Castlelyons & Coolagown Gun Club

Aims and Activities.
It is a long established club with a membership of about thirty. Its two most important functions are to provide insurance for its members and to restock the parish with game birds. Every member is insured under the N.A.R.G.C., this is an umbrella group covering all gunclubs in Ireland, providing cover in the event of a shooting accident. The membership is predominently from the parish and each member would like to express their gratitude to the landowners, who allow us to shoot over their land year after year.

Restocking is something we do every year, we purchase approx one hundred six week old pheasant poults mixed cocks and hens and rear them for another eight to ten weeks. At this stage they are released back into the countryside in several different locations around the parish in groups of five or six. Our main aim is to get as many hens as possible to breeed in the wild and produce a wild breed that will survive in the countryside.

Game birds that are mainly sought after are Pheasant, Duck, Woodcock and Snipe. We also take a pot at vermin mainly pigeon, magpie and grey crow.

Last year was a reasonably good year with a nice scattering of pleasants around a good few woodcock and plenty of snipe. I was talking to some grain farmers after the harvest this year and they said a nice few young pheasants hopped out in front of the harvesters so it looks like our restocking is working.

Our A.G.M. is held in August and the following officers were elected: President Mark McCarthy one of our longest serving members, a man who has reared a lot of pheasants under hens and bantams over the years and releaed them into the wild. Secretary Declan Whelan is a keen gundog breeder and runs gundogs in field trials with much success. Our treasurer Jamie O Mahoney, from Fermoy keeps a good handle and our finances as our source of income is our membership fee. As chairman of the club, I, Donal Howard would like to offer a special thanks to Donal McCarthy, who has maintained the rearing pen on his land and has reared many a bird for the club prior to their release.

In conclusion, I would again like to thank most sincerely the landowners of Castlelyons and Coolagown parish and anyone who has assisted the club in any way over the years.