HOT POTATOES
Hot Potatoes - an attempt to answer impossible questions
When the Irish Shooters Digest closed, one of the first questions I was asked was whether I would address "Hot Potatoes" or topics too "hot" for the Digest. The sad news is that the law is the same for both magazines and blogs and nothing should appear in print or digital media that is not verifiably factual. Rumour, speculation and "what everybody knows" and discussion thereof is not possible. People email me with questions I cannot answer like "Why is the atmosphere on X or Y shooting range so toxic?". Or if I answer, it has to be in general terms. So in general terms:
(1) Why is the atmosphere on some shooting ranges toxic?
I know exactly what this reader means as I have been on ranges where the atmosphere was poisonous. Incidentally, I have been on ranges in Ireland North and South, England, Scotland, The USA and the Czech Republic in the last forty five years - thousands of visits in all. I put the question to a friend from Belfast because he lived through the troubles and knows a few things. Interestingly his answer was "Egos"; in other words dominant personalities or "Alpha Males". What does an alpha male chimpanzee do with a young upstart who doesn't know his place and gets notions about the ladies? He attacks and intimidates the low status animal with considerable violence until he backs down. If a low ranking shooter challenges the greyback he will get squashed too. The clever low-ranker shooters arrive at a range, unbox, shoot, keep their opinions to themselves, box up and go home because to do otherwise is to invite unwanted attention. I do it myself. If certain personalities put in an appearance I just go somewhere else because shooting enjoyment becomes impossible. More dangerous than the Alpha Male is his sidekick, the spy/enforcer (some would say 'lickarse') who enjoys the patronage of the Alpha male, usually temporarily until he oversteps himself and gets a career-terminal drubbing. I need say no more. It happens everywhere but is obviously worse in some organisations than others and here I mean not just shooting organisations. My worst encounter with a spy/enforcer was in a convent-run school as a lowly H-Dip student (trainee teacher) in 1974. Not all Alpha Males (there are a few alpha females too) are evil and some are blessed with great wisdom and compassion. Their places are the best places to shoot where rules are few and simple and human frailty is accepted and understood and humour pedominates. You can judge for yourself.
Then there is Tribalism. See (1a)
(2) "Is there really Tribalism in Irish Shooting?"
Tribalism is the behaviour and attitudes that stem from strong loyalty to one's own tribe or social group. It is pervasive in Irish and British society. Examples are the English class structure, Sectarianism in Northern Ireland and Irish Civil War Politics. Research has shown strong Tribal loyalty is used by humans to justify unspeakable behavior towards 'other' tribal groups as happened during the Rwandan Genocide. Tribalism explains the behavior of some shooting groups and organisations towards each other and towards individuals within tribal groups who do not acknowledge tribal norms of behavior. See (1). An Arab friend once explained it: "Me against my brother. Me and my brother against the Tribe and the Tribe against everyone". The modern expression of tribal antipathy towards individuals is "You don't fit in here". In other words you hold unpopular opinions as defined by tribal elders (alpha males).
(3) "Is there something wrong with the Irish because we seem incapable of organising anything properly?"
I've noticed. We are no more corrupt than other nations; it's everywhere; we're just a bit different. It's been almost 100 years since independence and we should have had time to throw off our "colonial" mentality. From my personal experience I'm inclined to think we've made clientism and croneyism our own and these particular forms of corruption extend down to the lowest level of society. You need "Pull" for just about everything from jobs to grants to All-Ireland tickets. The Arabs called it "Wasta" when I worked in the Midle East. We are also fractious, split-prone and litigious and have our very own national vice which we acknowledge and call "Begrudgery". George Bernard Shaw said of us: "The Irish are a most honest nation. They never speak Well of one another". Interestingly Native Americans have made similar comments to me. De Valera once said: "You can say what you like in England as long as you do the right thing. You can do what you like in Ireland if you say the right thing". Political correctness and Yuppieism are attempts to evade our national personality defects but the fact remains that we are still growing into whatever we are to become eventually. Perhaps we are more authentic when we are being shambolic; who knows?
(4) "Is Commercialism killing our sport?"
Commercialism is defined as the 'maximising of profit often at the expense of artistic or other values'. We have seen the effects of over-commercialisation of sport in soccer, the Olympics, horse racing, boxing and now the debate has started within the GAA. A spinoff of commercialisation has been fight, game and race fixing. In the not-too distant past the local shooter was a harmless, usually working-class individual who bagged "a few for the pot". Today shooting is on its way to becoming a commercialised sport like golf and everything has acquired a value or a price. Guns, ammunition, shooting rights, game meat, memberships, clothing, insurance, competition entrance fees, certification, training, advertising; they all cost and everyone feels entitled to make a bundle. People get extremely ruthless when money is introduced into any activity. Properly managed as in, for instance, Canada, commercialism in shooting can work. Out of control commercialism leads to wildlife crime, turf wars and backstabbing. It was brought home to me one day a few years ago wen I got into conversation with a notorious commercial poacher. We spoke about hunting for a while and then he intimated he was going off with his movie camera to "catch a few poachers". In other words, to gather photographic evidence with which to shop his competition. My personal feeling is that commercialism has diminished our sport and my enjoyment of it but as a realist I see no way to oppose it and can only hope we achieve a balance between, commercialism, conservation, legislation and organised shooting sport as has been done in Canada. But this is Ireland.
(5) "Can nothing be done about commercial poaching"
One major obstacle to detecting nightime commercial poaching or lamping is the cost of overtime for police and wildlife rangers. As with any illegal activity there is also corruption. Then there is politics; the farmer calls his TD about how the deer are putting him out of business. So rather than employ expensive contractors or rangers to solve the problem the poachers are let loose for a while. The problem is commercial poachers don't unload their guns and go home when the culprit deer are converted into cash. They go looking for more. Then the legal deer hunters call their TD's about how the poachers are putting them out of business. The result is every time a deer shows his head there is someone with an interest in killing him before the next guy comes along and does it. The first casualty of independence in 1921 were the pheasants in milord's roosts. At the core of the massive poaching probem is our attitude to wildlife and the emergence of a large legal and illegal commercial game meat trade. As with all such problems the question seems to be whether there is social and political will to tackle wildlife crime and quite honestly we are ambivalent on the subject. My personal view is that commercialism is to blame. As long as there is money to be made from poaching there will be poaching. Then there is the crossover from street crime and political crime into wildlife crime as happened in eel poaching and the overlap with drug crime but these are questions for another day. Finally there is a faction in the civil service who will happily use anti poaching legislation to squeeze ALL hunting because to the Greenies ALL hunting is wildlife crime. The legal hunter finds himself in the invidious position of appearing to condone wildlife crime when he takes on official greenism.
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