Not a chance. Irish people stick with the same party vote as they always had, plus don't expect support from groups that have called for the very bans we're facing now.

The other side of that coin is who do you vote for that won't be as bad, given SF's stance on gun ownership/hunting, and the spread of voters across the 26.

Voting is vital. No matter who you vote for, vote.

People will vote against some parties because of what they do during a current Government. I mean if the election was held in the next 3 to 6 months you'll see a large block of "opposition votes" against FF/FG and the, almost, decimation of the Greens AGAIN (remeber 2011 and the death of John Gormley's green party). However the same thing happened at the last election. SF had enough votes to run multiple candidates in some districts and win but did not so, showing either an ignorance to their knowledge of the public's mindset or a lack of interest in becoming the larger party.

Then FF came back with the highest numbe of seats. This is the party that led us blindly into the recession. FG won a huge number of seats and took control. Then in the last 10 years they have systematically done the same things as FF all in the name of austerity. Still desparate to hold onto power Leo, on air and to much embarrassment, was nothing short of dropping to his knees and begging Martin to form a coalition Government, using the Greens to "top up" their seat numbers. Martin, absolutely messing his pants to be Taoiseach, jumped on this and we are where we are today.

My point in that diatribe is it took less than a decade for people to vote once again for the same party that led us down the road to where we are. The SVT system of voting we have means that a chap that barely finished secondary school became the Minster for health, ballsed it so adly they hid him during the last general election and he still got elected. People vote based on how they always voted. A small percentage will change based on promises like the new socialist party, otherwise known as SF, promising free evetything for everyone without it costing tax payers a penny so younger people with no hope of getting onto the hosuing market will rush to support such a party.

On the issue of firearms most parties are essentially going to be the same in terms of thought process. "Guns are bad, public safety, etc". So being a single issue voter on such a subject is a waste of time if we [shooting community] think we can muster some sort of block voting lobby especially given FF, FG, Greens, SF and other parties stance/history on such, and how people vote.

So whats the solution.

Simple answer is I really don't know. I don't see a day when change, I mean true meaningful change, will happen. Governments might placate us with meetings and allowing us to have an input but that input will not extend to having a say in the final draft of any legilsation. We will be duly ignored. Thoughts I've had include forming some sort of lobby group, but the first hurdle is getting the votes whcih give such a group its power and with shooting sports so splintered, and spread out, that is nigh on impossible. Even getting one TD elected for every say 5 counties would only form a tiny group of independents and we all seen how quickly they got bought out in 2016. As a "party" of 5 they would have little power and no input unless they got swallowed up into a coalition, and even then only maybe.

A longer strategy would be to have more and more people, sympathetic to our plight, run for office and over the years develop a "network" of independents that could form such a party however that is a decades long plan and really should have been started decades ago. So for now we must vote with a larger picture in mind and frankly given the disastorous initiatives by the Greens people are more concerned about how to run their home heating and fuel for their car to put food on the table than who will let them get a 50 cal. 😉

I agree with you on how people phsyically vote. I done it once myself. Going backward.

As for the level of influence we have or may have, I personally doubt it, but would be more than happy to be proven wrong.

We all see how that worked out. More taxation, higher cost of living, destruction of jobs, increase on import dependency, etc, etc. The vote for the Greens was 75% Dublin with the other 25% from four other Counties, and from the results they were protest/"lesser evil" votes:

• Leddin in Limerick on 9th count
• Matthews in Wicklow on 15th count
• Noonan in Carlow on 10th count
• O'cathasaigh in Waterford on 7th count

The Greens know their time is limited, much like Gormley in 2007-2011, but they're going to implement as many chnages as they can before they're voted into oblivion again.

Go on outta that, you're out there trying to get 300 people to agree to use 30 cars. I know your game. 😋😁

The Greens were an opposition vote along with what you said. People have once again been whipped into a frenzy about climate change and voted for a party they believe will change that. The sad reality is they cannot.

Say the Greens were well intentioned, and di want to inact real change. How would they? The technology to replace most of what we have is eithe rnot there, not perfected or has no/limited underlying infrastructure so is not up to task. Reducing our carbon emissions by "outsourcing" our emissions to other countries is not being greener, just shifting the problem.

I won't go into a tirade because no one wants to hear it all, but you know most of the ludicrous proposals from them and when you consider that Irelands world rankings in terms of global emissions is less than 1% (they cannot give an exact figure as anything under 1% is simply marked as less than 1%) and cumulatively the EU produces 18% then compare than to the likes of China (35%+) which account for a third of the worlds emissions you have to ask why we get hit so hard.

As I said before I am all for better policies and initiatives, but they must be respective of current technoology and be direct replacements in terms of cost and effectiveness.

I was listening to some panelists discussing the global shortages and he said about it, and inflation, that is entirely man made. With Governments implementing so called Green initiatives without having any or adequate replacements ready to take over has resulted in a loss of services which drives prices of current ones up. Add to that the ban on certain practices (like peat harvesting in Ireland or Biomass burning) like mining, oil drilling, cancelation of pipelines, and the increased taxation of CO2 production used in a number of manufacturing processes and it strangles production enough without the added restrictions of what Governments have done in the name of combatting covid (reduced workforce, restrictions on staff, vaccination passports, forced vaccinations, etc).

Government solution to the bottleneck they have created in manufacturing is to increase money production. IOW print more, which devalues the currency. Its called quantitive easement and if you or I tried it it'd be called counterfeiting.

I had a longer reply written out but on reading it back I realised it was nothing more than another diatribe which no one wants to read. So I'll say this which will hopefully bring the thread back on topic.

This Government won't be here in a few years but their actions will. The sport is dying, as per my thread from a year ago "death by a thousand cuts". We posted about ideas and remedies but none of them make a balls bit of difference if the sport is not here. I won't bother getting into "what can we do" because its been done to death, but I'll leave this with one parting suggestion.

This ban [semi-auto] will go ahead whether now or in 6 months or even 6 more years. Then another sport is dead. Our only hope of saving what we have left, as well as making sure there is a sport for the next generation, is to promote the sport, lift the veil of secrecy around it, and most importantly get new younger members into it.

This can only be done via this Minister, and future ones, however it starts at home.

We talk about voting for TDs, lobby groups, etc. Has anyone ever considered starting with our own? All those sitting on groups, organisations, associations, etc. making their plans on how to corner their little bit of the market by selling out others, proposals in secret, etc.. They need to be stopped, and now. That we do have power over. We put those at the committee level of each groups where they are. If they don't do as we need get them out and put someone in that will. Too many people with their own agendas talking to Minsters and other important people without any level of accountability.

That we can change, so should.