Irish Examiner view: Arson fears at National Park show our indifference to laws must end

Blazes at Killarney National Park and elsewhere show our indifference adhering to many laws  

Thousands of acres of Killarney National Park have been burnt as Kerry County Council fire crews, National Park and Wildlife Services, an Air Corps helicopter, local volunteers tried to contain huge blazes, in the Western section of Killarney National Park, Purple and Sheehy Mountains, Derrycunnihy, Tomies Wood, Sheehy Mountain, Gearhameen, Doogary, Eagles nest & The Five mile Bridge. Picture: Valerie O'Sullivan

Every society indulges peculiarities that mark it out. America, or at least enough Americans, are wedded to the idea that they may bear military-grade weapons despite mass murder after mass murder. Britain clings to the comfort of captain-and-the-kings pageantry even if the idea of an influential monarchy is as anachronistic as unquestioning deference. Some societies regard female genital mutilation as beneficial hence the WHO estimates that more than 200m women alive today have been victims of that voodoo. Some of the world's last head hunters — The Konyaks of India’s northeast — are still alive as the practice only ended in the 1960s. Variety is indeed the spice of life — or occasionally death.

In Ireland, we enjoy the idea that we may be known, or at least were, as an island of saints and scholars. At least one of those designations is more folklore than actuality. Our saintliness has faded in parallel with the number of saints alive in Ireland. This manifests itself in many ways but one makes us very vulnerable and, in the context of most modern European societies, exceptional. Just as we have a long list of saints we have a long list of laws but it would make for an interesting summer-school debate to try to establish which we ignore more — our saints' teachings or our laws' obligations.