Letter-writing

Deerspotter

None the less, fair fooks to you.

Sparks

Took a bit longer to get this done this week thanks to work...

To the Times:

Dear Sir,
With a changing of the editor in the Times, will we see a change in the editorial direction with regard to the coverage of shooting sports events in the Times? It's hard to understand the logic in not covering the sport more - the recent sales of tickets for the London 2012 Olympics saw Shooting tickets sell out completely on the first round; leaving less popular sports such as Football with unsold tickets; nor was that a once-off - in every country in Europe, Shooting is always one of the most popular sports in national surveys, usually coming in ahead of Soccer and well ahead of Athletics and Boxing and Golf.

It is one of the oldest sports, having been around in Europe since the mid-1600s, it existed in Ireland in an organised state with a match held in Front Square of Trinity College Dublin by 1854, and it has been in the modern Olympics since their founding in 1896.

It's one of the safest sports in existence - no other sport in Ireland can lay claim to as good a safety record, with no injuries recorded since that match in TCD in 1854.

And we have been very successful in it, with World Champions in our midst - Philip Murphy winning the individual silver medal in the 2010 World Championships in Olympic Shotgun, and the Irish team winning the team gold medal in the 2002 World Championships in the same event, along with literal buckets full of medals from World Cup and European Championship events as well as too many smaller events to list.

Given these qualifications - popularity, establishment, safety and sporting success - might it be too much to hope that we would see the Times cover our sport in the future as part of a new editorial direction?

Yours in Sport

To the Independent:

Dear Sir,
Deputy Dara Murphy feels we are not capitalising on our golfers enough to bring tourism into the country. Perhaps the Deputy might take a look at shooting for a moment instead of golf. Once he sees how little we have capitalised on our sports events -- such as the Creedmoor Cup (a US-European sporting event that predates the Ryder Cup and every other US-European event by about fifty years), the Fermoy International -- not to mention the many, many successes of our Olympic shooters -- he will feel so sick at the lost opportunities that he'll forget all about golf.

And then he'll realise that we've thrown away the opportunity to act as a training camp for shooters going to the London Games in 2012 simply because of the mess Ministers McDowell and Ahern made of the Firearms Act; and when he calculates how much money that could have brought in, he'll be so sick he'll just forget all about sport in general.

Yours in Sport,

To the Examiner:

Dear Sir,
Dara Murphy feels we are not capitalising on our golfers enough to bring tourism into the country. Perhaps the Deputy might take a look at shooting for a moment instead of golf. Once he sees how little we have capitalised on our sports events -- such as the Creedmoor Cup (a US-European sporting event that predates the Ryder Cup and every other US-European event by about fifty years), the Fermoy International -- not to mention the many, many successes of our Olympic shooters -- he will feel so sick at the lost opportunities that he'll forget all about golf.

And then he'll realise that we've thrown away the opportunity to act as a training camp for shooters going to the London Games in 2012 simply because of the mess Ministers McDowell and Ahern made of the Firearms Act; and when he calculates how much money that could have brought in, maybe he'll pick up the phone and ask the Minister for Justice to sort out the Firearms Act and ask the Minister for Sport to sort out the Irish Sports Council, who as yet have not even officially recognised the governing body of one of the oldest Olympic sports in existence, let alone funded them realistically.

Yours in Sport,

Sparks

From today's Independent:

Tourists should take a shot at other sports
Friday July 01 2011
DEPUTY Dara Murphy feels we are not capitalising on our golfers to bring tourism into the country. Perhaps Mr Murphy might take a look at shooting for a moment instead of golf.

Once he sees how little we have capitalised on this sport -- such as the Creedmoor Cup (a US-European sporting event that predates the Ryder Cup and every other US-European event by about 50 years) or the Fermoy International, not to mention the success of our Olympic shooters -- he will feel so sick at the lost opportunities that he'll forget all about golf.

Then he'll realise we've thrown away the opportunity to act as a training camp for shooters going to the London Olympic Games in 2012, simply because of the mess ministers McDowell and Ahern made of the Firearms Act. And when he calculates how much money that could have brought in, he'll be so sick he'll just forget all about sport in general.

Sparks

To the Examiner:

Olympic torch-bearers

Dear Sir,
With the wonderful news from Pat Hickey that the Olympic Torch for the 2012 Games stands an excellent chance of coming through Ireland in July on its way to London, might I suggest Derek Burnett and Philip Murphy as torchbearers? Both have won world championships for Ireland in Olympic shotgun shooting, both have dedicated decades of their life to the pursuit of this sport, and neither has ever received the kind of accolades they deserved for this effort and these accomplishments.
Surely winning a World Championships for Ireland is enough for Ireland to let them carry the Torch in Ireland?

Yours in Sport,

To the Times:

Olympic torch-bearers

Dear Sir,
With the news from Pat Hickey that the Olympic Torch for the 2012 Games is almost assured to come through Ireland in early July on its way from Belfast to London, might I suggest Derek Burnett and Philip Murphy as torchbearers? Both have won world championships for Ireland in Olympic shotgun shooting, both have dedicated decades of their life to the pursuit of this sport, and neither has ever received the kind of accolades they deserved for this effort and these accomplishments.
Surely winning a World Championships for Ireland is enough for Ireland to let them carry the Torch in Ireland?

Yours in Sport,

To the Independent:

Dear Sir,
Pat Hickey reports that the Olympic Torch for the 2012 Games stands an excellent chance of coming through Ireland en route to London on July 7. Might I be the first to suggest Derek Burnett and Philip Murphy as torchbearers? Both have won world championships for Ireland in Olympic shotgun shooting, both have dedicated decades of their life to the pursuit of this sport, and neither has ever received the kind of accolades they deserved for this effort and these accomplishments.
Surely winning a World Championships for Ireland is enough for Ireland to let them carry the Torch in Ireland?
Yours in Sport,

pedroeibar1

Full marks Sparks, for output and perseverance! Singlehandedly you have beaten, combined, all the ‘representative’ organizations on obtaining effective media exposure. Maybe instead of an email campaign to TDs at some future date one should be started to motivate the people in the various shooting bodies!
Rs
P.

Sparks

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Singlehandedly you have beaten, combined, all the ‘representative’ organizations on obtaining effective media exposure.

Erm, thanks for the very kind words Pedro, but that's not really all that fair on the NGBs - most of them have to spend their time dealing with the legislation and the sports councils and so on and that's a massive timesuck.

Maybe instead of an email campaign to TDs at some future date one should be started to motivate the people in the various shooting bodies!

Hell, if we started one, I'd want to start one to recruit people for the NGBs to try to get over the 2% problem, rather than to badger the few people we have volunteering at the moment!

Sparks

From today's Irish Independent:

Northern Ireland's Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin welcomes news of the visit of the Olympic Torch with children from Belfast primary schools

Former Irish world champions deserve to carry Olympic torch
Friday July 08 2011

OLYMPIC Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey has said that the Olympic Torch for the 2012 games stands an excellent chance of coming through Ireland en route to London on July 7.

Might I be the first to suggest Derek Burnett and Philip Murphy as torchbearers?

Both have won world championships for Ireland in Olympic shotgun shooting, both have dedicated decades of their lives to this sport, and neither has ever received the kind of accolades they deserve for these accomplishments.

Surely winning a world championship for Ireland is enough to let them carry the torch here?

knockon

Sparks

Thank you for writing to the media on my behalf. You have put you pen where your mouth is. Your letters are concise and are clearly written and will be a catalyst for the public to understand somewhat what the sport of Shooting is about. Well done.

Sparks

From today's Examiner:

Irish duo deserve to carry Olympic torch
SATURDAY, JULY 09, 2011

WITH the wonderful news from Pat Hickey that the Olympic torch for the 2012 Games stands an excellent chance of coming through Ireland in July on its way to London, might I suggest Derek Burnett and Philip Murphy as torchbearers?

Both have won world championships for Ireland in Olympic shotgun shooting, both have dedicated decades of their life to the pursuit of this sport, and neither has ever received the kind of accolades they deserved for these accomplishments.

Surely winning a world championships for Ireland is enough for Ireland to let them carry the torch in Ireland?

Coriolanus

Interesting little project Sparks, and you seem to be getting a decent return in terms of being published.
Kudos.

pheasntstalker

:Dwell done sparks i for 1 will start with the local rag then on to the rest,:D:D:D:D:D about time we spoke up for our sport

brian1991

This has been one of the most interesting threads I've read on Boards.ie.
Sparks, do the three national newspapers call after they receive your letter/email? What sort of things do they ask/say? On the Irish Times website they state: "We regret that we cannot give prior notice of a letter's publication date, acknowledge unpublished letters, or discuss the merits of individual letters." Does this mean that they tell you if your letter is going to be published? I'm going to try writing to all three papers once I return to college in September.

Thanks,
Brian

Sparks

Nope, there's never been contact from them at all brian. I've only ever had contact once, a few years back when the Times called back and that was just to make sure I was who I said I was and that the letter was only written for the Times (it was subsequently posted). I've not been posting much of late because of the shooting in Norway (there's no way we could avoid being linked to it by subsequent letters from mobs like ICABS), but I've an idea for a new letter that I'll get to this week.

Grizzly 45

Am amazed they havent jumped on this one sofar.For a change it was the talkshow radio crowd who tried that one.Got this 2nd hand from a fellow boardsie who heard it.
[Hook or somone of that ilk]
Had the Norweigan ambassador or somone of the like from the embassy on ,and was continually trying to steer the conversation to the "lax gun laws" of Norway.:rolleyes::rolleyes:
After three rebuffs to the fact that this had nothing to do with Norweigan gun laws,rather more to do with racial problems,they huffily gave up to try on about 6tons of fertilizer that could be used as explosives.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Utter numpty..

Sparks

They didn't have to Grizzly, the Daily Mail ran a fullpage op-ed linking us to the shooter in Norway (and by us I mean Irish firearms owners). If it wasn't for the fact that it's the Daily Mail, I'd have responded myself.

But, thing is, it's the Mail.
Do you really want to be writing to a crowd where mucking about with a murdered child's voicemail is considered "what I did at work on tuesday"? If it was the Times, I'd say hell yes, everyone write in, but with the Mail.... I think we'd just be denigrating ourselves for no reason.

cavan shooter

Go easy lads the mail is one of the softest newspapers around, in fact on numerous hill walks I have found the Mail very useful and soft.:D

Sparks

Seems a bit... preused for that particular application if I'm honest CS...

Sparks

Good man Brian!

johngalway

cavan shooter wrote: »

Go easy lads the mail is one of the softest newspapers around, in fact on numerous hill walks I have found the Mail very useful and soft.:D

:eek:

Brave man, you could have caught something offa that rag!

Shane.sf

Tut tut......... Ahh who am I kidding, serves them right.

Grizzly 45

The Daily Mail a "Newspaper"...what a novel concept.:rolleyes: