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. 

That actuality is underlined in many ways; stockbroking and banking offer examples. It is not so long ago since our police reported on more than two million imagined drink driving tests. In recent weeks the European Commission has ruled that we cannot be trusted to weigh fish. This à la carte attitude to legislation — not just Catholicism —  is a real negative force because there are generally no consequences for those happy to step over one agreed red line or another.

A red line was crossed in Kerry over recent days, maybe in the Mourne Mountains too, when fire ravaged thousands of acres, including ancient oak woods in the Killarney National Park. Though it is difficult to be emphatic that arson was the cause it is suspected in both cases — as it is every year. If that is the case, as many with knowledge of the events fear, the arsonists can sleep easily as prosecutions for this crime are all but unknown. There may be many reasons for this but indifference, political or social are the main ones. That must change.

The tremendous fires coincided with World Curlew Day. The Irish Raptor Study Group has reported that one of the Killarney's Special Protection Areas turned to cinders is used as breeding grounds by curlews, a species on the cusp of extinction. A hen harrier nest on those hills, an area with a special designation to protect harriers, was turned to ash. 

Killarney Park is long used to depredation. Parts of it are carpeted by a non-native plant — rhododendron which establishes a monoculture and destroys any habitat it reaches. In recent days  Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan announced that an Invasive Alien Species Plan will be put into action next year to protect native plants, animals, fish or insects from displacement. That is an entirely laudable and necessary objective but it is hard to see how it might succeed if we can't find the backbone to protect precious national parks from an annual onslaught possibly instigated by native species.