Saying goodbye to the Irish Shooters Digest
The Irish Shooters Digest ceased publication in
December 2017. There is much I could say. Perhaps the easiest summation is that without
readers a gun writer is wasting ink and I have been blessed with readers. Seventeen years ago ISD editor Eric Parkes
approached me at a shooting event and asked me if I would like to write a
monthly piece for the Irish Shooters’ Digest and the idea immediately appealed. I was no stranger to scribbling having
written for various publications but never on the subject that interested me
most. I began with a short article on
what I loved best – rabbit hunting with a .22 rifle. Sometimes thereafter I chose my topics and
sometimes I was asked to write on a particular theme but mostly I just wandered
the country following my own inclinations, talking to shooters and hunters and pursuing
my own interests. I can claim to have
introduced topics heretofore unmentioned and unmentionable and which have since
been much imitated. I visited each of
the 32 counties at one time or another.
I hunted rabbit, deer, feral goats, feral sheep, foxes and feral pig
(but never got one). I developed my
interest in photography and took 28,000 digital photographs that are in
themselves a record of the changes in Irish shooting and hunting. I competed in F-Class, Benchrest, Classic
Pistol, Black Powder, Practical Pistol, Target pistol, Field Target Air Rifle,
Cowboy Action and numerous other disciplines. It was all fun and when I went home and wrote
about it, that was fun too. I forged friendships
that have endured and made a few enemies I will just forget about. I have been harassed by animal rightists and
investigated by Guards and invited to places I would never have been as an
ordinary hunter. The high point was Camp
Perry, Ohio with the Irish International team and the low point was arriving at
an Irish venue with the same team where the guards were waiting to question us
based on malicious and false “information received”. In between there were trips to Cork to shoot
rabbits; Wicklow to shoot Silhouettes; Sligo to shoot pistol; Ballykinler
Military ranges to shoot F-Class, the Czech republic as the guest of CZ and
Scotland to hunt the wilderness of Caithness.
I loved it all. The habit of
writing became so strong that I often caught myself in the act of describing a
magnificent view before I scanned it for quarry. Now, looking back at a time when Irish shooting
is tearing itself apart I realise I may have documented the best of it before
it became the target of commercialisation, legislation and
bureaucratisation. I’ll keep writing
about it but sadly, not in this publication.
I have a volume of short stories to finish; the discipline required to
achieve this will be a struggle because I’ve become used to throwing a gun and
a camera in the car and running off to somewhere interesting. I’ve made many friends through the Digest and
I hope to enjoy their company for many years. As for hunting; I am genuinely concerned for
the future of several quarry species.
Organised commercial poaching and disease have caused the numbers of
several populations to crash and I see myself doing more range shooting and
less hunting in future. It is becoming
obvious to observers of the countryside and wildlife that intensive farming is
detrimental to both. On the other hand
the climate and the hunting environment are changing and we may see new species
occupying vacant niches. There is also a
more fundamental issue; our attitude to wildlife. Is it our heritage and something to conserved
and cared for or is it a free resource to be exploited ruthlessly or even
exterminated as a threat to agribusiness?
 |
| The
Vintage and Classic rifle association of Ireland was one of the best
things to happen in the Irish shooting scene but it was killed off - a
victim of its own success |
There have been so many memorable events in the last
seventeen years it is impossible to select just one but a few stand out. The unveiling by Fabian Connolly of the first
Irish-built rifle in 100 years. Mike
Ryan and Fabian Connolly shooting for Ireland at Camp Perry, Ohio and the Irish
team getting a spontaneous round of applause.
The culmination of legal efforts for the return after 38 years in the
“Park” of my first gun, a Webley and Scott .177 air pistol which was a gift
from my father. The day the entire
membership of the Vintage and Classic Rifle Association of Ireland came to
visit Dunnyboe/Glensass Ranges in Northern Ireland. My first day in the field in Galway with a
black powder rifle. Standing on a rock
in a bay in Newfoundland photographing a magnificent fish eagle taking a
flounder. All of these events were
reported in the Irish Shooters Digest and perhaps in some small way may have encouraged
young shooters or perhaps given older people a sense of pride in our shooting
heritage. Who knows? A
critic once claimed I was just “educating guards and poachers” and that
shooting should be “kept quiet”. God
forbid; but was he right?
For better or worse the Irish shooter will now be without a national
publication and a voice unless someone takes up the challenge. It may be that the Internet has overtaken
shooting magazines or perhaps there is room for both. One thing can be said with certainty. There WAS change for the better between 1987
and 2017 and the Irish Shooters Digest reported and even promoted it. No detractor can take that away from us. My personal memory of the long struggle with
political, civil and police authority was a six-footer who came up behind me in
Paul o’Halloran’s gunshop and growled menacingly; “Ye don’t spare de ink do
ye?” I decided to take it as a
compliment even though that wasn’t his intention. Ministers of Justice (?) of various political
hues have come and gone and all had a common interest – the criminalisation of
shooters, hunting and shooting. Shooting
has few friends and shooters would do well to heed the advice of Psalm 146:3-5;
“Put not your trust in princes………….in whom there is no help”.
 |
| Mike
Ryan representing his country at Camp Perry. He did this at his own
expense and his reward at home was an interview with the guards as a
result of malicious and false "information received" |
I have to thank those people who helped, advised,
taught and supported me. Eric Parkes,
Editor of the Irish Shooters Digest, who befriended and mentored me and taught
me journalistic survival skills. David
Brennan of Ardee Sports who gave me access to his stock, staff and records and
showed me how gun politics worked.
Fabian Connolly who helped me understand the science of ballistic
engineering and gunsmithing. Mike Ryan
who shared his knowledge of gun politics, life and competitive shooting. Derek Beattie who helped me navigate the Northern
Ireland Shooting scene. Peter May who
taught me much about practical physics and optics. Peter o’Connor who showed me how to overcome
adversity. Davy Hamill who introduced me
to practical engineering. My Wife,
Audrey who helped me understand law.
Liam Good who shared a monumental general knowledge and curiosity about
life and shooting. My cousin James
o’Hagan who introduced me to antique firearms.
John McKeefrey and Rodney Wells who taught me the basics of black powder
and bulletsmithing. Brian Hamilton who
introduced me to Cowboy action and much besides. The Garda Siochána from whom I learned the twin
skills of arse-covering and looking over my shoulder and the Department of
Justice from whom I learned about injustice and the value of healthy cynicism
when dealing with government. Phonsie
Ward who showed me the value of humour in the face of madness. The hundreds of chance acquaintances who
shared their knowledge, wisdom, wit and life experience. The many readers who contacted me over the
years with their questions, photographs, stories, complaints and invitations to
visit. The departed characters,
storytellers, rabbit poachers, rustic philosophers, gun nuts, agitators and lonely
voices in the wilderness who have gone to a better place; may God welcome them
and forgive their very minor misdeeds. To
all these people collectively who enriched the last seventeen years of my life
and steered me in a direction I would not have had the courage to take on my
own I can honestly say: I am happy to be where I am right now and I am grateful
to all of you. To the various small-minded
detractors, begrudgers, liars, calumniators, cute hoors, fanatical animal
rightists, fraudulent litigators and assorted philistines I say: “Nice try but
you achieved nothing!”
 |
| Life has its compensations like this glorious day with Phonsie Ward of Dunnyboe Club on Glensass Ranges, County Tyrone |
Looking back I see two lows with a high
between. The low point of the last forty
years was in the seventies when a 22 and a 12 bore was the best most of us
could aspire to and rabbit shooters were lumped with terrorists. I remember a Tullamore Guard telling me with
impeccable logic back in the eighties; “you MUST be in the IRA – you’re mad
about guns”. The peak was a period in
the early 2,000’s when the world was our oyster and we had rifles, pistols,
great hunting, international competition success and optimism. The second low is right now when we are
losing it all to hostile legislation, infighting, greed, commercial poaching,
political correctness, litigation, corrosive cynicism, stupidity, egotism and
apathy. Sixteen years ago I was accused
of being “Anti-Guard” for pointing out their abuses of the law; today I am
vindicated and I am grateful to those Digest readers who have acknowledged that
fact. Yes I gave the authorities lots of
stick. I make no apologies - they
deserved it and still do. Nothing has
changed; they still don’t want us to have guns.
Looking forward I fear the shooting sports of twenty years from now will
be more regulated, expensive and a lot less fun. Traditional publishing worldwide is losing ground
to the Internet and time will tell whether the online written word and its
associated lower costs will create opportunities for small publishing
businesses. I hope the Irish shooter
will continue to have a voice but as George Bernard Shaw famously said; “Put an
Irishman on the spit and you will always find another Irishman to turn him” and
sadly the behaviour of some in the Irish shooting community towards those who
would give it a voice has been just that.
I am thoroughly disillusioned with the direction Irish shooting has
taken. Commercial poaching, section 42's
out of control, wildlife disappearing fast, political infighting, power
struggles, lawsuits, clever boys looking for new ways to screw money out of the
shooter and shooting and everyone an expert and no-one keeping an eye on the
ball and all this instead of taking on the guards and the government who are
determined to introduce a gun ban.
Unless we cop ourselves on we could very easily end up regulated out of
existence with nothing to shoot, no pistols or high-powered rifles and
astronomical fees for membership of clubs and access to ranges and the best of
our hunting sold to tourists. We are
sleepwalking towards a cliff-edge. Will
online publications/websites/forums change this insanity? I hope so but am not sure they will. Our sport is worth fighting for.
 |
| Foxes at dusk along the River Boyne with my oldest friend, Patsy Murphy. - The fox police never sleep! |
There is much in life that is irrelevant and unimportant. One thing that IS important is getting up in
the morning and doing whatever one does and for a shooter that’s, well, shooting. For one man it might be winning a competition
or killing a fine stag; for another it might be listening to the morning larks,
his hunting forgotten. Or as a wise
farmer once said to me; “The best day of your life is the day you can get up
and do a bit”. I will miss the Irish
Shooters’ Digest. It opened doors and
got me out of bed on wet Saturday mornings.
It was an introduction to all kinds of interesting people and I got to review
interesting products. Life without it
will be different. So goodbye everybody
and thanks again. Have a great Christmas, keep shooting, keep safe
and may God bless you all.
 |
| It's a few years ago now but reporting the development and unveiling of Fabian Connolly's first creation - The Connolly Rifle - was exciting. The rifle was the first to be built in Ireland in over a century |
 |
| Liam Archibald of Creggagh Rifle Club in Tyrone examines his handiwork |
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