Press Clippings

Sparks

Given all the items we've seen in the press in recent days, we thought we'd create this Press Clippings thread as an archive for all the articles we see in the press or the tv/radio broadcasts we hear in the media.

Initially, we're going to keep the thread locked and just copy in any posts that have accredited and quoted sources from the media in here as a sort of permanent record. We may open it up for posting at a later date, so long as its understood not to be a discussion thread.

Hopefully, it may prove useful.

Sparks

From the [url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/1015/2245958614HM4CTFIREARMS.html
]Irish Times[/url]:

Firearms dealer challenges refusal to grant licence for rifle

The High Court has reserved judgment on a challenge by a firearms dealer to the refusal of the Minister for Justice to grant him an "occasional import licence" for a .470 calibre rifle which he had purchased in the UK.

The Minister's counsel described the rifle as a "lethal and objectionable" weapon which is used to shoot elephants.

The refusal of the licence to Mr Neil McVeigh, a registered firearms dealer, of Stradbrook Road, Co Dublin, restricted him from becoming an agent for certain firearms, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for Mr McVeigh, said yesterday.

Mr McVeigh applied for the licence in October 2002 but it was refused.

The Minister said the refusal was on grounds of a current policy to grant firearms certificates only for specified weapons. The Minister later stated that firearms certificates and import licences could be granted only in relation to those firearms which came within the policy - shotguns, crossbows, unrifled airguns and rifles up to .22, except in the cases of deer hunting and competition target shooting when bolt action rifles up to .270 are authorised.

Yesterday, Mr Hogan argued that the refusal to grant a licence on the basis of a stated current policy was in excess of the provisions of the Firearms Act 1925 in that it failed to have regard to the fact that, as a firearms dealer, Mr McVeigh was not required to possess a firearms certificate under the Act. He claimed that the refusal of an import licence amounted to an amendment of the Firearms Act and usurped the discretion of a Garda superintendent to grant a licence.

In an affidavit, Mr McVeigh said he could not sell a firearm to any person unless they produced a firearms certificate for that weapon or could prove they were exempted from holding such a certificate. He believed there was no statutory provision proscribing the granting of a certificate for a .470 calibre weapon. The judge said it appeared there was no specific reason for Mr McVeigh wanting this particular calibre of gun. Mr Hogan said that was not the issue. The licence refusal prevented Mr McVeigh from trading within the State and restricted him from becoming an agent for certain firearms.

Mr James Devlin, for the Minister for Justice, said it was very clear that the Minister had discretion whether to allow the import of firearms. The Minister must decide the issue and that was exactly what had happened in this case. Mr Devlin said the rifle in question was a lethal weapon. The weapon was objectionable and Mr McVeigh had not explained why that view was wrong. This was a rifle which was used to shoot elephants.
© The Irish Times

Sparks

Okay, just following on from the news stories about firearms crime in yesterday's news, we have stories today in the Irish Times here, Irish Independent here and Irish Examiner here and here.

Sparks

You sure about that definition Glock? A quick check and I can't find it, other than the 24" barrel length rule that defines a sporting firearm (1971 act).

So there are three crimes already there to prosecute

Don't forget possession with intent, and a few others if you actually commit the crime with it...

BTW the Times link demands you register and stump up 60E Per annum

Ah. Bugger. Right, hold on...

Gun crime, rape increase but fall in some offences
Conor Lally

Gun crime and the incidence of rape has continued to increase through the third quarter of the year despite an overall reduction in the number of headline, or serious, offences in the period, new figures from the Department of Justice reveal.

The provisional figures show a 40 per cent increase in the discharging of firearms, to 219 cases, for the first nine months of the year. Rapes of females have increased by 32 per cent, to 336 cases.

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said measures contained in the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill 2004 would target gun crime. However, while he welcomed the overall decrease of 13 per cent in the category of sexual offences he expressed "grave concern" at the rise in the numbers of rapes.

"The nature of the relationship between the number of rapes reported and the number of actual incidents remains a complex one. For various reasons, victims may be unwilling, or may feel unable, to report these crimes to the gardaí."

Research by his Department into this area was still ongoing and when it was completed any "shortcomings in the law" would be addressed.

While gun crime had increased, mandatory sentencing for such offences would be introduced as part of the new legislation. A new offence of possession of a sawn-off shotgun would also be introduced. However, Mr McDowell said the number of murders committed in the first nine months of the year, at 28, represented a 20 per cent decrease on the same period last year.

"We are frequently told that . . . gardaí are losing the battle against professional murderers. Yet the figures tell us otherwise."

Prosecutions in this area would be aided in the future by provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill 2004, which would allow gardaí use witness statements made to them incriminating suspects even in cases where the witness had since decided not to take part in a trial.

As well as the increases in gun crime and rapes of females, other notable increases in the first nine months of the year included:
Aggravated sexual assaults, where a weapon or threat of a weapon was used, increased by 75 per cent, to 14 cases.
Cases of unlawful carnal knowledge increased by 26 per cent, to 77 cases.
Robbery of cash or goods in transit increased by 10 per cent, to 46 cases.

Overall, the total number of headline offences committed in the period dropped by 6 per cent, to 74,728 cases. False imprisonment decreased by 20 per cent, to 37 cases. Abduction fell by 26 per cent, to 28 cases. Possession of drugs for sale or supply fell by 14 per cent, to 1,568 cases.

Labour's spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, said Ireland had become "a much more dangerous place to live" since the Government took office in 1997.
© The Irish Times

1911

McDowell to unveil new plan for traffic corps
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 9th November, 2004

A 1,000-officer traffic corps within the Garda is to be set up by the Minister for Justice in an effort to tackle road deaths.

Mr McDowell is finalising his plans for the new corps and intends to announce the details shortly.

He is in talks with the Garda Commissioner and the new head of the Garda Traffic Bureau, Chief Supt John Farrelly, on how the new corps would work and where its members would be deployed.

Around 500 of the 2,000 extra gardaí to be recruited in the lifetime of the Government will be deployed in the new corps, and these will be joined by around 600 existing members.

The Dublin Metropolitan Division already has a traffic unit and other Garda divisions are largely responsible for traffic in their own areas.

However, that will change under the new plans and policing of traffic across the State will become the responsibility of the new traffic corps under Chief Supt Farrelly.

It is intended that the corps officers will concentrate exclusively on policing traffic, and deal with other crimes only if they come across them in the course of their traffic duties.

Meanwhile, an extra €4 million has been made available by the Government for Garda overtime, some of which will be used to increase high-visibility policing on the roads.

Gardaí will mount patrols and checkpoints in the vicinity of licensed premises in a bid to deter drink-driving and detect those breaking the law between now and the New Year.

The Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, has also indicated that the funds will allow very targeted policing on roads in the early hours of weekend mornings, when serious traffic offences usually occur.

The funds will allow for 140,000 additional garda overtime hours in the next eight weeks.

Officers will also be deployed in housing estates on anti-burglary patrols and in public areas where public order problems are prevalent.

Following concerns over the increase in cash-in-transit robberies and firearms offences this year, more gardaí will also be made available for cash escorts in the run-up to Christmas.

Special teams of gardaí will also do spot-checks on gun-owners to ensure licensed weapons are being stored securely. Gardaí believe many guns now in circulation were stolen from gun-owners.

There will also be an increased emphasis on community policing patrols, which will involve visits to elderly and "vulnerable persons" living in remote locations.

High-visibility uniform patrols will be conducted on busy thoroughfares, particularly late at night, where large numbers of people gather following late-night entertainment, especially during the lead-up to Christmas.

Additional uniform and plain clothes patrols will go ahead at areas adjoining business and commercial areas of cities and large towns.

Sparks

213,000 legally held guns in State
Conor Lally

There are more than 213,000 legally-held firearms in the Republic, The Irish Times has learned.

Responding to queries last night the Department of Justice confirmed that there were a total of 213,563 legally held firearms in the State.

The Department of Justice was unable to provide figures for the number of legally-held weapons when Mr Michael Noonan TD (FG) sought the information last week.

The department told Mr Noonan current gun ownership figures and figures for the last number of years, which he had sought, were not readily available and would be compiled by gardaí and sent to him when collated.

However, following queries from The Irish Times, the department said the number of firearms certificates on issue was just over 213,000.

The certificates are issued in respect of each weapon and are renewed every 12 months.

Mr Noonan said he was "very surprised" at the level of gun ownership in Ireland. It seemed "very high indeed". He was also disappointed that gardaí and the Department of Justice were unable to furnish him with the information he was looking for on historical ownership trends since 2002.

"You would have thought that they'd have this information on a computer database that could be easily accessed. I came into information that there had been a big increase in the number of gun certs issued in the last 12 months, particularly hand guns, and I was trying to see if this was true," he said. The Department of Justice or gardaí were unable to furnish any historical details to The Irish Times for the number of legally held weapons.

© The Irish Times

Irishglockfan

RTE main news tonite[9/2/05]
Gardai claim that criminal gangs in Dublin are ordering firearms at appx $500 over the internet for their uses from the USA.

The report featured a softair CAR15, claimed by the reporter to be able to fire "thousands of steel ball bearings or plastic pelletts a minute"and that it "was totally illegal in Ireland" followed by a scruffy OU shotgun and what loked like a few blankfirer pistols.Not to mind an "Alien head" hookah hash pipe , couple of ounces of morrocan,a few swords and misc bayonets and baseball bats.


So might I ask where were the real semi auto AR15 or AKs or handguns that can be so easily bought in the USA according to all media types? surely with instant backround check in the US and close garda/ FBI /interpol cooperation it should be a doddle to track who,where and when,bought or sold these guns in the US from here?

Looks like RTE is getting the old sensationiism bug about guns again?
Badly researched quick thrill article INMHO

Sparks

From today's Irish Independent:

Operation Crossover foils ATM robberies and internet gun racket



A MASSIVE Garda operation has scored an unprecedented success in the war on organised crime.

The operation, codenamed Crossover Two, is aimed specifically at gangsters in the crime blackspot of Dublin West but its impact has been felt everywhere since its launch last November.

The Irish Independent has already reported the arrest of almost 300 suspects and large seizures of weapons.

But senior officers now say that the targeting has introduced paranoia into gangland and known criminals are admitting they cannot move far without being spotted and tailed.

Checkpoints are being set up near the homes of targeted suspects and the move is being fully supported by local residents who blame a handful of families for the crime wave in areas such as Blanchardstown and Finglas.

Two of the main gangs responsible for the spate of robberies from cash deliveries to ATMs last year have been put of action. One senior garda said: "They can no longer hang around corners and carry out their reconnaissance in preparation for a robbery.

"If we see them at corners their names are taken and fed into the Pulse computer system which is being used to collate all of the intelligence," he added.

The intelligence-driven operation has also smashed a racket of smuggling in replica weapons through the post after purchasing them over the internet.

Gardai involved in Operation Crossover recovered three of the weapons, lookalike AK47, MI6 and Heckler and Koch assault rifles, in searches in the Finglas area in the past week.

The replicas can be bought from dealers in the US at prices from $400 to $500 but many of the packages are being intercepted by An Post officials at the SDS centre at the Naas Road.

However, a number of packages slipped through the controls and ended up in the hands of crime gangs responsible for a spate of robberies across Dublin.

The much-criticised Pulse computer system is proving its worth in Crossover and every garda being sent on patrol is brought fully up to date on developments before leaving the station.

Detectives have arrested and charged 131 people with criminal offences so far while seizures have included an arms cache including a submachinegun recovered from a house in Clonee before Christmas, as well as four shotguns and a rifle found in a car stopped at Rathcoole.

And from the Times:

Gangs importing replica guns

West Dublin criminal gangs have been importing replica sub-machine-guns and assault rifles over the Internet capable of firing steel balls and hard plastic ammunition which, gardaí say, can cause serious injury when fired at close range.

The weapons were part of a major haul of drugs, firearms and other weapons seized in west Dublin during Operation Crossover, which was mounted in Blanchardstown and Finglas over the Christmas and new year period.

Gardaí believe the replica weapons have been sourced from US websites for around $500 and delivered to gang members in Dublin through the postal system. Some of the weapons were seized during searches while others had been intercepted in the post.

While the weapons are replicas, because they can fire ammunition they are legally classed as firearms in the Republic. Possession of the guns is an offence.

Around 1,000 checkpoints were mounted by gardaí in the West Dublin area under Operation Crossover leading to the arrest of almost 150 suspects. As well as the replica guns an assortment of other weapons was also seized, including sawn-off shotguns, pistols and ammunition.

A variety of illicit drugs were also intercepted as well as counterfeit DVDs and scanners used by criminals to listen in on the Garda radio system.

Operation Crossover was begun in late November after the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, announced he was making available EUR4 million extra for Garda overtime to the end of 2004. The operation was first staged in late 2003 in an effort to calm an outbreak of feuding between rival factions in Finglas and Blanchardstown.

Under the latest Operation Crossover gardaí targeted around 12 leading gangland figures, and their associates. The operation involved local gardaí and armed members of the Emergency Response Unit patrolling suburban streets and erecting roaming checkpoints.
© The Irish Times

Sparks

And last night's news broadcast is on the RTE website here now if you have realplayer.

Sparks

From today's Examiner:

Firearms offences soar in target area
John Breslin
THE number of firearms offences reported in a west Dublin district that is being targeted in an ongoing garda operation increased dramatically last year.

Criminals in Blanchardstown and Finglas have accessed guns from various sources, including replica arms imported into Ireland after being ordered over the internet.

In a series of searches in Finglas in the last week, gardaí involved in Operation Crossover, which is targeting criminals in west and north Dublin, found the replica assault rifles, in the style of a AK47, MI6 and Heckler and Koch.

The guns are illegal and potentially lethal as they can be adapted to fire hard plastic and metal ball bearings.

Replica guns that can be adapted can be bought for less than 400 on the internet. The guns found during searches of houses in Finglas were posted from the US. A number of others were intercepted at the SDS centre on the Naas Road.



The guns are sold by licensed dealers in the United States and are meant for use for law enforcement training, theatrical or film production or by collectors for display.

In Blanchardstown last year, there were 79 offences recorded where a firearm was used, an increase of 21 on the previous year.

Operation Crossover was launched to clamp down on the criminal gangs in the area and the activities of two of them, both suspected of being involved in cash-in-transit robberies, have been severely hampered.

Sparks

And somewhat more light-heartedly, from the letters in today's Independent:

Sir - A headline in today's edition of your paper reads: 'Gardai blitz has gangs on the run.'

'Blitz' is a word synonymous with the Nazi invasion of Poland, which led to the extermination of millions of people. The use of this expression could lead to a severe backlash from your sensitive readership.

Perhaps you should reflect on what happened when Kevin Myers used a similar hurtful 'B' word in that other Irish broadsheet!

Sparks

From todays Irish Times :

New Bill will give Garda extra powers

Marie O'Halloran
16/02/2005

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell has introduced sweeping new Garda powers in legislation designed to redress the balance of rights in society, which, he said, had "shifted too far in favour of the accused".

Introducing the Criminal Justice Bill, Mr McDowell surprisingly read the entire of his 23-page second-stage speech in Irish. It is highly unusual for a non-Irish language Bill to be read into the Dáil record entirely in Irish. The Bill aims to enhance Garda powers in criminal investigations and the Minister said that it had had a "long incubation".

The extensive new Garda powers include: increased detention periods from 12 to 24 hours; allowing a chief superintendent to sign a search warrant in exceptional circumstances; a provision for the admissibility of statements by witnesses, who subsequently refuse to testify or retract their original statements; the right to obtain some body samples such as saliva, without permission; a provision to allow for fixed penalties for lesser public order offences rather than a court case, and the right to preserve a crime scene to prevent anybody from entering a scene and interfering with or removing evidence.

The Bill, said Mr McDowell, contained "an essential updating of our law to ensure that criminal offences can be investigated and prosecuted in a way which is efficient and fair, and which meets the needs of modern society".

He is also considering further amendments to the legislation, including provisions for the electronic tagging of offenders and the statutory right of appeal to the courts for a firearms certificate to cater for elite shooters participating in sports events.

It will also require applicants for firearms certificates to prove they have secure accommodation for the weapon, and the Minister is considering increased sentences for serious firearms offences.

The Minister said there was a legitimate concern that "the rights of society to be protected take second place in the quest to ensure fairness to the suspect - that the balance has shifted too far in favour of the accused.

"I believe this is a legitimate concern which must be addressed and I am doing so in this Bill, while endeavouring to ensure that the opposite does not happen. We must always guard against the balance being shifted too far because that will lead inevitably to miscarriages of justice."

Insisting that the Bill "balances the need for effectiveness in fighting crime with the need to uphold individual rights", he said he "sought" to take the views of the Human Rights Commission into consideration, "where appropriate". The commission had not agreed with him that a case had been made for a superintendent to authorise an emergency search warrant, but the Minister argued that the provision was on the same basis as in drugs trafficking legislation.

The Human Rights Commission was also concerned about doubling arrest periods from 12 to 24 hours, but Mr McDowell denied that "increased detention powers risks violating our human rights obligations" under the European Court of Human Rights. Under existing law, intimate body samples are only allowed to be taken with written permission. The Bill allows the taking of saliva to be moved from an "intimate" to a "non-intimate" category and allows for mouth swabs to be taken which contain both saliva and body tissue and "are a valuable source of DNA".

© The Irish Times

The emphasis in there is mine - had anyone heard of the Minister taking this suggestion (which came from the NRPAI if I remember right) up before now?

Sparks

Coverage in today's Irish Independent:

Opposition parties call for withdrawal of Justice Bill

OPPOSITION parties have called on Justice Minister Michael McDowell to withdraw the Criminal Justice Bill introduced in the Dail this week.

Fine Gael deputy Jim O'Keeffe said there were "major deficiencies" in the Bill which he said the Minister should withdraw immediately.

He said the Minister had indicated he had major plans to "amend heavily" the Bill.

He said: "We will end up with a very different Bill and the Bill that eventually emerges will, in fact, be a new Bill."

The Fine Gael TD said it was farcical to have a debate on a Bill that would end up very different.

Labour deputy Joe Costello also said that a Bill that was likely to contain amendments which would be in excess of the substance of the original text was not the way to do business.

Minister McDowell introduced the entire Bill in Irish and Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh, speaking in Irish, described the Bill as "draconian" saying at the core of it was "the significant extension of Garda powers".

The debate in the Dail was adjourned.

Sparks

From the Times today:

McDowell to introduce gun amnesty before clampdown
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is to introduce a weapons amnesty in advance of his planned clampdown on gun offences, writes Liam Reid, Political Reporter

The provision, which will be included as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill currently before the Dáil, will allow people with unlicensed or unregistered firearms and weapons to hand them over to gardaí in order to avoid criminal prosecution.

The move is linked to mandatory sentencing for possession of firearms, which will introduce minimum custodial sentences for those caught with an unlicensed firearm, regardless of circumstances.

The amnesty will not apply to weapons that have been used in a crime, and the guns handed over during the amnesty are expected to be forensically tested to identify whether they were used during any recorded criminal offences.

It is one of a number of legal changes Mr McDowell is planning as part of a response to growing concerns about the number of serious crimes involving firearms.

These include new offences for modifying firearms, and heavier penalties for being in possession of a sawn-off shotgun, and a new offence of belonging to a criminal gang.

Eight people have been killed by firearms since January this year, most of them in gangland assassinations. This compares with nine such murders last year. There has also been a spate of armed robberies where families have been held hostage.

The amnesty will be one-off and will last for a number of weeks in advance of the introduction of the mandatory sentencing policy.

There are no reliable estimates from gardaí or the Department of Justice as to the exact number of unlicensed firearms in the State, although it is believed to be in the thousands. A similar initiative in Britain in 2003 resulted in 43,000 weapons and one million rounds of ammunition being handed over to police.

The majority of unlicensed firearms in Ireland are believed to be disused weapons, mainly shotguns, hunting rifles and old military weapons that belonged to family members.

The chief concern of the Garda is that these firearms could be stolen and subsequently used in armed raids or other crimes.

Mr McDowell had hoped to have the legislation passed by the summer recess but because of controversial amendments, including anti-social behaviour orders, electronic tagging and on-the-spot fines for public order breaches, Opposition TDs are expected to insist on a comprehensive debate.

The rise in firearm offences, especially in Dublin, has emerged as one of the main policing concerns at present, and the Government has been criticised by Opposition parties for failing to take adequate steps against it.

© The Irish Times

Sparks

From the Newsletter:

MLA Seeking Gun Assurance
By Elinor Glynn
Tuesday 24th May 2005

An assurance is to be sought from the Chief Constable Hugh Orde that the catalogue of delays in processing and approving gun licence applications have no political motive.

DUP Assemblyman Mervyn Storey has called for the clarification in the wake of a growing trend in gun licence delays being reported to him by constituents in north Antrim.

"I have been made aware of a number of cases recently where legitimate applications for gun licences or licence renewals have been delayed for a considerable period," he said.

" In every case, the applications have been made by responsible and respectable constituents, whose purpose for applying is totally within the law," said Mr Storey.

The DUP MLA says that he is raising the length of delays with the Chief Constable as some cases involve ex-police officers whose need of a protective weapon has, up until now, not been questioned.

"With the introduction of the new Gun Order in February this year the system has been overstretched, with the Police Service struggling to cope - yet another example of the decimation of the organisation in dealing with the every day matters of policing since Patten," said Mr Storey.

" I will be seeking assurances from Hugh Orde that these delays in processing and approving licence applications have no political motive.

"It would be totally unacceptable to think that republican attempts to draw comparisons between terrorist illegal weaponry and legally-held firearms is being given any credence," said the MLA.

Sparks

From the Sunday Times:

THE family of James Healy, who was murdered last weekend over a plot of land in Carlow, has insisted there was no provocation or even an argument before the fatal shooting.

Brian Healy, the only witness to last Saturday’s tragic events, has told family members that he and his brother had no warning of Michael Kehoe’s sudden attack.

...

Contrary to media reports, there was no altercation last Saturday morning before Kehoe emerged from his farmhouse in Coolyhune, Co Carlow, and came running at the two brothers firing a shotgun.

In fact, the two sides had a civil conversation less than 10 minutes beforehand when they discussed the fencing the Healy brothers were erecting, as arranged, around 27 acres of land they had bought.

...

Contrary to reports last week, James Healy had not taken out an injunction against Kehoe to prevent him from interfering in the work he was doing on the land. Although the Healys had paid a deposit to Kehoe’s sister Catherine, the vendor, they were not yet the legal owners because the deal could only be closed once the fencing was erected.
...

Kehoe had met the Healys on previous occasions too. “He wasn’t particularly chatty with them but there was never any indication that there was anything seriously wrong.”

Sounds to me like noone yet knows exactly what the hell happened (so now would be the usual time to see the Firearms Acts amended...:rolleyes: ).

Sparks

Article in today's Examiner:

Gardaí probe granting of firearms cert
By Caroline O'Doherty
AN internal garda inquiry into the handling of the murder and suicide that cost the lives of two young farmers in Co Carlow will probe why the killer was granted a firearms certificate when complaints had been made about his threatening behaviour.

Michael Kehoe, 39, used his legally held shotgun to shoot dead his neighbour, James Healy, 30, before turning the gun on himself on September 3 following a long-running dispute over land ownership.

A senior garda yesterday confirmed that local gardaí had been contacted about Mr Kehoe's behaviour towards other people in the area on a number of occasions prior to the incident. In spite of this, he was not refused a gun licence by his local station when it came up for annual renewal.

Fermoy-based Chief Superintendent Gerry Phillips has been appointed by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to carry out a review of the garda handling of the incident.

Superintendent Kevin Donohue of the Garda Press Office said yesterday it was expected one of the issues Chief Supt Phillips would focus on would be Mr Kehoe's access to firearms.

He said: "Chief Supt Phillips was directed by the Commissioner to review all the circumstances surrounding the incident and how it came to happen so I have no doubt he will be looking at that. It is relevant to his enquiries.

"I think you can be satisfied that we were aware of issues arising involving Michael Kehoe and that as a result, people had expressed concerns."

Supt Donohue added: "It is normal to look at the history of the gun and that involves its ownership and licencing history."

Firearms certificates can only be issued by gardaí of superintendent rank or higher and can only be refused if the superintendent has solid grounds to believe an applicant is not of sound mind or temperate manner as a refusal can be appealed in the district court.

Mr Justice Robert Barr, who chaired the tribunal of inquiry into the fatal shooting of John Carthy, who also had a legally held shotgun despite concerns about his behaviour, has queried whether the issuing of licences should be tightened up and whether applicants should have to produce proof of mental fitness.

He is expected to make recommendations on the issue in his final report due in the coming months although gun clubs have said they would be opposed to any further restrictions.

Michael Kehoe was a member of the Glynn and District Gun Club which yesterday defended its decision to form a guard of honour at his funeral despite the upset of mourners.

Club member Lar Cushen said Mr Kehoe had been a very good neighbour and dismissed as "lies" reports that he was a loner and "no angel".

"What happened on the morning wasn't done by the Michael Kehoe that was known around by his neighbours. We don't know what happened Michael that morning. His mind obviously flipped so that's why he committed that offence."

Rovi

Does anyone know where Sparks lives?
We'll need the address to send the ambulance with the defibrillator when he sees this-

From today's (Thu, Nov 17, 05) Irish Times-

The Irish Times wrote:

Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea holds an automatic pistol during an exercise at the Curragh Camp, Co Kildare, yesterday.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/1117/

Just heard the Fine Gael defence spokesman (whose name I can't remember, but he's a former soldier) on the radio berating the minister for his appalling gun handling and bad taste in light of recent gangland events.

Leaving aside the political point scoring, the gun handling does leave a lot to be desired
The presenter's speculation that "surely the gun would have been empty" didn't impress the Fine Gael man much.

I don't know if Minister O'Dea has any firearms experience, but you'd think whoever was looking after the gun would have pointed out the glaring mistake!


I hear Ryan Tubridy proclaiming it to be a great laugh too

.

civdef

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1117/dail.html



Maybe Willie is following the example of another well known politician:

Sparks

And proving that you can make a quick buck off just about anything:

http://www.cafepress.com/eireshirt.37955798

civdef

From today's Indo.

Toxic lead fear led to firing range closure


FEARS of lead poisoning were responsible for the closure of the national target-practice range at Garda headquarters.

As a result armed detectives have no firing range to hone their shooting skills.

The range in Dublin's Phoenix Park was shut down last December because of concerns that it could expose gardai to lead poisoning.

Special Branch detectives have had to travel to a firing range on open ground in the Midlands for the past six months to comply with the requirement for regular shooting practice.

These were the facilities available to detectives who fired six shots last Sunday in a failed attempt to burst the tyres on the speeding bus that killed retired teacher Maire Buckley in Dublin.

Mrs Buckley's funeral takes place this morning before burial at Fingal Cemetery.

Health

A Garda spokesman confirmed that the in-door Phoenix Park shooting range was closed last December but he declined to elaborate on the health concerns that prompted its closure.

The Garda firing range is enclosed and there was concern about the cumulative impact of trace lead deposits in the air.

If it were proven that the indoor practice arena posed a health hazard there would be potential for armed members of the force to take expensive compensation claims against the State, as has happened with the army deafness litigation.

The Garda spokesman confirmed that the Office of Public Works has been called in to help solve the problem.

"The Office of Public Works is identifying the work required to be done so it can be re-opened," he said.

Garda detectives are armed with handguns and sub-machine guns.

It emerged in the Abbeylara inquiry, into the death of John Carthy in Co Longford in 2000, that members of the Emergency Response Unit have received specialist training from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Virginia, United States.

Justine McCarthy

Rovi

Spotted this in yesterday's (Friday, 2nd June, 2006) Irish Independent (cut'npasted from www.unison.ie)-
[FONT=Verdana, Arial]
[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Arial]Slovaks fined €500 each for toy shootout at airport[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial]
A TOY-GUN "shootout" between two men was not a very grown up thing to do at the best of times, but definitely not when it was in an airport arrivals hall, a court heard yesterday.
The production of two replica handguns by Peter Laurinec (22) and Emanuel Hirec (21) caused a lot of distress among people waiting in Dublin Airport on May 6, Judge Anne Ryan said when she fined them €500 each.
Dublin District Court heard when they started pointing them and pretending to shoot at one another, bystanders alerted airport police and they were arrested.
The pair, who are from Slovakia, and live at Grange View Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour. The court heard they bought the toys in a €2 shop near where they live before setting off for the airport to meet some friends arriving from Slovakia.
Their solicitor, John O'Doherty, said they were in high spirits at the prospect of meeting people from home.
"The toy guns were for joke purposes, nothing more than that and while they are in their 20s, they were acting a lot younger than they are.
"Obviously, people at the airport viewed their behaviour as a lot more sinister than it was, but they now understand the gravity of the situation," Mr O'Doherty said.
Mr Laurinec has been living here nine months and Mr Hirec for one month. Both are employed as warehouses workers.
Judge Ryan, who was shown the toy guns, said it was a very serious matter which caused distress to a lot of people at the airport.
"To somebody who does not know they were toys, they look very authentic," she said.
She would not impose a jail sentence because they had no previous convictions and they had acknowledged, through an interpreter, that they understood the seriousness of what they had done.
"I hope they do realise what they have done and will not come before the courts again."
The judge gave them two months to pay the fines and also ordered the destruction of the toys.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial]
Idiots!

Glad to see the judge broke their toys though
[/FONT]

Sparks

In case noone's seen this yet (though I think that may be doubtful!):

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0717/abbeylara.html

Abbeylara report to be published Thursday
17 July 2006 22:27

The report into the shooting of John Carthy in Abbeylara, Co Longford, six years ago will be published on Thursday, 20 July.

The Tribunal, chaired by retired High Court Judge Mr Justice Robert Barr, sat for 208 days during which 170 witnesses were called, including members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit.

The publication of the final report has been delayed several times but a spokesperson for the tribunal confirmed this afternoon that the report will be presented to the clerk of the Dáil on Thursday morning.

Sparks

From the Irish Times on August 7th, as posted on the NARGC website:

Barr findings on gun laws must be enforced.
There is a lack of consistency in the application of the gun licensing code, partly because there are no published guidelines writes Des Crofton

One of the less reported aspects of the Barr Tribunal Report – but one of huge importance - concerns Module 6 which addressed what changes might be appropriate to the Irish firearms licensing code in light of the fact that John Carthy, despite his mental condition, continued to hold his shotgun licence with the approval of his local Garda Superintendent. Was the Superintendent entitled to withhold the licence despite the representations from John Carthy’s medical consultant? I believe he was so entitled as the Superintendent is the persona designata under the Firearms Act and the legislation would have supported him in such a decision. He is not obliged to accept any representation whatsoever, medical or otherwise.

One of the fundamental issues affecting the Irish licensing code, which emerged during evidence given by me on behalf of the NARGC, and the evidence of Superintendent Lyons for the Gardai, and which was accepted by the Tribunal, is the lack of consistency in the application of the licensing code. Linked to this is the absence of published guidelines to assist Superintendents in the exercise of their statutory discretion under the Acts. This is in stark contrast to the licensing codes in comparable jurisdictions examined by the Tribunal.

Justice Barr found that the absence of guidelines militates against consistency and uniformity in the processing of gun licences. This weakness in the Irish system had long before been identified by the National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC) and was included as part of its submission to the Tribunal. A critical number of Garda Superintendents simply do not know the provisions of the firearms legislation which they are statutorily obliged to administer. This absence of knowledge can easily be gauged by the fact that over 60 High Court challenges have been mounted by NARGC in the past few years against licensing decisions of a number of Superintendents. Of those which have been dealt with by the courts, all have gone against the Gardai, with the taxpayer picking up the tab. On current form, if all existing cases go the full distance, the final estimated cost to the taxpayer will be €5.5m.

While the Tribunal did not hear about the court cases, it did hear much about the weaknesses in the licensing system. The fact that these weaknesses were being identified by the country’s largest representative body for shooting was not lost on the Tribunal. It is not surprising therefore, that Barr has made a number of critical recommendations on the future structure of firearms licensing which very much support the NARGC viewpoint.

The principal future licensing recommendations are:

That the application form for a firearms license should be redesigned to incorporate a question which enquires of the applicant whether he/she has ever been treated for mental illness or depression

Justice Barr does not recommend that there be a statutory obligation on family members, medical practitioners or legal representatives to inform the authorities of any matter relating to the mental health of a firearms license holder.

The Report recommends that there should be a statutory right of appeal against negative decisions of Superintendents for firearms licenses and that that appeal system should be to the District Court.

In the interests of avoiding inconsistency in rulings on licensing applications, Justice Barr strongly recommends that appropriate guidelines should be devised for the benefit of both shooters and Superintendents.

He recommended that an Officer of Chief Superintendent rank or higher should have overall Garda responsibility for the scheme relating to the issuing and renewal of gun licenses and that officer to liaise with Superintendents and with NARGC.

It was recommended that each issuing Superintendent should meet, not less than twice each year, with representatives of all local gun clubs in their respective areas for the purpose of considering any problems which might exist regarding gun licensing in the relevant district.

At a higher level, Justice Barr recommended it is desirable that the Chief Superintendent or superior Officer, who has overall Garda responsibility for gun licenses, should meet at least once a year with a delegation from NARGC. (The recommendation to meet with clubs and the NARGC is largely about developing an early warning system on potential problems.).

Before a full firearms license is issued, an applicant should demonstrate competence in the use of the type of firearm for which the license is sought. The Tribunal accepted that NARGC could provide the appropriate professional instruction and certification.

It is imperative that the Garda Siochana and NARGC should collaborate on establishing an appropriate firearms safety course of instruction.

It should be a condition to the grant of a firearms certificate that the firearms applicant should have accommodation for the safe storage of firearms.

Justice Barr was in no doubt that the responsible shooting community, represented by NARGC, should be an indispensable partner for the Gardai in ensuring public safety in the future structure of the firearms licensing code. In fact, he concluded that his recommendations are matters which require urgent consideration by the Minister and Garda Siochana in collaboration with the various interested parties in Ireland, ‘in particular the NARGC’.

The challenge now for the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner is to recognise reality and accept the help that has been on offer to them for many years. All political parties should be at one on this issue. None of the Module 6 recommendations are controversial and neither are they disputed. Therefore, they should be welcomed by all.

Some of Justice Barr’s recommendations have already been addressed in the firearms amendments contained in the recently enacted Criminal Justice Act. But the jury is still out on the crucial ones concerning consultation. The importance of consultation with the shooting associations was also recognised by Lord Cullen in his Tribunal of Enquiry into the Dunblane disaster and also by Justice Thorp’s findings in New Zealand into the shooting of two people by police.

NARGC is ready and willing to play its part. It has already sought a meeting with the Department of Justice to discuss these matters. Will the Minister and Commissioner pick up the ball and run with it? Who knows? The Garda reaction to the Tribunal Report has not been encouraging thus far.

Des Crofton is Director of the National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC). The organisation has 25,000 members in 1,000 gun club.

Sparks

Meanwhile, it seems that the regional papers haven't been ignored by other anti-gun groups:
The Southern Star:

Virginia shooting
SIR—While the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech University is upsetting, the reality is that there are thousands of people in this country of the same ilk who carry out the same homicidal tendencies but instead of a human target direct their lethal firepower towards wild animals and birds.

One shudders to speculate what would happen if Irish live target shooters were prevented from dishing out fear and death to animals and birds.

A debate needs to take place into the need for the existence of any activity that involves the hunting down and killing of wild animals and birds. Such activities cloak a sickness and an evil virus that lead to tragic events like the Virginia Tech University massacre.

Can it only be a matter of time before such an event happens on Irish soil?Yours sincerely,

John Tierney,
Campaigns Director,
Association of Hunt Saboteurs,
PO Box 4734,
Dublin 1.

SMERSH

Fridays story:

Delay in handgun licence 'unlawful'

A gun club member is seeking a High Court order that a three-year delay by the Garda in granting him a licence for a handgun is unreasonable and unlawful.

<name>, claims Superintendent John O'Riordan of Listowel Garda station had unreasonably withheld a firearms certificate for a 9mm Luger pistol.

The case was adjourned yesterday to allow Supt O'Riordan, who is being represented by the State in the case, to come to court after Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill said he believed the issue could be easily resolved between the parties.

The judge earlier heard <name> had applied in 2004 for a certificate under the 1925 Firearms Act and had received a letter from the superintendent in December of that year saying he had been approved. However, the certificate was not issued even though it had been drafted, Mr Conleth Bradley SC, for Mr White said.

Last December, the Chief State Solicitor's office wrote to <name> on behalf of the superintendent saying the licence would be granted subject to conditions, including that he would have to have access to an approved firing range.

This appeared on Saturday

Objections to gun licence dropped

More news in brief

A gun club member has settled his High Court action over a three-year delay by gardaí in granting him a licence for a handgun.


His application for an order that his right to fair procedures had been breached, because he was not told why the licence was being withheld, was struck out and he was awarded 75 per cent of his costs.

The case had been due to be heard over two days in the High Court but after Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill said he believed the matter could be easily resolved between the parties, it was adjourned. Yesterday, the judge was told the State had agreed to grant the licence without any conditions.

BryanL

pest control on golf club

Rovi

Here you go-
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-liveline.smil

The item starts at 7:20.

Rovi

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Made todays Indo as well.The way the "residents" are describing it,you would swear they had a grandstand seat of the event??

Here it is (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/outrage-after-golf-club-kills-neighbourhood-fox-1311160.html)-

Irish Independent, Saturday March 8th, 2008 wrote:

Outrage after golf club kills neighbourhood fox

By Breda Heffernan
Saturday March 08 2008

Residents living near an exclusive golf club are up in arms after officials had a neighbourhood fox shot dead for damaging the greens.

Milltown Golf Club in south Dublin said that the animal was shot because it had caused "extensive damage" to the greens in recent times. It was shot by a licensed contractor and in accordance with regulations, it added.

However, locals living nearby said they were horrified that the creature, which had been a source of fascination for their children, was destroyed.
They denied that the fox, thought to be around three years old, had caused any damage to the links.

"A lot of the neighbours are thinking where is it going to stop?

"Are they going to start shooting neighbours' dogs and cats if they get on to the golf course?" asked one local man on RTE's 'Liveline' programme.

He said that another resident and her two children had been left in a "terrible state" after they witnessed a man shooting the fox twice in the head at around 10am on Monday. This allegedly happened within 60 feet of surrounding houses.

"All the neighbours are up in arms, including ourselves. We had observed this fox, he was a magnificent creature. He had actually learned to not fear humans as much as they (foxes) do. He would often be seen in the golf club within maybe 50 feet of the golfers playing there," he added.

"Apparently, they shot him within 20 feet, two shots to the head, and then one of the guys from Milltown left the golf buggy thing and went over and kicked it.

"Then they just dragged it up on to the back of the buggy and drove off with it. It was shocking, absolutely shocking," he said.

- Breda Heffernan

Sparks

Bond-007 wrote: »

That judgement should be on http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2008/ in a few days.

And on courts.ie as well.

Also, here's the Irish Times coverage from Saturday.

rrpc

johngalway wrote: »

Is there anywhere we can see that segment again? I don't have the Sky recorder thingy. I'd like to see it again to write my own letter to be honest.

http://www.rte.ie/news/primetime

Soberly titled "Gun Culture on the rise in Ireland" :mad:

Rew

Not sure if its been posted already but if any one missed it you can watch it here:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0520/primetime_av.html?2376839,null,230

(you will need to install Real Player, its free)

Rovi

rrpc wrote: »

Rew wrote: »

Not sure if its been posted already but if any one missed it you can watch it here:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0520/primetime_av.html?2376839,null,230

(you will need to install Real Player, its free)

I already did

You can actually use Media Player as well, no need to stick more sh1te on your PC.

'Tis on YouTube too-
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=J6xWZaX_x5M

Sparks

The story surfaced again today, albiet in a far less sensational form, in the Sunday Business Post:

Dramatic rise in handgun ownership
01 June 2008 By John Burke
Almost 1,600 handguns are held by licensed private gun owners, just three years after firearms lobby groups successfully challenged the state’s refusal to issue pistol permits.

Figures obtained from the gardai show that there are 1,596 handguns licensed in the Republic. Details were not available on the calibre or barrel length of the handguns, or what proportion are specifically designed for target shooting or other use.

The total number of licensed guns in the state is more than 218,670. More than 167,000 of those are shotguns - of which over 29,000 are licensed to an owner of another shotgun. There are also more than 49,500 rifles licensed in the state.

The number of handguns being licensed may rise further, following a recent High Court judgment. The National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC) said the judgment given by Ms Justice Maureen Harding Clarke last month ‘‘settles once and for all’’ issues around handgun licensing.

Under the 1925 Firearms Act, a Garda superintendent must ‘‘satisfy himself that the applicant may be permitted to possess, use and carry the firearm without posing a danger to public safety or the peace’’.

The NARGC successfully argued that some Garda superintendents had interpreted this ‘‘for the purposes of resisting a firearms licence application, as meaning that the superintendent is entitled to take into account the calibre, style or type of firearm which is being sought, as in some way forming part of his reasoning concerning public safety and the peace’’.

The NARGC has helped people in 70 judicial review cases against the non-issue of firearms licences since 2002, and has won all of the cases which have been completed to date.

BryanL

Sparks's letter was published in todays Examiner and a seperate article on rising gun crime in Ireland made no link to legally held gun and was a fairly balanced piece.
although the claim there could be over 150,000 illegaly held guns in the country is shocking


Rising gun crime here to stay, finds study

By Paul O’Brien, Political Correspondent
IRELAND’S rising gun crime problem is here to stay despite Garda efforts to combat it, an expert study has indicated.


Ireland features as a case study in the most recent Small Arms Survey, an annual report which examines global gun ownership and associated issues.

The 2007 survey, conducted by researchers at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, was published in the latter half of last year, but not widely reported at the time.



It points out that, previously, Irish problems with small arms were “associated exclusively” with terrorism in the north. That changed with the advent of the peace process, while gun crime rose in the Republic at the same time. “Instead of Northern Ireland, now it is the Republic of Ireland that is feeling the effects of criminal gun violence,” it states.

There are about 231,000 legally held firearms licensed in the state, according to the latest figures published by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern in the Dáil last week.

But the Garda Síochána’s most serious concern is not “traditional gun ownership, but an invasion of handguns and automatics smuggled in from Europe”, the survey points out.

Illegally held, unlicensed firearms are estimated to number at least 150,000, and this figure “could be considerably higher”, the survey says. Of greatest concern are the weapons in the hands of criminal gangs, many of which are semi-automatic pistols and submachine guns. “They have fuelled unprecedented, murderous rivalries among drug gangs,” the survey states.

Citing work from other researchers, it adds: “Small arms proliferation appears to be an unexpected consequence of integration into a border-free Europe, leaving national leaders and law enforcement officials struggling to cope.”

The survey acknowledges the three-fold response of the authorities here: the crackdown on smuggling; the 2006 amnesty for illegal firearms and an increase in the number of gardaí. But it concludes on a pessimistic note, stating: “These steps will help Ireland deal with rising gun crime, but they have been tried elsewhere and found wanting.

“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Ireland is becoming more like the rest of the world in terms of firearm-related problems.”

Click here for irishexaminer.com stories before this date

Sparks

Yup, on the Examiner website:

Firearms report was fair and balanced

AS the reporter who compiled RTÉ's Prime Time report on May 20 on a recent High Court case concerning the firearms legislation in Ireland, I would like to respond to Mark Dennehy’s letter (June 2), which criticised it.


The report examined the recent High Court judgment of Ms Justice Maureen Harding Clarke, which found a garda superintendent had erred when he refused an experienced hunter a licence for a .308 calibre rifle, on the grounds of public safety.

The judge said the superintendent had focused on the size and type of firearm instead of the character of the applicant.




The report looked at the implications of that judgment both for the gun fraternity and for garda superintendents, who are the licensing authorities.

It also examined the growth in licensed firearms in Ireland and the increasing sophistication and power of the guns being used by hunters and marksmen.

In his letter, Mr Dennehy asked where was the interview with the gardaí, the shooting community and the Firearms Consultative Panel.

At present, 40 cases are still before the courts.

The cases were taken by the gun lobby to challenge decisions by garda superintendents to refuse gun licences on the grounds of public safety.

The gardaí declined our invitation to be interviewed because the cases are ongoing.

In relation to the shooting community and the Firearms Consultative Panel, Mr Dennehy may not be aware that Des Crofton, the director of the National Association of Regional Game Councils, sat on the consultative panel and is also an active member of the shooting community, as is Joe Melia, who also represented Ireland in international competitions. Both of these prominent members of the shooting community featured in the report.

Paul Maguire
Reporter
Prime Time
RTÉ Television
Donnybrook
Dublin 4

rrpc

A bit of positive coverage in todays Irish Times folks:

Home on the firing range


Guns are usually associated with criminality or insurgence in Ireland, but they're also used for sport by thousands of shooters. What's the attraction? Former Army officer Tom Clonan puts the Midlands Shooting Range to the test

SPORTS SHOOTING is described by enthusiasts as the Cinderella of Irish sport - under-funded and under-appreciated. But their determination to overcome these problems showed in the standard and professionalism of marksmanship at the Midlands Shooting Range, near Tullamore, Co Offaly this week.

As a retired Army officer - and qualified weapons instructor - when I visited the range, billed "the shooting heart of Ireland", alongside scenic bogland, I was struck by the high standard of this civilian range.

Constructed to the highest of international standards - in many respects exceeding the safety standards of international military ranges - the Midlands range caters for short-range precision-pistol shooting and long-range F-class rifle and target rifle sharp-shooting.

Large, reinforced earthen berms act as back-stops or butts behind the various targets to ensure that stray bullets do not exit the range area. The grass firing points are immaculately maintained and command excellent views over small targets with classic concentric rings and bull's eyes, which are arranged in neat rows at intervals of 50 metres out to 1,000 metres. At the furthest distances, accuracy is only possible with the aid of the telescopic sights mounted on the F-class 7mm rifles.

Throughout my Army service, I always had a preference for firing automatic pistols - a choice more informed by a childhood of watching US cop shows rather than any military rationale. After some familiarisation and training at the range, I was allowed to fire a classic Les Baer .45 semi-automatic precision pistol at a range of 15 metres. With some of Ireland's leading sharpshooters as curious onlookers, I was nervous, to say the least. However, my military training began to kick in automatically - concentrating on stance, breathing, grip, heartbeat and trigger pressure.

At first attempt, I managed to place at least three rounds on to the bull's eye. I was tempted to congratulate myself until I was informed that Irish amateur competitors regularly hit the bull's eye 100 per cent of the time at ranges out to 50 metres - at which distance, the target resembles a match head. Despite this high standard, Irish sports shooting gets very little attention.

SHOOTING AS A sport in Ireland has a long and colourful history stretching back to the mid-19th century. The oldest written records of shooting competitions in Ireland relate to 1841, almost a decade before the English, Welsh and Scottish formed their national rifle associations. In the world of sports shooting, the Irish, along with the Germans, have traditionally been regarded as natural crack-shots.

By the end of the 19th century, shooting had become a popular sport in Ireland, particularly among the landed gentry and Anglo-Irish ascendancy and shooting ranges were established throughout Ireland. Such was the popularity of the sport that in 1907, The Irish Times and New York Times devoted pages of coverage to Ireland's victory in the international Home Countries shooting competition held in Britain. Ireland's claim to fame was to have beaten England on their home turf. On return to Ireland, the Home Countries trophy was carried in procession through the streets of Dublin to a civic reception.

That's just an extract. Go out and buy the paper to get the rest.

It's the least we can do for such positive coverage.

Sparks

Okay, not as widespread as the Times, but still. The Bray People covered ECSC's team that went to the Phoenix match in Bisley:

Wicklow sharp-shooters help Ireland win silver
Thursday June 12 2008

A number of keen Wicklow shooters triumphed recently as part of the Irish team which took silver in the Phoenix International shooting competition in Bisley, England.The team celebrated reaching its highest level ever in the Under Lever Gallery rifle section and were only narrowly beaten by the host team.

A number of keen Wicklow shooters triumphed recently as part of the Irish team which took silver in the Phoenix International shooting competition in Bisley, England.

The team celebrated reaching its highest level ever in the Under Lever Gallery rifle section and were only narrowly beaten by the host team.

The squad of eight shooters has a strong Wicklow representation with Mike Doherty and Declan Byrne from Arklow and Roy Mitchell from Ashford.

Doherty also took the overall second place in the Speed Steels', Silver standard in Silhouette', Bronze standard in 1500 Gallery Rifle', Timed and Precision' and Multi Target' while Byrne also picked up a Bronze Standard for Silhouette' and Timed and Precision'.

The duo have been performing very well lately and most recently were placed highly at a contest in Germany as part of the Irish team.

Each team member shoots regularly as part of the East Coast Sport Shooting Club which was established in 2005 to give local sport and target shooting enthusiasts an opportunity to train and enhance their skills in a safe and secure environment.

While still a very small club, it has a Garda Authorised range with members enjoying great success at local, national and international level.

bigred

Mod edit of thread title given what turned up in the thread - bigred's original title was "NARGC PRO on Radio 1 this morning" -Sparks

Oh sweet Jesus. It was awful. "Weapons...ah...em....all firearms are very dangerous.....eh....people have a right to own a firearm...". I propose Sparks as the new PRO (seriously).I mean, it's not often the shooting community get a chance to appear on the national broadcaster and he should have capitalised on the 3min slot he had and sell the perfect safety record of shooters in this country and reassure Joe Public that they've nothing to worry about. I would have thought he'd be better prepared. It's not like we didn't know what sort of questions were going to get asked.

Sparks

And this isn't over yet. In today's papers...

From the Irish Times:

Minister to tighten law on registered handguns
MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern is to clamp down on legally-held handguns after a High Court judge criticised the soaring number of registered weapons.

Proposals will be brought before the Cabinet in the autumn on tightening gun laws which were denounced as piecemeal last week by Mr Justice Peter Charleton.

Mr Ahern, speaking yesterday outside the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council of Ministers meeting in Cannes, France, said he had ordered an intensive review on how to change the laws governing gun ownership.

Mr Ahern, who spoke to Attorney General Paul Gallagher and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy about new legislation, said he was grateful to the judge for highlighting the trend.

The Department of Justice said there were about 1,700 legally-held handguns in the Republic.

Mr Justice Charleton hit out at the level of registered handguns in Ireland as he blocked an attempt by a shooting enthusiast to overturn a Garda decision to refuse him a firearms certificate for a Glock 22 handgun.

From the Irish Independent:

New law promised to tighten controls on guns
By Tom Brady
Tuesday July 08 2008
Tom Brady Security Editor

The Government is to bring in tighter controls on the availability of legally held handguns in the wake of criticism from a judge about the existing legislation.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern decided yesterday to draft proposals to change the law after talks with Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Attorney General Paul Gallagher.

The three men discussed the move in Cannes, where Mr Ahern is attending a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on immigration laws.

The minister said he had been concerned at the increasing number of handguns being licensed, following a series of court decisions favourable to shooting enthusiasts.

High Court judge Peter Charleton revealed last week that 1,600 pistol licences had been granted last year. He said the increasing number of weapons licensed for personal use was "exactly the opposite" to what was happening in Britain where handguns had been banned.

Mr Justice Charleton said reasonable people were entitled to feel alarmed about the large increase here, and he felt there was a pressing need for drawing together the multiple "piecemeal" rules on the control of firearms here into a clear law.

He pointed out that the rules were currently spread over five firearms acts and the 2006 Criminal Justice Act, and said codification of the firearms control laws was almost as pressing as the need for a clarification of the laws on sexual violence.

From the Offaly Express:

Vow to clamp down on legal firearms

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has vowed to clamp down on legally-held handguns after a High Court judge criticised the soaring number of registered weapons.
Proposals will be brought before the Cabinet in the autumn on tightening up existing gun laws which were denounced as piecemeal last week by Mr Justice Peter Charleton.

Mr Ahern, who spoke with the Attorney General Paul Gallagher and the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy about new legislation, said he was grateful to the judge for highlighting the trend. "While I am aware that the vast majority of persons with licensed firearms pursue their interests legitimately, public safety has to be the paramount consideration and I will take whatever action is necessary to ensure that that is put beyond doubt in our laws," he said.

Sparks

Podcast of this morning now up here.

Sparks

From the Irish Times today, emphasis is mine:

AG to unveil reports on law reform

CAROL COULTER

ATTORNEY General Paul Gallagher will launch two Law Reform Commission (LRC) documents this evening aimed at making the law more accessible.

The first is the LRC report on statute law restatement. This process involves integrating amendments into the original Acts, so that the most up-to-date version of the law can be read in a single document. This has the potential to save huge amounts of time as, at the moment, especially with much-amended Acts, lawyers have to trawl through several different documents to find out what the law actually states.

In July last year the LRC published its consultation paper on the subject, following responsibility for restatement being transferred to it from the Office of the Attorney General.

This was followed by a consultation process and the receipt of submissions.

The report being published today contains legislation to be included in the commission's first Programme of Restatement, covering law for restatement in 2008/2009.

This programme will cover the Freedom of Information Act 2007, which has close to 100 amendments; the Data Protection Acts, which have over 70; the Prevention of Corruption Acts; and the Criminal Procedure Act 1967.

Areas of legislation with multiple Acts to be covered include ethics in public office legislation; firearms legislation; statute of limitations legislation (which is made up of 13 Acts); employment leave legislation; proceeds of crime legislation and equality legislation.

Updates of four existing restatements, carried out already by the Office of the Attorney General, will also be included.

The LRC will also launch a consultation paper on a legislation directory this evening. This is a publicly available database of all primary legislation and some secondary legislation, which will document modifications made to primary legislation by later legislation. The current database is at www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Responsibility for this has also been transferred from the Office of the Attorney General to the LRC, and the consultation paper considers how the directory can best serve its user base.

Proposals for its improvement include more timely updates, the inclusion of comprehensive commencement information for Acts, and the association of secondary legislation with their parent Acts.

© 2008 The Irish Times

The idea of a restatement is not that the law will be changed in any way, but that someone will start with the Firearms Act 1925 and then apply each and every amendment from statute, eu directive, SI, whatever and produce one single document at the end of it, which will then legally supercede all the stuff that came before; so instead of the Firearms Act 1925, as amended, you get the Firearms Act, 2009. Which is a hell of a lot easier to read for a start. It should also highlight problems with the legislation which are caused by that amendment process, such as conflicting definitions that aren't noticed until you actually apply all the amendments in one place, and that sort of thing.
We have two unofficial ones already which myself and RRPC put together, but this would be an actual, citable-in-court, legal document.

More details later tonight hopefully...

(oh, and the bit at the very end about commencement information is critical as well because right now, any restatement has to look at what legislation was commenced, not just what legislation was passed by the Dail; and it turns out that that's done via SIs 90% of the time and there's no single place where SIs are published. Iris Oifigial often carries notices of SIs being signed, but not always the content. You wind up chasing after departments looking for the relevant SI a lot of the time. So this is a good thing).

Sparks

Some probably remember that last time round, Matt Emmons competed with a rifle that wasn't his own because someone took a screwdriver to the chamber of his anschutz a few weeks before the games. It seems that that kind of disgraceful and shameful conduct hasn't gone away. From the Telegraph:

Beijing Olympics: Cheating accusation from Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra
The Beijing Olympics has been hit by a fresh 'cheating' row after India's gold-medal winning shooter said that his gunsight had been tampered with before the final round of his event.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Last Updated: 11:18AM BST 14 Aug 2008


Abhinav Bindra of India during his medal winning performance in the Men's 10m Air Rifle shooting Photo: AFP / GETTY

Abhinav Bindra, who became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic Gold earlier this week, said he had discovered the alteration as he practiced before the final of the 10m Air Rifle event which he went on to win.

Competitors are given three minutes of 'sighter' shots to zero in their sights before the competition officially begins and it was at this point that Bindhra, 25, discovered that someone had moved his rear sight.

Dr Amit Bhattacharjee, Abhinav's personal mental trainer said: "When Abhinav fired the first shot in the sighting time (practice time), it hit the target between the fourth and fifth rings.

"It is unthinkable of any shooter competing at this level to score 4.5 points. But he remained calm and corrected the angle (of his sight) and the end result is in front of you."

The Indian team authorities said that no official complaint had been made about the incident, since it is acknowledged to be the responsibility of the shooter to take proper care of his rifle.

Baljit Singh Sethi, India's deputy Chef-the-Mission who is also the secretary general of the National Rifle Association of India, said.

"Actually, you cannot blame anyone for it's your duty to take care of your gun. He was the only Indian to qualify, so there were shooters only from other countries in that room."

Bindra has recalled going to the toilet at the same time his German coach Gabriela Buehlmann went out for a cigarette, leaving the gun unattended. It was at this moment that the Indians suspect the rifle was tampered with.

The allegations of cheating come a day after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to answer allegations in the US media that three of China's gold-medal winning gymnastics team were underage.

According to Olympic regulations gymnasts must turn 16 by the end of an Olympic year, but several reports in the Chinese media appeared to refer three of the Chinese gymnasts as 13 and 14 as recently as a year ago.

Doubts have been cast over the ages of He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, and Yang Yilin who look considerably younger than their counterparts. Age is considered an advantage in gymnastics because younger girls are more flexible than older ones.

The victorious gymnasts who beat the USA to win team gold, were subjected to hostile questioning at their victory press conference, with journalists demanding to know if those under suspicion could 'remember their 15th birthdays'.

The IOC said that passports and other documentation provided by the Chinese authorities during the registration process 'proved' the athletes were old enough to compete, but suspicions continue to linger.

rrpc

First time I've heard of this happening in shooting:

BEIJING (AP) A North Korean shooter was stripped of his two medals and expelled from the Beijing Olympics along with a Vietnamese gymnast Friday after failing doping tests.

They are the second and third athletes caught doping in Beijing, where the IOC is conducting a record 4,500 drug tests.

The International Olympic Committee said shooter KIM Jong Su tested positive for propanolol after winning the silver medal in the 50-meter pistol and bronze in the 10-meter air pistol.

Propanolol is a banned betablocker, which can be used to prevent trembling in events such as shooting and archery. The bronze medal in the 10-meter event now goes to American shooter Jason Turner. In the 50-meter event, China's TAN Zongliang moves up to the silver and Russia's Vladimir Isakov is upgraded to the bronze.

IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist said he considered Kim guilty of "a deliberate intake" of a banned substance because of propanolol's specific benefit for shooters. Kim could face a ban of up to two years from the international shooting federation.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said both athletes were kicked out of the games and had their accreditations revoked. Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was kicked out of the games Monday after testing positive for EPO in a pre-competition check.

Good for Jason Turner and Vladimir Isakov. Just a pity that they didn't get the medal ceremony. Jason Turner had a shoot off in the Air Pistol for 4th place (sometimes referred to as the 'potato medal'). I'll bet he's glad now that he took it seriously!

And I'll bet Oleg Omelchuk is sorry he didn't! He also had a shoot off with Isakov and Isakov had a 9.1, Omelchuk had a 6.5!

Oops

fat-tony

Was just about to post that info on the failed dope test!

See Irish Times website : http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/other/2008/0815/1218747962974.html

Sparks

Meanwhile, away from the actual sport end, the postmortem and recriminations have started :rolleyes:

From the Herald:

Why Ireland doesn't win at Olympics
FIGHTING CHANCE: With €30m of funding, our athletes should be bringing home Olympic medals
By Eoghan COrry
Friday August 15 2008

Michael Phelps is going to win as many gold medals in a few days as Ireland has in its entire sporting history.

With that sobering thought we should stop celebrating the progress of every boxer through every preliminary bout of the Olympics as if it was a triumph.

When our losers return from Beijing it is likely that yet another committee will be put in place to prevent more embarrassment for Irish sport.

The recommendations will be the same as the previous committee following the disaster of Athens (one gold medal, which was returned unused) and Sydney (one silver medal).

Funding

Money used to be the primary gripe for our athletes. About €30m of funding was spent on elite athletes during this Olympic cycle.

At a going rate of somewhere between the bargain basement rate of €2.82m per medal enjoyed by Canada or the €3.07m for Australia in the last Olympic cycle, or the €6m per medal spent by Britain, we should be bringing home between five and 10 medals.

But the system we have put in place seems more capable of gobbling up funds than delivering the success that this country might expect.

Like the health service, the more money we spend, the more pointless the exercise seems. Expensive sports like sailing seem to be capable of saddling the whole elite spending project with big bills and a maximum return of what looks like eighth place.

Even our boxers looked incapable of delivering anything until three months ago, and arrived in Beijing with lowly world rankings. Most of them left it very late before qualifying for the games at all.

Our only top-three ranked sports personality, Jessica Kurten, didn't go to the Olympics. Just two of our Beijing team travelled with a top 10 world ranking. Derek Burnett was expected to finish in the top six and finished sixth last. Eileen O'Keeffe, if not injured, would have been delighted with a top 10 place.

Instead of a serious podium prospect for our €30m we are grasping at straws, hoping someone like Eoin Rheinisch or Ken Egan would snatch a medal out of turn from their mid-teens world ranking.

Money doesn't automatically translate in to Olympic medals but it sure helps. You can chart spending on the medals table. Cutbacks in sports spending have sent some of the champions of 20 years ago tumbling in the medals table.

Bounty

Because of our small population we are paying a high Olympic bounty, €7.80 per head of population compared with €1.17 in Canada and €2.54 in Britain but considerably less than the €9.42 per head they spend in Australia.

But it shows; seven days into the games Australia is in sixth place on the medals table, indicating just how irrelevant population is. India, whose population increases by the population of Australia each year, has just won its first-ever gold medal.

Finland and Norway, our nearest equivalent in geographical, economic and population terms, have two medals each and can reasonably expect two more.

Britain is claiming, mainly in their own media, that their programme is delivering good results and indeed they are loitering around the medals table in 10th place. After the disaster of 1996, when they finished behind Ireland for the only time in Olympic history, the British won 28 medals and spent €151m on their athletes for Sydney.

Their Public Accounts Committee moaned in 2006 that "10 sports... won no medals, despite receiving nearly £14m in total," in the tones of a disappointed fund manager. Their spending is to increase in the run up to 2012.

What to do? Other nations can turn to commercial interests to become involved in Olympic preparation projects. That is not an option for us. We have to look to niche sports, which have little commercial appeal, for our potential medals.

Most of the commercial money in Irish sport (as well as a lot of state funding) goes into racing, soccer, rugby, GAA and golf. They are the sports receiving TV coverage and the guys in the corporate marketing departments demand TV coverage.

Trap shooting or even slalom canoeing is never going to be prime time viewing. Knitting has a better chance of making the TV schedules than dressage.

While it is realistic that Eoin Rheinisch can train abroad on slalom courses, the jump up from the courses we have in Ireland to international level will prove a formidable barrier for any young canoeists inspired by his performance last week.

Like the stock market, nobody wants a slow-growth portfolio to deliver an Olympic medal in 12 years time, just a quick return.

From the Indo:

Time to raise bar in pursuit of medals
Sunday August 17 2008

Measured against our low expectations of medals, the first full week of the Olympics should probably be declared a qualified success for the Irish Olympic team.

There have been national records and personal best performances in the pool, Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes carry the flag in boxing, Eoin Rheinisch (right) battled his way through to the final of Kayak K1 Slalom, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal to a Togan who has visited his country once, Rob Heffernan came eighth in the 20km walk and Roisin McGettigan eased through to today's final of the 3,000m steeplechase.

It may not be the stuff of dreams, but set against Ireland's performance at the Olympics since 1960 (an average of one medal per games, and that average is somewhat boosted by Michelle Smith's extraordinary performances in Atlanta), this is relative success, Irish style.

It is also what we have been conditioned to expect. A disappointing and acrimonious Sydney was followed by yet more disappointment at Athens where not a single Irish athlete managed to record a personal best.

The message to Irish sports fans and athletes from the Sports Council, the post-Olympic review groups who always wonder why we didn't achieve more and from almost anyone with a well-paid job in sports administration is clear: forget about medals, rejoice in participation. It may be deemed a realistic approach, but it sets the bar too low.

When pressed, they will talk about the 'numbers game' -- Ireland's population is claimed to be too small to produce consistently high-achieving athletes -- and about money, yet there has been no shortage of funds. The evidence shows, however, that a large population is no guarantor of sporting prowess and a relatively small population is no inhibitor.

The Australians are renowned for punching about their population weight on the medals table and the Chinese are showing what happens if you throw vast amounts of money at a large population, but countries with populations not dramatically dissimilar to Ireland (Denmark, New Zealand, Finland) deliver better performances than we manage.

Just as importantly, countries with relatively small populations and far less money than ours deliver better performances. Even at the half-way stage, the disparities are startling: Georgia (population 5.5m: 3 medals so far, 2 gold), Azerbaijan (pop. 8m; 4 medals, one gold), Slovakia ( pop. 5.4m; 4 medals, 3 gold), Cuba (pop. 11.3m; 8 medals, 1 gold), Belarus (pop. 9.6m; 4 medals, 0 gold).

Quibble if you must about the sports in which they win those medals -- judo and Greco-Roman wrestling figure prominently, as does shooting -- but the point is that with limited resources many other countries manage to deliver Olympic champions.

We, in truth, have given up on that. If a boxer manages to win gold for the first time since 1992, put it down to an individual performance of excellence, not the result of 16 years of careful planning.

The bar could, and should, be set much higher. Great Britain, too, had an awful Sydney but it has subsequently transformed its Olympic preparations. Money was better targeted, elite athletes were chosen with care and outstanding coaches were recruited. The results, particularly in swimming, rowing and cycling, are exceptional, and will improve further for the 2012 London Games.

Ireland does not lack the money -- we have spent hundreds of millions of Euro over the past dozen years on sport -- but we still lack the facilities and the focus to deliver champions.

Sporting politics have played a dispiriting (though diminishing) role in holding us back, but the key problem is desire. If we want to win against the best, then we must set our sights higher, and we must focus more ruthlessly on those athletes, and sports, where that success can be achieved.

The goal is not just Olympic gold, but the creation of sporting icons who can inspire Irish children to run, paddle, jump, ride and box, coaxing them off their ever larger backsides and away from the sedentary pursuits of eating, binge drinking and playing video games.

But whenever we despair too much about our medal prospects, it is worth stopping an Indian in the street and commiserating.

Despite a population of one billion (of whom half are under 25), a booming economy and a fanatical sporting culture, India is an Olympic black hole. Last week Abhinav Bindra won his country's first ever individual gold medal.

There is no lack of sporting talent -- India's cricketers are among the best in the world -- just a lack of focus and a sporting administration that Indian writers say is riddled with corruption.

It proves, though, that the numbers game is a sham. The right attitude, a good talent identification programme, well-directed money, well-targeted athletes and a belief in excellence matter far, far more than the size of your population or your wallet.

Sparks

More knocking of the olympic athletes - and this time from the GAA (via their "media partner"). :mad:
http://www.europeanirish.com/news_details.php?news_id=707

2008-08-18
Some Irish Olympic Perfrormances were quite dismal - Why?
Written by Siasy

If you are not going to perform at the Olympics, then when are you hoping to perform?

This is a question I'd like to put to some Irish athletes and competitors who performed well below and outside their best at these Olympic Games.

Some complain about being too tired - some had the wrong strategy, some just had an off-day.

Doesn't it sound too familiar from the Irish camp?

Would Kilkenny play in an All-Ireland Hurling Quarter Final or Semi-Final and say - we were tired, or had an off day?

Training is meant to peak your performances at games of this level.

But in sports - shooting, rowing, eventing, badminton, athletics - 3000m Steeple chase, 400m hurdles, 100m hurdles, 400m sprint,
the athletes compete against other competitiors who they know they can beat, and have defeated already this year, but the irish are not peaking at these games.

Why is that?
Hearing from Scott Evans that he knows he should have won that first round match, from Michaelle Carey, that her legs were just tired and that she just did not perform on the day, from Burnett in the trap shooting that he has defeated all of the finalists recently, but he failed to qualify, to watch Gillick, Derval O'Rourke, Eileen O'Keeffe, the 2 rowing teams - all performing well below their best - the Irish equestrian eventing team - 8th place before their best event Show-jumping, after show-jumping still in 8th place - out of 11 teams, delighted at being in the top 21.
irish 470 class sailing team, winning 2 of 10 races, but coming 2nd last of 26 boats in other of those 10 races...
It just makes you wonder, what is it about the lack of belief in the psyche of the Irish competitors, that fail to make the grade, when it really matters?

Is reaching the Olympic Games enough and the dream reached for most Irish Athletes. Can Irish people expect no more than that?

Is it another Saipan, where reaching the Finals is enough? And then, sure we're irish we can show the world how to party - but not how to win!

We do fortunately have some exceptions,
Irish boxers, Paul Hession, Irish Swimmers Bree and Noche (Irish records), and Irish canoeist Eoin Rheinisch, and Denis Lynch with Lantinus still in contention in Show-jumping.

Sparks

The Times is a little more balanced....

Athletes take rap for now but real solutions are long-term
Ian O'Riordan on why failing to properly prepare, in terms of facilities, is only preparing for failure

WHEN AN athlete steps on to the track at the Olympics it's not simply show time. It's something they've worked towards for years; it's life-defining as, with the whole world watching, their Neil Armstrong moment arrives. Yesterday, David Gillick didn't even step out of the spaceship.

One small step back for Gillick.

One giant leap backward for Irish athletics.

That's the danger of coming to the Olympics with any sort of expectations. If you fail to reach them, and those around you have failed as well, you better be ready to take the rap.

"This is the Olympics," said Gillick. "Every race is tough, but I had aspirations of making the final, and now, my Olympics are over. That's another four years. But I'm not going to make excuses. That's not me. I'm shell-shocked. Gutted. I'll hold my hands up and say I ran crap. And I'm out."

So who is to blame? Should he have been sent up there in the first place? Was he properly prepared? What is Athletics Ireland playing at? Who really cares, because he's going to take the rap anyway, and has at least four years to realise that.

When things go wrong at the Olympics, there is nowhere to hide. You can't blame your team-mates and the manager won't get the sack. You can say you felt tired or your knee hurt and that will sound like an excuse. You can hold your hands up and say you ran crap.

Or else you could have stayed at home, and joined the chorus of disapproval watching the Olympics through their TV guide. There are multiple facets to Olympic participation, but the one that matters is on the small screen.

So all our athletes are crap. We deserve better than this. This is taxpayers' money. We want to see finalists or personal bests and maybe even some medals.

And of course we do. There comes a time when an athlete's failure deserves some hard questioning, and Gillick's failure was certainly one of those times.

Is he training hard enough? Has he bulked up too much? Has he fallen into the comfort zone? Has he got too high an opinion of himself? Gillick didn't even step out of the spaceship yesterday and that demands some answers.

It doesn't matter that he's won two European Indoor titles for Ireland. That he left his family and friends to base himself at Loughborough University in England, because the facilities and coaching simply aren't available in Ireland. That he's put four years work into getting it right at the Olympics, only to see it go inexplicably wrong.

That demands some answers.

And what about Derval O'Rourke? She was miles off her personal best - which is actually a bit of a cheap argument, because less than 10 per cent of athletes run personal bests at the Olympics. The bottom line is she looked a shadow of the athlete that won World Indoor gold and European outdoor silver, and that demands some answers.

And where have all our distance runners gone? Róisín McGettigan made the final of the steeplechase and bombed. Why aren't more athletes coming through the US scholarship system anymore, like Delany, Murphy, Coghlan, Treacy, O'Sullivan, O'Mara, Sonia, etc?

We've pretty much agreed by now that Alistair Cragg is a loser, but then he's not really one of ours anyway, and Pauline Curley was practically an embarrassment in the women's marathon - even if she epitomised the last remnants of the Olympic spirit.

Who wants to see a 39-year-old amateur finishing the marathon when we have Michael Phelps chasing eight gold medals in the Water Cube, all carefully orchestrated for NBC and their 2,000 broadcasters in Beijing (only one of whom, by the way, is staying on for the Paralympics)?

But that's drifting off the point. There are real and difficult questions facing Irish athletics and it can't go on like this. Like where is the proper indoor track Ireland has been crying out for since around 1980? Where are the proper coaches - the hard, demanding coaches - like every serious athletics nation has? What is the point of giving athletes any more grant money when they're clearly wasting every penny of it?

Radical change will require some radical action, and there are several model examples. Britain have spread their investment far and wide and are cleaning up in the cycling velodrome and down in Qingdao. Sweden don't fund their athletes but built 23 indoor training tracks and have one of the best teams in Beijing.

They are the long-term solutions. We can blame the athletes for now, or else we should have kept most of them at home to begin with, because as things stand, that's the only alternative.

© 2008 The Irish Times

rrpc

Well the GAA do swallow up something:

From the Irish Independent


Friday December 21 2007


GAELIC players look set to get their government grants quicker than they expected in a big pre-Christmas boost but several other Irish sporting bodies are muttering 'bah humbug' after discovering their grant aid in 2008 is being frozen.

With the Beijing Games just eight months away, many sports expected their government funding next year to be improved, as is the norm in an Olympic year.

But despite an extra allocation of €3.3m to the Irish Sports Council (ISC) in the recent Budget, none of it is going to fund Irish international sport and it has been set aside for the new GAA players grant scheme.
Ireland's traditionally successful Olympic sports like athletics, rowing, boxing and cycling have been forewarned that their 2007 'high performance' budgets will not be improved in the 2008 allocations.
The Sports Council says this is because of the economic climate and a slow-down in public funding.

But there is serious disquiet among other sports that they are not getting their usual increase in an Olympic year while, at the same time, €3.5m has been found to placate the GAA and players.

Athletics Ireland's Olympic team manager Patsy McGonagle said: "My understanding is that athletics will only get the same as last year -- maybe marginally less -- because the grants to GAA players will come out of the same 'high performance' pool. "We are not the only ones going to be affected," he added. "The whole international dimension is going to be affected by the grants to GAA players."

Neither the GAA or GPA expected their new grant scheme to be up and running until the 2009 Championship but it emerged yesterday that the Sports Council hope to have it up and running for the coming Championship.

The Indo must have forgotten that they wrote that

Sparks

Covered in the Irish Times today:

Shooters from around the world gunning it out for glory in Esker

CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING: AS THE 2008 Beijing Olympics wind down, another only slightly less hotly anticipated international sports event is getting under way on the banks of the river Shannon.

The eighth bi-annual World DTL Clay Pigeon Shooting Championships opened under ominous skies at Esker Shooting Ground on the Galway-Offaly border yesterday.

The event, which is being held in Ireland for the first time, has attracted almost 700 entrants from 13 countries. A total prize fund of at least €22,600 is up for grabs, with €5,000 going to the overall winner, to be decided on Saturday.

Countries represented include Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Despite its low profile, DTL (or Down The Line) is a very competitive discipline within clay pigeon shooting. Irish team member Jim Doherty from Donegal estimates that he drove 3,800 miles around Ireland in qualifiers alone.

He was full of praise for the facilities at Esker, saying they are as good as he has seen in Europe.

His friend Henderson Hume of Northern Ireland, a world champion in 2004, agreed.

Four years ago, Hume won the overall title in England, by scoring 300 on three successive days. (This involved hitting every target with his first shot, equivalent to a snooker player achieving a 147 break in every frame.)

Asked how they hoped to fare today, neither was too forthcoming. The standard here is so high, Doherty explained, that even a score as high as 295 would probably put one out of contention. Hume agreed. Total concentration is required over the three-hour shoot, he said.

The slightest distraction costs targets. As he spoke, two young members of the French ladies team turned heads as they sauntered by in chic white tracksuits.

The Irish Army have lent the organisers 10 tents for the duration of the championships.

It is here that many competitors huddled to avoid the early rain. Body warmers, baseball caps and ear muffs were the order of the day.

Double-barrelled shotguns, broken and unloaded in accordance with the law, were slung over most shoulders.

In one of the tents, breakfast rolls and curry chips were being served up.

Tracey Barton (18) from Canberra is one of the youngest members of the Australian team. From a family of champions in the sport, she has been shooting competitively for six years. But while she's enjoying her visit to Ireland, she's not so taken with the weather.

Her team-mate Lars Vager even speculated that the conditions - wind, rain and ever-changing light - might be an advantage to the host nation.

Irish team members, though, rejected that assertion, good naturedly wondering if mind games might not be at work. All participants compete in the same conditions, they said. Luckily, by mid-afternoon, the weather was considerably brighter.

About 2,000 spectators are expected over the next two days and facilities at Esker have been expanded to accommodate the influx, with a €1 million extension by local architect Donal Burke officially opened this week.

The number of firing shelters has been increased from six to 16.

It is hoped the expanded range will serve as a satellite centre for the shooting competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games.

© 2008 The Irish Times

Sparks

Anyone else reading this feel their hearts sink at the "lets target funding" comments? Especially given that we already have targeted funding at those sports that got to the Games and even there, it's not being made available to where it's needed?

From RTE:

Cullen calls for focus
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen says Ireland should target certain sports with a view to winning medals at the London Olympics in 2012.

Speaking on RTÉ News at One, Minister Cullen said he has arranged to meet Sebastian Coe to discuss what role Ireland can play in London's hosting of the events.

He said he had learned from the methodology of other medal-winning countries and so was going to meet with all of the individual sporting bodies and the Irish Sports Council to come up with a strategy for the London Olympics.

The Minister said Ireland's overall performance at the Beijing Olympic Games was good - but events, facilities and the preparation of athletes need to be looked at.

Mr Cullen also said he would 'fight tooth and nail' to keep equestrian events in the Olympics because of the significance of the equine industry to this country.

He said he was extremely disappointed to hear that Denis Lynch had been disqualified and stated that some of the commentary and some of the reporting in Ireland had been 'over the top'.

The Minister stressed his belief that Ireland had the capacity to win medals in a number of events.

He also praised the Irish boxers, saying they led the way in lifting the country's spirits and praised 'outstanding' Kenny Egan saying he had been one of the classiest boxers at the event.

Due to the fact that he arrived back in Ireland on Saturday, Mr Cullen was not present in Beijing for any of the Irish boxers' semi-finals or for Kenneth Egan's final yesterday.

He said he decided to travel to Hong Kong to support Denis Lynch in the equestrian final, but shortly after his arrival, he discovered that Denis Lynch had been disqualified.

A typhoon then struck Hong Kong and it had not been physically possible to return to Beijing in time for the boxing bouts.

He said he was disappointed that he was not there, but he had been at nearly every other fight.

Overall the Minister said it had been a good Olympics, with one of the best Irish performances in quite a long time, with Ireland finishing 62nd on the medals table out of 204 countries.