Hi nial,
My father told stories of some lad who used to float a punt in the Shannon estuary (Kildasyrt- Foynes) area if I am not mistaken. Dad shot geese down there, (with a Tolley 8 bore double hammer gun which he won in a shooting match
), he would hear a mighty report of a big gun sometimes and he had to investigate.
Next time I am in Limerick I will have a look in the museum.
"This is the law I quotes,
For the flats where the sea-grass roots:-
"Where the tide flows .......I floats,
and where I floats..........I shoots".
Landed gentry may claim rights on the foreshore mud,
But ownership's all the same with a spring tide on the flood.
Mallard are reared under hens,
They guard the teal on the lake,
And it's all private ground in the fens,
But the wigion are mine to take.
Out of the dark I come towards the growing light,
The lanyard under my thumb the gun laid straight and right.
Bird watchers stretch their throats uttering dismal hoots,
But where the tide flows.......I floats,
And where I floats.........I shoots. "
- Anon