Take the gun out of Irish tourism

IT’S that time of year again. The season when tourist shooters — mainly French and Italian — descend on our countryside like a plague of locusts.

They come here to declare war oneverything that moves. Whether it flies, runs, waddles or floats, they blow it to perdition.

But worst of all, from a nature lover's point of view, they target the humble songbird. In parts of rural Ireland, the celebrated dawn chorus has become a thing of the past.