, varies from state to state, but legal protections for both burglars and residents have been affected heavily by the federal-wide issue of gun ownership.

With a constitutional right to bear arms, burglary levels in the US vary broadly from state to state. However, there is no pattern indicating that high levels of firearms ownership result in a decline in burglary, nor is there clear evidence that burglars are more likely to be shot, per capita.

Florida was the first state to adopt, in 2005, a law that was dubbed ‘Stand your ground’ or ‘Shoot first’. It enables a homeowner to shoot if they believe that someone is violating their property.

Irish gun ownership groups have always sought to disassociate themselves from their US counterparts, given that the pro-gun lobby in America has links to self-defence proponents which commentators say do not exist here.

‘‘Irish gun owners do not have any special connection to the legal issues which relate to homeowners’ rights in the event of burglary," says Des Crofton, one of the state’s leading experts on firearms licensing and the national director of the National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC), the biggest shooting association in the country.

Crofton sits on the Firearms Consultative Panel, a body assembled to advise successive ministers for justice on gun licensing. While he has been a reformer in terms of his support for the new licensing regime, he has been a critic of the ill-feeling between senior gardaí and licensed gun owners.

Guns have never been licensed in the state for personal protection. This includes handguns, of which there are 500 of sufficiently high-calibre to qualify as ‘restricted’ under the state’s new gun licensing regime.

These restrictions place a special emphasis on a senior garda considering the applicant’s character and the reason why they claim they need the gun in the first place.

In total, there are more than 200,000 firearms registered in the state. Of these, the vast majority are shotguns. Most are used for hunting and vermin control.

Crofton says the homes of gun owners are relative fortresses compared to typical homes.

Under new guidelines on the regulation of firearms, homeowners who possess firearms for hunting or sports purposes must show proof that they possess a secure, impregnable metal gun-safe on their property in which their firearm is stored.

In addition to this, any household in which there are more than three guns must have a burglar alarm, Crofton says. Any household with more than five guns must have a monitored burglar alarm.

‘‘There has never been any identifiable pattern of burglars targeting gun owners’ houses to get access to guns. There’s no shortage of illegal guns out there for them to get their hands on," Crofton says.

Despite the questions over the need for legislative change, there is no discounting the evidence of a statistical rise in break-ins, both aggravated and non-aggravated.

‘‘There isn’t the data which suggests older people are more at risk of burglary or aggravated burglary than anyone else. But we do know that there are lots of things that can be done to make everyone feel safer in their home," Timmins says.

Rovi

http://www.thepost.ie/news/ireland/fine-gael-promises-to-defend-stag-hunting-47543.html

Fine Gael promises to defend stag hunting

21 February 2010 By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent

Fine Gael has said it will repeal any changes to the licensing of stag hunting made by the government.

Green Party leader and environment minister John Gormley secured agreement with Fianna Fáil to introduce legislation to ban stag hunting under the renewed Programme for Government.

The ban is aimed at putting an end to the Ward Union Hunt in Co Meath, which is the sole remaining stag hunt licensed in the state.

The agreement has caused concern among some rural Fianna Fáil backbenchers.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan wrote to hunting associations in recent days, setting out the party’s commitment to ‘‘oppose any change to existing licensing arrangements for stag hunting’’.

The letter said that the party would ‘‘reverse any changes made by the present government in that regard’’ if it assumed government after the next general election.

A spokesman for the Meath hunt, Liam Cahill, described the written commitment as a ‘‘hugely welcome move’’, but said the Ward Union would be continuing its strategy of resistance to the planned legislative change, which is aimed at amending the law under which stag hunting is licensed.

Cahill said that the hunting community welcomed the ‘‘unequivocal support of Fine Gael’’ while, at the same time, they had received ‘‘nice warm sounds but no action’’ from Fianna Fáil TDs and senators.

The Ward Union Hunt dates from 1854 and is the world’s sole remaining carted stag hunt. The hunt involves the use of a live stag and a limited number of hounds and trained huntsmen at chase.

The hunt’s next outing takes place tomorrow, at Oberstown, Co Meath, and the hunt season runs until midMarch.

Some Fianna Fáil TDs mooted a free vote on the bill when it comes before the Dáil in the spring. Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness has called for a vote on the bill without the party whip, while Wexford TD Sean Connick said he shared McGuinness’s concerns.

However, minister of state Martin Mansergh said the government could not renege on the agreement.

Rovi

http://www.wexfordpeople.ie/news/handguns-are-not-stored-at-the-homes-of-owners-2077587.html

Handguns are not stored at the homes of owners

Wednesday February 24 2010

LAST week this newspaper featured a court report regarding the refusal of Chief Superintendent John Roche to issue firearm certificates to several Wexford target pistol shooters.

Following communications from various target shooting clubs regarding security concerns, we are happy to clarify that the pistols are not stored at the owners' respective homes.

These firearms have been handed in to the authorities. The cases are ongoing before the courts.

Rovi

Very similar to post #152 above, but recorded here for posterity in the interests of completeness.


http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/hunters-in-legal-quandary-over-gun-licence-error-47821.html

Hunters ‘in legal quandary’ over gun licence error
07 March 2010 By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent

The Department of Justice took four months to inform the Department of the Environment about a major error in its new firearms licensing system.

The justice department has already confirmed that it accidentally omitted a declaration on the new licence which permits gun-owners to hunt legally in the state.

The mistake means holders of the new licence who shot protected animals during the recently-closed hunting seasons for wildfowl and other game may have done so illegally.

The error will affect an estimated 200,000 shotgun owners who are expected to cross to the new licence regime this year.

Correspondence seen by The Sunday Business Post shows that the Department of Justice did not contact the Department of the Environment’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) about the error until last December, despite being notified of the mistake as far back as last August.

In a letter dated December 4 last year, a senior official at the justice department argued against informing the NPWS about the ‘‘huge financial and logistical problems’’ which the error was likely to cause.

The error was highlighted months earlier by Des Crofton, a member of the Firearms Consultative Panel, which advises the justice minister on gun policy.

Crofton wrote to the Department of Justice as far back as August 20 last year, advising officials that the licence -which was and still is being rolled out nationally - had a number of flaws.

They included the lack of a declaration giving the holder the legal authority to hunt protected game.

The Department of Justice downplayed the error and told the NPWS that it was ‘‘a paper exercise’’.

According to the Department of the Environment, officials from the NPWS advised the Department of Justice that the declaration had to be included on the new licence.

The change to the new licence came into operation before the start of the hunting season last year. However, the justice department had ‘‘unfortunately’’ left out the endorsement from the new certificate, according to the Department of the Environment.

‘‘The new firearms certification does not appear to reflect the legal requirements of the existing wildlife and firearms law," said a statement from the Department of the Environment.

‘‘It would appear that hunters who have been issued with new firearms certificates now find themselves in a legal quandary."

Rovi

Fox Hunting item.

http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2010/pc/pod-v-080310-08m44s-todaywithpatkenny.mp3

Sparks

From the Sunday Business Post:

Red light for Greens’ move against stag hunt
28 March 2010 BY TOM McGURK

I suspect that some Green Party members, at their conference in Waterford this weekend, have been enjoying a growing sense of satisfaction.

They now have two senior ministers and two juniors in government and, very soon, environment minister John Gormley will attempt to ban Meath’s Ward Union hunt. But I have a feeling that new Green junior minister Mary White - seeing the protest outside the conference by Rural Ireland Says Enough (Rise) - will be fixated by what she’s reading in her tea leaves. She is, of course, the Greens’ only rural TD but, given the equestrian and hunting background of her constituency in Carlow/ Kilkenny, her parliamentary future now looks grim.

A few months ago, a crowd of thousands - led by local Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness - turned up at Gowran Park in Kilkenny at a rally to protect traditional rural sports. They were unimaginably angry and - in a new sight for Irish politics - the wrath of the ‘pony-mums’ was on display.

White knows very well what I mean. The hunting ban and other animal legislation represented the Green leadership’s deal with the party’s lunatic fringe to get them to support Lisbon - and the Ward Union hunt is about to pay the price.

Watching the Greens and others attack the Ward Union hunt on television last week for its alleged cruelty, I was struck by their extraordinary arrogance and moral self-righteousness.

Our own homegrown, suburban Taliban were telling decent rural people - whose DNA has a thousand generations of animal husbandry - that they knew better. There was even one who wanted the hunt banned because ‘‘some of the big property developers are members’’.

Has class politics arrived in Ireland at last? I didn’t know the Greens had a North Korean branch, but are we now to assume that places like the Royal Irish Yacht Club, the Kildare Street Club and the K Club had better watch out?

What is fascinating about the Greens’ position on hunting - and on rural sports in general - is how they have managed to turn the particular into the universal, and then pretend it’s a moral imperative.

To argue about animal cruelty in field sports, and to ignore utterly the overall and compelling context of our free market economy’s wider relationship with the complete spectrum of animal husbandry, is the work of an ideologue, not an idealist. Here is as compelling a brew of muesli and moral relativism as you will find. You’ll look hard to find Francis of Assisi on a bicycle around here.

Perhaps it’s time to have a grownup look at their argument. For a start, all animal husbandry since the beginning of the domestication of animals has involved varying degrees of intrinsic cruelty. Is it not cruel in the first place to capture animals from the wild, imprison and then enslave them - to bend them totally to our purposes? In fact, at the outset we divided the entire animal kingdom in two - those we regarded as useful to us, and the rest which were not useful and which we regarded as pests.

Countless millions of animals and birds have been kept in a state of intrinsic cruelty to supply our food needs. Regarding a few farmers and their hounds chasing a fox or a stag across the countryside as somehow the epitome of cruelty, while ignoring the wider context of how we treat animals, is simply being disingenuous.

Is fox-hunting somehow intrinsically and morally more cruel than a veal calf doomed all its life to live in a cage, or a hen among thousands in the darkened prison of a broiler house, spending its entire life in a space four times its body size? Is it worse than the store bullock (dehorned and post-castration) locked up on slated floors, being deliberately over-fed and doomed never to see daylight?

Every day, millions of animals and birds have their throats cut, their necks broken, are electrocuted to death or drowned. Every day, thousands are hung up on chains by halal butchers, have their throats cut and are allowed to bleed to death. (Come to think of it, when will we see the anti-hunting brigade picketing halal butchers?)

And since fox are only vermin, can we compare hunting them with how we deal with the rest of our vermin? What about the rat we legally poison who will swell for 48 hours and then die an agonising death; the mice smashed to death in traps; or the crows and other birds we legally shoot to ‘‘curb vermin’’, as the Department of Agriculture puts it? Would the Greens prefer we poisoned the foxes or shot them, running the real risk of wounded foxes dying slow, agonising deaths?

Incidentally, on the same television programme, some of the Greens were extolling the virtues of the new hunting legislation in England - a country where, one has to say, moral relativism has finally disappeared up its own hypocritical fundament. How else to explain a society which happily bans foxhunting and legalises abortion up to and including 24 weeks?

The current Green anti-rural campaign is, of course, political suicide. The right of the native Irish to enjoy the ownership and pleasure of the land their ancestors died in the ditches to regain is not something that will be lightly surrendered. The Greens are stirring up feelings that are so deep in the Irish cultural and emotional memory that they may be about to inflict generational damage on Fianna Fáil. Rural Fianna Fáil TDs (much more than the suburban deputies) are discovering how the Greens are threatening their traditional support base.

Already, Meath Fianna Fáil TDs Mary Wallace, Johnny Brady, Thomas Byrne and even minister Noel Dempsey are facing an enormous dilemma over the Ward Union hunt. I suspect that, before this is all over, there will be more than stags jumping the ditches down Navan way. Fianna Fáil’s electoral survival in Meath will be difficult enough - and the Ward Union issue could be the tipping point.

As I understand it, there is a already a group of 14 to18 Fianna Fáil rural TD’s who are actively considering taking a stand on Gormley’s move to ban the hunt. In a country where a government once fell over Vat on children’s shoes, surely the red lights are already flashing? Tally ho!

Sparks

From todays Irish Times:

Cabinet approves contentious Bill to ban stag hunting
MARY MINIHAN

THE CABINET has approved the Bill to ban stag hunting, as some rural Fianna Fáil backbenchers claimed Green leader John Gormley “snubbed” their concerns about proposed dog-breeding and planning legislation.

Mr Gormley’s spokesman said the ban, enshrined in the Wildlife Amendment Bill 2010 which will make hunting deer with a pack of hounds an offence, was “as much on the grounds of public safety as it is on the grounds of animal welfare”.

A meeting between Mr Gormley and members of Fianna Fáil’s environmental policy group, scheduled for yesterday, did not take place and has been rescheduled for noon today.

Fianna Fáil representatives gathered in the party’s rooms in the afternoon hoping to speak to Mr Gormley about the Green-sponsored Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009 and the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009, which have created difficulties within the Coalition.

Some knew beforehand that Mr Gormley would not attend, while others found out when they arrived at the meeting.

Mr Gormley’s spokesman said the Minister wanted two officials to be in attendance, but did not believe it was correct to bring them to the Fianna Fáil party rooms.

Mr Gormley is understood to have offered to meet a small Fianna Fáil delegation in his own office but this offer was refused.

His spokesman said he had set time aside on one of the busiest days of the year, which was dominated by developments relating to the National Asset Management Agency. The rescheduled meeting will take place in a meeting room in Leinster House.

Carlow-Kilkenny TD Bobby Aylward chaired the meeting in the absence of Limerick West TD John Cregan.

His constituency colleagues MJ Nolan and John McGuinness also attended, along with Tipperary North TD Máire Hoctor, Tipperary South deputy Mattie McGrath, Cork North-Central’s Noel O’Flynn, Cork South-West TD Christy O’Sullivan, Brendan Kenneally of Waterford, Laois-Offaly’s Seán Fleming and, briefly, Senator John Carty from Co Mayo. Others sent apologies.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “I’m absolutely disappointed that he didn’t come to meet the parliamentary party grouping . . . he snubbed us in this way.”

Mr McGrath also expressed his disappointment. “We weren’t going to belittle ourselves by going down to him. . . He’s been in before and we treated him civilly.”

The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting is also scheduled for today at 2.30pm. However, Mr McGuinness is thought unlikely to get support for his call for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to step down.

Rovi

http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/deer-explosion-now-grave-worry-2143803.html

Deer explosion now grave worry
A management plan to cut deer numbers is vital, as is public education on the problems they pose

By Joe Barry
Tuesday April 20 2010

There is currently no national deer management policy in Ireland despite the serious damage deers are causing to our woodland. There is also very little cooperation between the various State bodies with responsibility in this area.

This situation has led to a population explosion among deer in the wild and continuing heavy financial losses for many woodland owners. It has also been alleged that in some cases, animals are being bought from deer farms and illegally released into the wild to increase the numbers available for sportsmen to shoot. If this is true then the very people who are in a position to control deer numbers are in fact partially responsible for their increase. This is, of course, perhaps only natural in that all sportsmen, be they hunters, shooters or fishermen, want to conserve and increase the numbers of the species they hunt.

Fishermen are the ones who are the guardians of our water quality, and most angling clubs stock rivers and lakes to ensure sustainable sport for their members. Gun clubs rear pheasants and ducks and conserve habitat to allow their quarry increase in numbers. This is, of course, right and proper. Pheasants, woodcock or fish do not damage the natural environment and provide excellent sport in addition to badly needed income in rural areas through sport tourism.

Deer, however, cause havoc among young forestry plantations by browsing and stripping bark from the trunks of young trees. Natural regeneration cannot occur where deer numbers are high and the cost of fencing them out is prohibitively expensive. Where fencing does occur, it pushes the population into neighbouring woodland and simply passes on the problem. The same can occur where clearfelling takes place and the deer then move on and the problem is passed to the unfortunate owners of adjoining woodland.

In the past some deer farms have closed due to financial losses, and anecdotal evidence suggests that in some cases their remaining stock has been released into the wild. This would, of course, further increase the problem as farmed deer are able to adapt to life in the woods. The public perception of deer tends to be one of shy, attractive creatures frolicking in sunlit clearings in woodland -- Bambi is probably what first springs to mind whenever deer are mentioned.

However, like grey squirrels, deer numbers must be controlled and the public have to first be educated and made aware of the reality of the situation. This can best be achieved by starting with good wildlife education in our schools. The CRISIS (Combined Research and Investigation of Squirrels in Irish Silviculture) group has done a wonderful job in informing the general public of the damage grey squirrels cause to our native reds and to our woods and wildlife habitat.

The same approach is now needed to allow for a coordinated culling of deer and the restoration of a sustainable and manageable population.

Vulnerable

Woodland cover is increasing each year as a result of our afforestation schemes but, with deer populations at unsustainable levels in many areas, something has to give and, unfortunately, it is our stock of young trees that suffers. Broadleaf crops are particularly vulnerable and often young trees are browsed to the point where their leaders are continually nipped and are eventually reduced to valueless scrub.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service are aware of the problem, but have been unable to mount a coordinated campaign to reduce the population of deer to manageable numbers.

At present, most Irish foresters leave university with little or no knowledge of the importance of deer management and, equally, most recreational hunters in Ireland know very little about forest management and have little or no training in this regard.

Shooting of deer in Ireland has not been focused on management and there has been no emphasis on female culling -- an essential part of any programme to reduce their numbers. In continental Europe, deer management is a key part of forest management training but, so far, nothing on those lines has been introduced here.

There are, of course, many responsible and knowledgeable sportsmen who fully understand the needs of the owners whose land they shoot on and also the urgent need to reduce deer numbers. But there are others who simply wish to see deer numbers increase and can act illegally by introducing breeding stock into areas where previously deer numbers were low. At present in Ireland, we have Red deer, Sika, hybrids between Reds and Sika, Fallow deer and the recently introduced Muntjac. The first wild sightings of Muntjac were reported in 2007 in Co Wicklow and since then in various other locations. Muntjac originated in southeast Asia and are very secretive and difficult to spot in woodland. Adults are only 10-15kg in weight and 50cm at shoulder height. They were introduced to Britain around 1900 and released in the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn Abbey. Since then they have appeared in France, Holland and now in Ireland. This breed is currently designated as a pest to Britain farmers and foresters as they feed on vegetation, young trees and coppice.

It has been suggested that their spread in Ireland may be as a result of multiple, deliberate releases and, as they didn't fly here, this seems likely.

Deers have no natural predators and, like so many introduced species such as mink and grey squirrels, their populations will continue to increase unless controlled.

It had been suggested in the past that the wolf be reintroduced to the Irish wilderness. While this might help in controlling deer, it is unlikely that our sheep farmers would welcome any additional predators harassing their flocks.

A further problem is the closure of so many small abattoirs throughout the country and the consequent difficulty of having carcasses butchered and sold. As there is no established quality control system in place to facilitate a domestic market for venison, there is little chance of developing this potentially valuable outlet.

The lack of local slaughtering facilities is something that organic farmers and other small livestock producers constantly complain about and perhaps the Department of Agriculture could re-examine their regulations in regard to this.

A comprehensive review of the current situation regarding deer in Irish woodland has recently been published, and it clearly outlines the huge problems facing woodland owners and the urgent need for deer population control.

The report was commissioned by Woodlands of Ireland and the authors have done a superb job in producing a document that covers, in easy-to-read detail, all aspects relating to the current status of deer in Ireland. The need for a proper system of deer management is repeatedly highlighted, as is the fact that if nothing is done within the next decade, then the damage to the economic and biodiversity values of Irish woodland will reach catastrophic levels.

In attempting to put a figure on the financial cost to woodland owners from deer damage, the authors note a loss of timber values, estimated at €34m, for recently planted broadleaves. Further losses occur in biodiversity, reconstitution costs, potential EU fines for non-compliance with the Habitats Directive and loss of investment through failure to achieve the objectives of the Forest Service grant schemes.

In commercial conifer crops, there is recent data that suggests that, in areas of Ireland that have high deer densities, up to 22pc of the potential revenue of the crop amounting to €3,800/ha may be lost.

The report strongly recommends that an Irish deer management unit be established with adequate statutory powers and budgets to effect the necessary changes. Such a unit could, perhaps, be established within an existing Government department. Many people might disagree with the need for yet another statutory body, but something must be done and, given the urgency and seriousness of the current situation, perhaps this is the best means of finally putting a workable management system in place.

The wrangling and disagreement must end between the various groups with interests in deer management. Hopefully, both sporting and forestry interests can, in future, cooperate with one another for the greater good and finally agree on a strategy that will benefit all.

Copies of the report can be obtained by contacting Woodlands of Ireland at Seismograph House, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin 14 or email woodsofireland@iol.ie. The report will also soon be available to download from www.woodsofireland.com

- Joe Barry
Irish Independent

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http://www.monaghangazette.ie/index.php/news/lead-story/2150-complex-pistol-gun-licence-case-heard-at-monaghan-court

NOTICE: In the interests of best security practice as advocated by An Garda Síochána, all the Irish shooting representative bodies, and in line with Boards.ie/Shooting forum policy, certain details which may identify an individual firearm owner have been removed.

A COUNTY Monaghan man who took a court case to allow him to obtain a firearms certificate for a high-powered competition handgun has failed in the attempt at Monaghan District Court this week writes Joe McCabe. <SNIP> of <SNIP> required the 9mm semi-automatic Beretta pistol for highly competitive pistol shooting and was challenging a decision made by Cavan/ Monaghan Divisional garda boss Chief Superintendent Colm Rooney on 9th November 2009, not to grant him a licence for the weapon.

The court heard that the applicant was a member of the Midland Shooting and Sports Club in Tullamore, Co Offaly. Judge Sean MacBride heard that the defendant has three pistols, a Sig .22 competition pistol, a Taurus .38 Special revolver and the 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol which he has owned since 2005/2005. The court heard that licences for all three weapons had originally been granted by Monaghan gardai after <SNIP> had demonstrated that he had fulfilled all the necessary criteria to hold the weapons.

However, new firearms legislation introduced last year by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern TD has urged senior ranking gardai throughout the country to curtail the number of legally held weapons in garda divisional areas. Chief Superintendent Rooney of the Cavan/ Monaghan division granted <SNIP> licences for his Sig .22 pistol and for his .38 Special revolver. However, he refused the applicant a licence for the 9mm Beretta pistol by letter on 13th January 2010 stating that <SNIP> ‘did not have good and sufficient reason for holding this firearm’ on the basis that the other two pistols in the senior garda officer’s opinion, were adequate for the applicant to engage in his competition shooting.

In the course of a two-hour long detailed and complex case solicitor for the applicant, Mr Paul Madden, Monaghan, told the court that <SNIP> has been involved in competition shooting for many years on both sides of the border in Ireland and previously to this in the United States and Canada.
“The 9mm pistol is the most popular weapon for static targets and by refusing a firearms certificate to my client the chief has rendered the applicant uncompetitive in his chosen sport, Judge, ” said Mr Madden who added: “Nowhere in the legislation does it say that an applicant should be restricted to one or two weapons.” The solicitor then stressed to the court that the 9mm Beretta pistol in question was less powerful that the Taurus .38 Special for which a firearms certificate had been granted to the applicant by the Chief Superintendent.


The applicant, <SNIP>, in evidence from his solicitor said that the 9mm Beretta pistol was used for shooting at paper targets and for falling plates shooting competitions in which speed and ease of reloading were essential in order to be competitive in the quest to knock all twelve plates before those of other competitors.

<SNIP>: “The 9mm pistol is the most popular pistol for static targets and the most used pistol on the range. I’m comfortable with this firearm and the majority use 9mm automatics.” He pointed out that different weapons were more suited to particular shooting disciplines.

Chief Superintendent Rooney, in evidence said that the background to the new legislation was to control the number of firearms issued for dangerous weapons. Several references were made to previous case law at High Court level in the course of Monday’s case at Monaghan District Court. It was stated that the Chief Superintendent of a particular district was entitled to take into consideration the number of firearms in that district.

Chief Supt. Rooney with regard to the case at hand told the court:
“I considered all three applications and decided that the applicant had not good enough reason for all three weapons. I granted the .38 and the .22 pistols but decided there was no requirement for the 9mm as he (<SNIP>) could use the .38 pistol for falling plates competition.”

However, in evidence, <SNIP> said that he would be at a distinct disadvantage in competition if he had to use the revolver as it was far slower to reload. In response to Mr Madden Chief Superintendent Rooney said that he had no issue with the security of the weapons held by <SNIP> and was satisfied that the applicant was of good character.

Under cross examination Chief Superintendent Rooney asked of the applicant <SNIP>: “In your opinion if an applicant took part in ten competitions then should they apply for ten weapons and in your opinion should the applicant be granted these? “Yes,” replied the applicant after some thought. Mr Madden stressed that his client, a vastly experienced sportsman, was not seeking ten firearms certificates. He was seeking three and had demonstrated a genuine need for the third weapon in question. Mr Madden again stressed that this issue was about his client’s suitability to hold the Beretta 9mm pistol.

Chief Supt Rooney then asked the applicant for his views on the legislation. <SNIP> replied: “Different superintendents have different views,” He added that he knew of other pistol shooters in the State that had been granted two and possibly three permits for the Beretta 9mm pistol. Judge Sean Mac Bride then ruled to uphold Chief Superintendent Rooney’s decision of 9th November 2009. “In my view the Chief Superintendent’s decision was a reasonable decision in relation to the Beretta firearm,” he said.

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http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/phoenix-park-defends-cull-as-80-deer-are-shot-2175459.html

Phoenix Park defends cull as 80 deer are shot

By Cormac Byrne
Tuesday May 11 2010



Up to 80 Phoenix Park deer were culled this year and the annual kill looks set to continue into the future.

Snipers are employed each year to control deer numbers in the park and just under 400 deer have been slaughtered on the park since 2004.

The cull occurs annually around February over two days and the carcasses are left to be eaten by carnivorous birds and animals that live in the park.

Fallow deer have been roaming on the 1,760-acre park since the 17th century and their population topped 1,200 during the Second World War.

"The culling is the single interference in the natural order of the park and it is necessary," a spokesperson said previously.

"We follow the strictest health and safety guidelines. The selected animals are shot, which is more environmentally friendly than poison. It is done as swiftly, safely and humanely as possible.

"It is usually necessary to carry out the shooting over two or more days as the deer get spooked when they hear a lot of gunshots. After the deer are culled, they enter the food chain," the spokesperson added.

Ten deer were killed by motorists in the park last year but when the population was 800 it "was common to have over 50 accidents each year".

Damien Hannigan, Director of the Wild Deer Association of Ireland, told the Herald that the cull was regrettable but was needed to control numbers.

"I can understand the feelings of the general public. People think of Bambi and deer really are beautiful creatures and a part of our national heritage but with no natural predators there is no alternative. There are also health issues when populations grow too large," he said.

"Culling is not something anyone does willingly but it is internationally proven as the best method to control deer numbers. To my knowledge the deer population increases by between 25-30pc each year in the wild and this would be even greater in the confines of the park. The level of land in the park can only sustain a certain number of deer.

"The culling takes place at a time when there are not many people in the park and the shooting takes place from a raised platform for safety reasons."

Suggestions made that deer should be neutered or transported elsewhere from the park instead of culling were played down by Mr Hannigan.

"The problem that you have with neutering is that during the breeding period the neutered male deer will be shunned from the herd and dispersed throughout the park," he added.

Meanwhile, thousands of mink that have escaped from fur farms and colonised much of the country, killing trout and endangered birds, are set to be culled.

Three full-time trappers have been engaged by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to catch the mink in riverside traps and kill them before they can cause more damage.

The cost of controlling the 33,000 mink population over the next five years is estimated at €1.06m.

hnews@herald.ie

- Cormac Byrne

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http://www.independent.ie/national-news/mink-the-merciless-face-cull-2174973.html

Mink the merciless face cull
Predators to be hunted down in effort to save rare wildlife

By Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent
Tuesday May 11 2010



A TEAM of trappers is hunting down thousands of pesky American mink that are ravaging trout and endangered birds.

Their orders are to trap the mink and kill them humanely.

They might look cute, but in fact mink are vicious and can wipe out trout stocks as well eating the nest eggs of rare endangered birds such as the corncrake and tern.

More than 33,000 mink which originally escaped from fur farms have colonised much of Ireland, a new report shows.

Three full-time trappers have now been engaged by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to catch the mink in riverside traps and to kill them before they can wipe out rare birds.

The cost of controlling the destructive mink population over the next five years is put at €1.06m.

A report by the NPWS, attached to the Department of the Environment, says the mink have the capacity to do severe damage to tern colonies, corncrake nests and to gull and diver nests.

The report, obtained by the Irish Independent, says the mink will be trapped in live traps set close to the nesting sites of protected birds.

While the captured predators will be humanely killed, any animals accidentally caught in the traps such as pine martens, stoat or hedgehogs, will be released unharmed.

The best way to kill the mink -- as well as foxes, grey crows and other predators -- is to shoot them with .22 low-velocity rifles or airguns.

Full-time trappers will be working on the project, in Donegal, west Mayo and Connemara, and another around Banagher on the Shannon.

These will be backed up by staff and rangers from the wildlife service and contract field workers protecting corncrake sites.

The Shannon trapper has already got rid of 19 mink, 10 foxes and 100 grey crows.

The project is also being backed by local gun clubs, landowners and the National Association of Regional Game Councils.

Trappers

The Donegal trapper is being sent to kill mink at red-throated diver sites in the Derryveagh mountains and corncrake sites in north Fannad, Inishowen and Falcaragh/Magherarorty as well as on the islands of Inishmaan, Inishboffin and Tory.

The Mid-Shannon Callows trapper is targeting corncrake nests at Tower, Frans and Borranagh along with wader sites at Inch Island, Inishee, Inichinalee, Meelick, Co Galway; and Fahns, and Devenish, Co Roscommon; and Bloomhill, Co Westmeath.

In west Mayo/Connemara the trapper is starting out with sites on the Mullet peninsula, Louisburg, Omey Island, and Renvyle peninsula.

The report on which the project is based says several mink farms still operate here. Animals escaping from these will continue to threaten the wildlife of Ireland, even if the feral population is managed, it adds.

"Where possible mink should be eradicated in areas where they would do the most harm," the report says.

- Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent
Irish Independent

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http://www.independent.ie/national-news/wildlife-chiefs-declare-a-boar-war-in-countryside-2182565.html

Wildlife chiefs declare a boar war in countryside

By Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent
Monday May 17 2010

WILD boars are considered the latest threat to the Irish countryside after a number were released into the wild by irresponsible shooting enthusiasts.

Alarmed wildlife chiefs from the Republic and the North have met in recent days to declare war on the boar before it becomes established.

Some 12 wild boars have already been spotted in woodlands.

Wild boars can carry serious diseases such as foot and mouth and the blue tongue virus.

It is illegal to release wild boars as they are officially classified as an invasive species but it is understood an irresponsible minority of huntsmen have introduced them as quarry.

Dr Ferdia Marnell, head of animal ecology at the National Parks and Wildlife Service, attached to the Department of the Environment, warned yesterday of the serious risks to animal health and ecology if the wild boar becomes established in woodlands. He said there had been "deliberate releasing" of wild boars by some hunters who were not aware of the potentially catastrophic consequences.

"We have very good evidence that they cause enormous damage to agriculture and forestry," said Dr Marnell. "The majority of shooters are very responsible, but a minority may have released them. Some people do not think of the consequences.

Extinct

"Because they are not widespread, they are hard to track down. But when they become widespread it is too late," he added.

Other suspected sources of the problem are farmed wild boars which have either escaped or were released. Ecology experts met recently as part of the joint North-South Invasive Species Project to target invasive animals -- such as the wild boar -- over the next two years to prevent them becoming embedded in the countryside.

Once a native species here, wild boars became extinct in prehistoric times.

Boars are large mammals with powerful bodies and coarse hairy coats. They would pose a serious threat to biodiversity, human health and safety and economic activity, according to the ecology chiefs.

With no natural predators, wild boars would expand unchallenged and significantly damage agriculture.

Dr Marnell said they are known to damage crops and potentially spread animal disease. They uproot large areas of land and eliminate native vegetation.

- Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent
Irish Independent

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0604/1224271819405.html

Gardaí insist gun laws are as tough as they can be to stop mass killings

RONAN McGREEVY

THE STATE’S gun laws are as stringent as they can be to prevent a mass shooting similar to the one in Cumbria this week, according to a senior garda.

Supt John Gilligan said at Garda headquarters in Dublin yesterday that there was as much “legislation as you can have” to deal with such an eventuality.

The Garda announced yesterday a national firearms licensing awareness day for June 16th in advance of a deadline for people holding firearms to switch over to a new licensing system on July 1st.

There will also be advertisements in local newspapers aimed at the farming community.

The legislation was brought in to deal with gun crime. It includes a ban on handguns, a requirement for referees, background medical checks and standards for the keeping of all guns, with tightened licensing procedures for the renewal of currently licensed guns.

It also provides for a comprehensive audit of all firearm owners to be conducted by each superintendent in every Garda district.

Though the original provisions of the new laws were aimed at gangland criminals, the awareness campaign is for law-abiding gun owners.

Supt Gilligan said the campaign to regularise licences under the provision of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 was obviously decided before the actions of Derrick Bird, who killed himself and 11 people in a shooting spree in Cumbria on Wednesday afternoon.

He conceded the issue was now topical, although such an incident had never happened in Ireland.

“Even before this new legislation, local sergeants and superintendents have always had a role in deciding the suitability of anybody to hold a licence.

“People have had their firearms taken off them because they did something stupid by producing a shotgun at the gate to somebody. That happens on a regular basis anyway.”

Under the provisions of the Act, all gun owners must have a new three-year firearms certificate to replace the old one-year certificate. The new three-year licence costs €80 and the collection of fees has been outsourced to An Post.

Every new gun holder must also have a new firearm training certificate.

When the Government brought in the new Act last year, licensed gun holders were given a free extension of their existing licences to facilitate the change over from the old to the new.

The last batch of 25,000 licence holders will have to be renewed by June 30th. Those who fail to swap over may have their firearms seized and face prosecution.

Gardaí will be available on June 16th at Garda stations between 10am and 6pm to assist in filling out the application form to receive the new certificate.

“We’re trying to target people who live in a rural area who hold one shotgun,” said Supt Fergus Healy of the Garda crime policy and administration section. “They are the main category of people who have not come forward to licence their gun.

“We don’t want a situation where we find a lot of people in possession of firearms which have not been regularised or certified.”

He said applicants had to consent to allow a superintendent to make inquiries about their background if necessary. “Each case is judged on its own merits, but there is a provision in the legislation to allow for a superintendent to make whatever checks are necessary, and the person must show willingness to co-operate with the superintendent.”

Background checks into the man who carried out the Cumbrian shootings found that he had only a minor conviction and was not known to have any mental health problems.

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http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/we-need-better-control-of-guns-2207312.html

We need better control of guns

Friday June 04 2010

In the wake of the tragic mass murders in Cumbria, I suggest we need to address our own growing gun culture in Ireland, where in excess of 220,000 firearms are legally held by citizens.

The problem, however, is that the vast majority of guns used in non-gangland murders, in suicides, in attempts to kill or injure a spouse or partner in domestic disputes, or in killings legally defined as manslaughter cases in Ireland, are legally held.

The weapons that Derrick Bird used to kill 12 people and injure scores of others were, according to media reports, a hunting rifle and a shotgun. Both types of guns are widely on sale and are easily accessible in Ireland.

A measure that would make guns safer in our country would be to have all of them micro-chipped or electronically tagged in such a way that the gardai or other statutory controlling authority could track the movement of each weapon at all times.

This would be a variation on the proposed micro-chipping of dogs contained in the draft Dog Breeding Establishments Bill -- the aim being simply to keep tabs on every gun in the country.

Otherwise we take our chances with those 220,000 guns out there and their 220,000 owners.

John Fitzgerald
Co Kilkenny

Sparks

From the Irish Times:

Pistol shooter challenges refusal of firearms cert

A COMPETITIVE pistol shooter has challenged a District Court judge’s refusal to grant him firearms certificates for six pistols on the grounds of their lethal nature.

Patrick Herlihy, with an address in Co Cork, has brought High Court proceedings aimed at quashing District Judge David Riordan’s refusal to grant certificates for six guns – two Sig Sauer 9mm pistols and four Smith Wesson revolvers.

Judge Riordan refused to grant licensing certificates on November 30th, 2009 following an earlier refusal by a Garda chief superintendent to grant certificates. Mr Herlihy has given the guns to a firearms dealer pending the outcome of the case.

Mr Herlihy claims the judge’s decision was wrong in law and he is entitled to hold the guns. He claims his inability to have them has affected his livelihood. The State has opposed the application.

Yesterday, the President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said the case was one of “some importance” and he would give judgment in due course.

Earlier, Gerard Hogan SC, for Mr Herlihy, said Judge Riordan’s decision failed to take into account factors including that his client is a model citizen and highly experienced in the sport of target shooting.

Mr Herlihy is a former member of the Irish Reserve Defence Forces and held a number of posts in the management and administration of target shooting events, including the position of general secretary of the European Gallery Rifle and Pistol Federation, counsel said. He had also acted as safety adviser and design consultant to a number of pistol and rifle clubs.

Judge Riordan’s refusal was because of the lethality of the guns in question but, as recent events in Cumbria had shown, any gun in the wrong hands can be lethal, Mr Hogan said. Counsel said the Oireachtas had clearly contemplated a system whereby certificates for restricted firearms would be granted to certain individuals. There was no strict prohibition on the holding of such guns.

Mr Herlihy had legally held the guns at issue until last year when he applied to Garda Chief Superintendent Michael Finn to have the certificates renewed. His renewal application addressed the issues raised following a change in the law relating to pistols but Chief Supt Finn refused the application, counsel said.

Opposing the application, Conor Dignam, for the State, denied that Judge Riordan had erred by refusing to issue the certificates on the basis of the calibre or the lethality of the firearms. Judge Riordan had taken all relevant factors into account before making his decision, counsel said.

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Not available on-line, scan from print edition:

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Scanned image:

pedroeibar1

Gardai take superiors to court over handgun licences ban

Pistol club unable to send team to compete in European Police and Fire Games in Valencia because members were refused licences

Will Bramhill
Published: 13 June 2010

A dozen serving or recently retired gardai have taken court action against their superiors after being refused a licence to own high-calibre handguns. Three of the officers are required to carry “more dangerous” firearms as part of their official duties.
Ten of those taking district court challenges against superintendents or chief superintendents are among 51 members of the Irish branch of the International Police Association Pistol Club, a target-shooting body. Five are serving gardai while the others are recently retired.
The garda pistol club was unable to send a four-man team to compete in last week’s European Police and Fire Games in Valencia, Spain, because all of them were refused licences for their handguns.
The legal cases are among over 100 taken since Dermot Ahern, the minister for justice, introduced legislation last August banning the issuing of new licences for high-calibre handguns over .22 inch. People who had licences were entitled to renew them if a local garda superintendent was satisfied the person was not a danger to the public and had “good reason” for requiring the firearm.
While some superintendents have granted renewals, there has been an almost blanket ban on firearms over .22 calibre in other districts. Handguns used by the garda club members are generally above this calibre.
“The last thing any garda or retired garda wants to do is take their boss to court but many feel that’s what we’ve been forced to do,” said a spokesman for the garda pistol club, whose website includes a link to a district court appeal form for members who want to take legal action.
“Many gardai who have decided not to appeal are doing so because they fear recrimination and the effect it will have on their career. It’s embarrassing and it doesn’t look good to bring your super to court.”
The garda pistol club does not believe it was Ahern’s intention to ban target shooting with high-calibre firearms. “We are concerned there is a possible misinterpretation of what it appears the minister wanted,” the spokesman said. “People in senior ranks want to appear to toe the party line but we don’t believe the banning of these firearms is what was intended. Gardai are not in the same situation as ordinary civilians because if they go to the courts they know they are going to create waves. It’s a last resort.”
Among those taking a challenge is Brian Dromey who has lodged a judicial review in the High Court against Padraig Rattigan, the chief superintendent for the Meath division.

Sparks

From the Sunday Business Post:

Gardai order audit of country’s gun owners
13 June 2010 By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has ordered an audit of the country’s gun owners, amid concerns over the ‘‘large number’’ of unregistered firearms across the country.

Firearms groups were informed about the audit on June 2, the same day that 12 people were shot dead in Cumbria by taxi driver Derrick Bird. The audit will be conducted in ‘‘early July’’, according to correspondence seen by The Sunday Business Post.

It will be carried out by garda superintendents in each district nationwide, under legislation originally devised to tackle organised crime gangs.

The nationwide audit is aimed at people who own licensed guns, but may have lapsed in re-licensing some or all of their firearms.

Anyone found in possession of an unlicensed gun faces the prospect of their ‘‘firearms being seized or may even render them liable to prosecution’’, according to the correspondence.

The audit will follow National Firearms Awareness Day, which is designated for this Wednesday, when gardaí will be making themselves available at garda stations nationwide to advise on how to obtain permits under the new three-year licensing system.

Prior to the new licence system being launched, there were more than 230,000 firearms licensed in the state, of which more than 177,000 were shotguns.

‘‘Large numbers of firearms owners have still not yet re-applied for their new three year firearm certificates," according to the letter from the gardaí to gun groups. All old gun licences expire at the end of this month.

The government is engaged in a dispute with gun groups over the new licensing regime, as well as recent garda decisions over the issue of permits for certain handguns.

The state last week said it would oppose a High Court application by a pistol shooter, Patrick Herlihy, who has challenged a District Court judge’s refusal to grant him firearms certificates for six pistols - the judge refused to grant certificates for the guns on the grounds of their lethal nature.

Rovi

RTE news item on firearms licencing deadline (from 20:00):
http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1075016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1auxIuYJo

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0710/1224274418849.html

High Court quashes firearms cert ruling

The High Court has quashed a District Court refusal to grant a competitive pistol shooter firearms certificates for six pistols, including four Smith Wesson revolvers, and has directed the District Court to re-hear the matter.

More than 70 other cases challenging refusals of firearms certificates here are pending. In remitting Patrick Herlihy’s case yesterday to the District Court, the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, stressed he was not making any decision on its merits and the matter remained within the discretion of the District Court judge.

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http://www.laois-nationalist.ie/tabId/153/itemId/3176/Meet-the-winner-of-last-weekends-British-open.aspx

Meet the winner of last weekend’s British open!

By: Michael Tracey

The winner of the British Open in Scotland, who held his nerve last week in blustery weather conditions, is a Laois man!

While South African Louis Oosthuizen took home the golfing major at St Andrew’s, Stradbally’s Robert Carter claimed a major of his own just a short trip away in Falkirk winning the British Open Championship in Clay Pigeon Shooting.

The 21-year-old won by a solitary point last Saturday in the ‘Down the Line’ discipline in the prestigious event.

The competition is second only in importance in the shooting calendar to the World Cup. Robert described winning the coveted trophy as “unbelievable”.

Like the golf, the clay pigeon shooting fell victim to the violent gales.

“I was lucky to have contended it. Mentally you have to be switched on. It was the same weather as the golf and we were on top of a mountain too,” he said.

Robert has had previous success in the junior sections and has emerged as one of the country’s top shooting talents. This was the first year juniors were eligible to have their scores count in the senior section at the British Open.

Robert had expectations of doing well in the junior competition but couldn’t have expected he find himself posting the top score in the senior event. “I actually didn’t win the competition I had wanted. I had been going for the international and Irish high gun in the juniors but I didn’t do well enough. I said to myself on Saturday that I gave it away yesterday but I wouldn’t do that today,” he said.

As well as the British Open, Robert took home three other trophies in various disciplines over the weekend.

Rovi

RTE Radio 1, Drivetime

Two items on firearm licencing issues.

Wednesday 21 July 2010 (item starts at 1:21:00):
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-r1-drivetime-Wednesday.smil


Thursday 22 July 2010 (item starts at 1:15:00):
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-r1-drivetime-Thursday.smil

Rovi

http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/grey-squirrels-are-vermin-urbanites-need-to-realise-this-2282207.html

Grey squirrels are vermin -- urbanites need to realise this
The recent sentence handed down to a UK home owner by a British court shows how far removed town folk are from knowing how the food chain really works

By Joe Barry
Tuesday August 03 2010

THE HISTORY of man is as strange as anything to be found in science fiction. From when we first crawled out of the seas to when we evolved towards our present state, it has been an extraordinary journey.

Yet now, after millennia of struggle and with monkeys as our most recent ancestors, we have worked out a system of justice and social behaviour that is supposed to be sane and intelligent.

However, it is unlikely that even a monkey with a bad hangover would have come up with the sentence recently passed in England on one unfortunate man under the new UK animal welfare acts.

His crime was that he killed a grey squirrel, having first caught it in a cage in his garden. Someone spotted the carcass and reported the 'crime' and the police, presumably having a quiet day, decided to investigate. The unfortunate accused immediately owned up, not realising that he had done anything wrong. He had bought the cage trap in a garden centre, just like thousands of others, and set it to catch the greys that were terrorising the bird table in his garden. On catching a squirrel he then immersed it in a water butt, drowning it and in the words of one report "killing it almost instantaneously".

Now none of us who work with animals would condone drowning, and the traditional practice of drowning unwanted kittens and puppies is not acceptable when there are so many better options. But even the prosecutor in this case expressed sympathy for the accused, stating that he had been "extremely frank and open about his actions having believed it to be the most humane way of disposing of an animal -- however, this method is now illegal".

Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) saw these actions as a criminal offence, as did the judge, who passed down a fine of £1,547 (€1,850) and a six-month conditional discharge.

It is worth noting here that the Forestry Commission in Britain, using traps, shooting and poisoned bait, has killed around 50,000 grey squirrels in the past five years and the Scottish government has recently launched a multi-million pound programme to try and stop grey squirrels spreading further north of its border with England.

The grey is responsible for the virtual disappearance of the native red squirrel and is causing more millions in damage to broadleaf trees.

Introduced to Ireland in the early 1900s, the grey has spread rapidly, eliminating the red as it expands its territory and creating huge difficulties for anyone trying to establish new woodland. The damage the grey causes to other wildlife is well publicised. It will happily eat shoots and seeds, root up bulbs or rob eggs and fledgling birds from their nests, and this naturally poses problems for gardeners, especially those who like to provide a haven for songbirds.

Surprisingly, an RSPCA inspector questioned whether even shooting or killing by a blow to the back of the head could be considered humane, and suggested that most people would have to pay a vet to have a squirrel put down or call in a pest control 'expert'.

They clearly need to get out a bit more and learn about how chicken, beef, lamb and all the other birds and animals that we eat end up on our plates -- but then this type of thinking is becoming more and more common as urban people become ever further removed from farms and the means of food production.

The RSPCA itself is simply not living in the real world when its spokesperson further advised 'squirrel proofing' a garden rather than trying to eliminate the grey.

This is the same idiotic advice recently given by one of our own animal rights activists and of course they don't tell us how such 'proofing' could be achieved.

The natural world is a tough place where almost everything eats some other living creature and, all the way up the food chain, no quarter is given. A sparrow hawk does not ask a songbird if it's OK or not to eat it alive any more than the same songbird might be worried for the worm it had for breakfast.

Grey squirrels, rats, grey crows and others are there in unsustainable numbers because we have created an unnatural world where they can breed and thrive on the bounty of our wasteful habits. These vermin must be controlled if our native species are to survive.

- Joe Barry

Rovi

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/in-brief-martinez-eyes-up-dublin-double-2282811.html

Target Shooting

Gary Duff recorded Ireland's best finish in a World Championship target-shooting event yesterday, finishing 48th in the men's Prone Rifle match in Munich.

Duff scored 593/600, five points off the threshold to make the final and six off eventual winner and five-times world record holder Sergei Martynov.

With five quota places for London 2012 on offer, the event was hotly contested, 140 competitors vying for 71 places in the qualification round, which Duff achieved comfortably, scoring a 591/600.

Rovi

(this is about the 2010 ERABSF Benchrest Championships)
(Boards.ie Target Shooting forum thread HERE)

http://www.rte.ie/sport/other/2010/0806/rimfire_ireland.html

Ireland claim medals in Rimfire Championships

Friday, 6 August 2010 15:36

Ireland have claimed bronze and silver medals at the European Rimfire Championships in the Czech Republic.

The team won two bronze and two silver medals at the European and World Cup levels.

Ireland had to settle for silver in the 50-metres category, missing out on the gold medal by just one point, pipped by host country the Czech Republic.

They also secured silver in the World Cup event and brought home bronze in the two 25-metres categories.

Vegeta

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0813/1224276712743.html

Bird lovers cry fowl as NI grouse hunt is on

SEÁN MAC CONNELL Agriculture Correspondent

A NUMBER of people in the Republic of Ireland want to bring an end to celebrating “The Glorious Twelfth” in Northern Ireland and for the guns to remain silent.
They are not into politics or religion but rather the conservation of one of the island’s most threatened bird species, the Red Grouse.
Yesterday, August 12th, saw the opening of the shooting season for grouse in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland but not in the Republic where wildfowlers have to wait until September 1st.
According to Dr Sinéad Cummins, who was involved in the largest ever study of the grouse here, the fact the season begins early in the North and not here has created difficulty in Border areas.
“While we would like to see grouse not being hunted at all because numbers are so low, we would like to see the authorities co-ordinate the opening of the season on both sides of the Border,” said Dr Cummins, who works with BirdWatch Ireland.
Most conservationists, she said, wanted the season to open on September 1st on both sides of the Border. She said most wildfowlers she knew no longer hunted grouse because of their declining numbers and were more into conserving them than shooting them.
“There has been a 50 per cent decline in the number of birds here over the past 40 years and we estimate there are only 4,200 birds left in the country,” she said.
She said this had been caused by loss of habitat, especially from overgrazing by sheep, turf cutting and other activities. The grouse is now confined to a few areas on the east coast, Donegal and west Mayo and is on the red or endangered list of birds, she said.
The grouse was very dependent on heather and its declining quality on the wetter bogs in the west had led to a fall in numbers.
She said bog fires had also harmed stocks because grouse were “single breeders” and would not attempt to breed again if the first nest was destroyed.
“Because it is still listed as a quarry species it has no real protection and it is time to move to save what is Ireland’s oldest bird.”

Sparks

From the Meath Chronicle:

Shooter strikes silver in London
Profile by Jimmy Geoghegan


Target shooters Laura and Paula Cunningham represented Ireland at the Lord Roberts centre in London last week.


Kells sisters Paula and Laura Cunningham, representing the Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club, displayed impressive form in the GB 18th Junior International competition at the Lord Robert's Centre in Bisley, London.

Paula Cunningham, who is a student at Dundalk IT, competed in the International Grand Prix and maintained a high enough level of consistent shooting to claim a silver medal in a nail-biting event. She proudly took her place on the podium and watched as the Irish flag was raised in her honour.

Laura Cunningham also achieved a personal best score in the tournament and qualified for the international final in fifth place, beating off stiff competition from both Germany and South Africa. She held onto her place in the final which was won by Britain's Sheree Cox.

The Cunningham sisters are among three Irish shooters who qualified to compete in the international tournament along with Sean Rogers, who achieved a personal best score in the junior men's 60x10m event. The Irish team were welcomed home by the chairperson of the National Target Shooting Association Liam Crawford, coach Geoffrey Cooney and international coach Matt Fox.