Clare Regional Games Council has criticised the "reckless shooting" of birds by tourists. European gunmen start their shooting holidays from August and, according to a spokesman for the games council, "they shoot at anything that moves".
The council has alleged that visiting gunmen in the Miltown Malbay area have wiped out almost all the snipe. It said swans have been found in the bags of visiting gunmen when they returned to their countries.
The spokesman said they were not objecting to hotels organising shoots and using their own birds. "But we are targeting gunmen who use the regional games council preserves to shoot indiscriminately at birds reared and released by us."