Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

From mid March onwards, wading birds such as lapwing (peewit), curlew and snipe begin to return to their breeding areas, which are typically damp rushy pastures and rough grasslands in upland areas. These next few months are particularly important for these ground nesting birds which have declined in numbers in recent years.

Nests are simple scrapes made on the ground or among rush or grass tussocks, making the eggs and young very vulnerable to disturbance by livestock or machinery.  If you are in an agri-environment scheme you must not carry out any field operations, such as rolling or applying fertiliser, in your breeding wader fields between 15 April and 30 June.

Sports Minister Nelson McCausland and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland OBE today visited Carnview Shooting Club, one of the potential venues for the 2013 World Police and Fire Games.
 

Located outside Ballymena, the club was established by farmer, and shooting enthusiast, James McKeown in 1996 and since then has grown to become one of the leading shooting facilities in Northern Ireland. The club provides a range of shooting disciplines including National Skeet, Olympic Skeet, Down the Line, Automatic Ball Trap, Compac Sporting and Olympic Trench.

Saturday the 27^th March 2010 saw the marchers standing together united, to promote and defend our traditional rural based pastimes, the pastimes that the people of our cities, towns, villages and farms have enjoyed for more than a thousand years.

We are hunters on foot and on horseback. We are hunters with guns and with fishing rods. All of us are under threat from the Green Party fanatics. Today, it is the Ward Union Hunt.

Tomorrow, it will be shooting, and then angling until, eventually, no country sport will be left for any of us.’

If you received an extension to your firearm certificate last September, you should now carefully check the date that it expires. This date is on the letter you received from the Garda Commissioner.

You MUST apply for your new certificate before your extension expires. You may apply up to 3 months before the expiry date. It is recommended, however, that you apply to your local Garda Station on application form FCA1 in good time.

If, for whatever reason, you do not have your extended certificate, you must apply IMMEDIATELY for your new 3 year certificate. You should also be aware that from 1st January 2010, it is now an offence to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm within 3 days of becoming aware of the loss or theft.

If you no longer wish to apply for a new firearm certificate, please contact your local Garda Station for advice regarding firearms disposal.

For more information on firearms licensing consult the Garda Website www.garda.ie