Spreading the word because this is precisely the sort of thing that gives you hope for the future of the administration of the shooting sports in Ireland:
Meeting Invitation to members of the NASRPC
The end of the first year under the new firearms licensing system has passed and so it may be a good time to look at what has been achieved and what remains to be done.
Throughout the past period I have striven to foster dialogue and co-operation between the main stakeholders in the shooting sports. There have been some notable successes in this regard of which we can be justifiably proud and will stand for a long time as reminders of what can be achieved by working openly and honestly together.
To those who were open minded and far sighted enough to lay aside perceived petty differences in pursuit of furthering our respective sports I express my deep appreciation and gratitude. No other strategy except mutual support will bring us the excellence and respect for our sport that we all should aspire to.
Unfortunately, not everyone apparently feels the same and while differences of opinion in the path to take are acceptable, the countless instances of ongoing misinformation and rumours that circulate throughout the shooting community serve only those who would seek to divide and plant dissention and ill feeling. The motivation of such people is a mystery to me.
One of the most disheartening, damaging and recurring aspects of these stories and tall tales is that even when disproven satisfactorily around a committee table, even when proof is offered and accepted as to their invalidity, quite often the message never circulates through the wider community and the falsehoods and misunderstandings continue to breed mistrust.
Quite often this is not anyone’s fault, volunteer committees give of their time freely and often at great personal expense in terms of both time and money. Often, having satisfied themselves that there is no substance to a particular rumour the matter rests there, apparently dealt with while in the wider shooting community all that continues to circulate is the original misinformation.
As responsible adults we have a duty to seek the truth so that we can move forward fully aware of the lessons of the past and with a clear view of the road ahead.
With this in mind and in a further effort to address the fears and concerns and indeed any and all tall tales that may be about, I am inviting all NASRPC members to contact their NASRPC Secretary Michael Tope, by email or letter and to express their concerns on any matter to him in writing.
I will leave it to Michael to collate and list each item and then to forward them to me.
I will hold a meeting for all those who have expressed their concerns in this manner on any matter, any rumour they have heard, any supposed fact that causes them unease, any case in which they think they have been treated unfairly by their shooting representatives, even any story they have heard of any ‘Deal’ that has been done to disadvantage them.
I am offering to hear them all, to answer them all and to once and for all end the cancer of mistrust that eats away at our will to work together.
I am placing this notice of invitation on the NRAI website, the MNSCI website, the SSAI website the shooting forum of boards.ie and I am requesting that the committee of the NASRPC place it on their website also. I am sure they will welcome this opportunity for clarity too.
We can only move forward and grow if we work from the basis of truth and reality. Tall tales and horror stories are for children.
Below is a list of the various websites mentioned above.
www.nrai.ie
www.nationalshootingcentre.ie
www.ssai.ie
shooting.boards.ie
www.nasrpc.ieI urge any NASRPC member with any concerns as to how they are represented by the shooting organisations to take this opportunity to have their issues or any they have heard of, aired and dealt with.
I repeat that in the spirit of transparency all communication should be in writing or by email to the Secretary of your own organisation NASRPC, Michael Tope… In case some new rumour grows that I have personally selected the queries to answer.
A meeting will be held in the near future and all who submitted concerns will have them addressed on the day.
Yours in Sport,
Joe Costello
(SSAI – Chairman, NRAI – Vice Chairman)