On Christmas Eve, US President Joe Biden signed a law bestowing the honour of national bird of the US upon the bald eagle. 

In Ireland, in December, a white-tailed eagle was shot dead beside Lough Owel, near Mullingar. 

The young female eagle was part of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) White-Tailed Eagle Reintroduction Programme in partnership with Norway.

After being released in the Shannon Estuary in 2022, she settled into the Irish landscape and started exploring the counties of Ireland before returning to Westmeath. 

So much has been done to introduce White-Tailed Sea Eagles in the countryside, that measures to protect and develop that work must be radical and far-reaching. Anything less would be a conservation sell-out.

To add to the protection of White-Tailed Eagles, a ban on live shooting within a 10-county radius of where a bird has taken up residency should be considered.  

Irish shooters operate via the motto 'if it flies, it dies'. That is why they squeeze the trigger of the shotgun to blast wildlife into oblivion.  

The Irish live shooting community portray themselves as conservationists and caretakers of the countryside.  

In their ammunition-addled brains, these firearm gurriers fail to notice that they are responsible for the massive amount of slaughter inflicted on Irish wildlife each year.

Irish shooters deserve the honour of Ireland’s national rural vandals who promote an anti-wildlife culture.   

Their ongoing involvement in the destruction of wildlife, both fur and feather, renders them a viable threat to the bird of prey introduction project into the Irish countryside.

One hopes that the relevant authorities will follow this case and achieve a day in court for the person or persons responsible for this cowardly act of avicide. 

From John Tierney, campaigns director, Association of Hunt Saboteurs, Dublin.