Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

August 2005
In this months Newsletter
1. All the Fun of the Fair
2. "Who Owns the Rights?"
3. PSNI agree to Meet with CAI Chief Executive

1. ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR

The place to be last bank holiday weekend was Powerstown Park, Clonmel.  Over fifteen thousand people flocked to Clonmel Racecourse for Countryside Alliance Ireland's second Game Fair and Country Festival.

One of the highlights of the weekend and a first for Clonmel were the Racing Pigs from Omagh.  They drew a massive crowd and provided spectacular entertainment.  Other exciting and imaginative acts included the world famous Ukrainian Cossacks who astonished the crowd with their daring acrobatic riding skills.

Other country sports activities included a display of the Scarteen Black & Tan hounds and two packs of beagles, providing the children with an opportunity to get close to and enjoy these wonderful animals.

Other popular activities included a medieval display and battle re-enactment, angling displays, clay pigeon shooting competitions, a deer hound show, terrier and lurcher show and spaniel and retriever trials and the opportunity to see the impressive Sea Eagle from the falconry display in the main arena.

There were also a large number of exhibitors displaying their goods and wares from organic food to country clothing and they provided the crowd with special offers and the opportunity to get exceptional value for money.

Countryside Alliance Ireland wishes to thank all those who supported our Game Fair and Country Festival at Powerstown Park this year, especially our exhibitors and visitors and particularly our sponsors, Massbrook Kennels, Barbour, Feedwell and Bulmers.  This support will enable us to continue to campaign on your behalf. 

2. "Who Owns the Rights"

Farming is the cornerstone of Northern Ireland's rural economy and it is widely accepted that agriculture has a multi-functional role, providing not just food but other public goods, such as the protection and enhancement of the countryside.

Protection of the countryside includes the right of farmers to protect their crops from serious damage by the woodpigeon.  This pest can cause serious damage and reduce the yield per acre and seriously reduce the profit margin on the crop as a whole.  This however, can be effectively managed by introducing a crop protection plan, which will enable the limitation of damages to be reduced to an acceptable level.

Development of a crop protection plan may well include the services of an experienced woodpigeon shooter. This strategy may cause a problem and requires pre planning especially where the farmer has crops planted on rented land.  The farmer may have rented the land but the shooting rights for that land remains with the owner (unless agreed as part of the land rental package) and therefore permission must be sought from the owner to shoot over their land.

This problem has arisen many times this season, with crop protection by experienced shooters being halted by the owner of the shooting rights. This has clearly demonstrated the lack of pre planning by individual farmers to enter into early negotiation with the owner of the shooting rights, to obtain written permission for crop protection under this strategy.

An effective weapon in the armoury of the farmer to obtain the shooting rights for crop protection, is to ensure that those whom he proposes to allow to shoot on the land have adequate insurance cover, including public liability cover and that they can produce evidence of such cover; such as a membership card for Countryside Alliance Ireland.

Countryside Alliance Ireland offers a wide range of benefits to all country sports enthusiasts and one of the benefits of the membership package, is the provision of the most comprehensive insurance cover available in Ireland.

For more information on benefits of membership contact: Countryside Alliance Ireland on 028 9263 9911 or by email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . or visit our website at www.caireland.org

3. PSNI Agree to Meet with CAI Chief Executive

Countryside Alliance Ireland wrote initially to the Chief Contstable PSNI Mr Hugh Orde in June 2005 requesting a meeting to discuss concerns raised by its members regarding the serious unacceptable delays in processing firearms grants and re-grant licenses.  CAI have now had a reply and are waiting for a suitable date to be agreed.

An initial meeting was arranged with the Head of PSNI Firearms Licensing, Mr Bob Megahey. This  meeting confirmed our thoughts that the PSNI Firearms Licensing Branch are significantly under-resourced, in terms of personnel and are unable to cope with the burden placed upon them with the introduction of the Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004, which came into effect on 1st February 2005 and we therefore wrote to the Chief Constable to address this as a matter of urgency.

We are aware that the new fiearms legislations requires each application to be supported by two referees, meaning that three checks per application is now mandatory as opposed to one check per application previously. Additionally, firearms certificates are now ‘re-granted' rather than renewed and this too has created an extensive amount of additonal work for the firearms branch. It is therefore little wonder that the average time taken to process a firearms licence has gone from 4 weeks to 14 weeks over the past number of months. These statistics were released in the House of Commons in response to a question by Lady Hermon MP.

The guidance on our firearms legislation is a result of a sustained campaigning  by CAI in partnership with the Gun Trade Association of NI  to ensure that the NIO and PSNI deliver a fairer, less restrictive, and efficient licensing system. At present the system is more restrictive and less efficient than previous.

Our members and the whole community require and expect an  efficient and effective service that can deliver on time and within an acceptable timescale.  This can only be achieved by additional resources being made available to the PSNI Firearms Licensing Branch and this point shall be stressed at our forthcoming meeting.