Because he's a minister, and must make some show of being diplomatic about the opposition ranged against his limited stag hunting bill, John Gormley can't give vent to his true feelings about the raggle taggle mob of misfits called Rise who believe it is their fundamental human right to chase deer around the place and scare them half to death. So I shall try to say it for him. Rise – Rural Ireland Says Enough – is as unpleasant and disingenuous a pressure group as this country has seen for two decades. Its name purports to position its members as noble defenders of rural life, under attack from city slickers like Gormley and his Green colleagues. It has been scaremongering enthusiastically about what the minister has proposed in his bill, and has already come to the attention of the Standards in Public Office Commission regarding its fundraising from wealthy supporters.

If I was Gormley, I'd keep this controversy going for as long as I could. For the first time since the Greens went into government three years ago, they have found a purpose beyond allowing Fianna Fáil to continue to menace Ireland and its people. A few more weeks of people like Liam Cahill, Gavin Duffy and their smug-as-chipmunk followers trying to claim that they speak for rural people, and disaffected Green voters might start to remember why they voted to put six members of the party in the Dáil.

For the moment, until Gormley's bill is passed, Rise are entitled to shout "F**k you, uppity stag" at whatever unfortunate deer is chosen to be the object of their imbecility. What they should not be able to get away with is their claim that they have a monopoly on rural opinion or rural thinking. Cahill, Rise's chief deerhunter, makes much of the fact that he lives in Meath, as though this trumped Gormley's Ringsend background. I've lived in Meath for more than half my adult life, and I see no great demand about the place to be allowed to wear ridiculous hats, and trousers that are far too tight for human tolerance, and go haring off after some defenceless animal, as Cahill's colleagues in the Ward Union Hunt like to do. Indeed, the fact that Ward Union is the only hunt in the country that will be affected by Gormley's bill suggests that most people in all counties are happy enough to leave their local deer population unmolested.

In a radio interview on Wednesday, Cahill was given an opportunity to explain his position. He had very little to say for himself. He argues repeatedly that Gormley's bill will mean the end for other rural pursuits as well. There is no evidence for this at all. Although it is certainly Green policy to end all bloodsports, the current bill, limited to banning the exploits of a single hunt, is as much as anybody in government reckons can be got past some Fianna Fáil backbenchers at the moment. There is nothing about coursing or fox hunting in the bill, more's the pity, and no chance of this government bringing in legislation to ban either pursuit. Cahill is being deliberately misleading when he suggests otherwise.

He also makes an argument about the number of deer being killed by motorists in the Phoenix Park. He reckons the number is 50 dead animals per year. If Gormley is so down with the deer population, he asks, why doesn't he turn his attention to this carnage under his very nose?

A good question, if Cahill were telling the truth. I asked the Office of Public Works on Thursday about the number of deer killed in accidents at the park. They reckon the figure is five or six per year and are unsure where Cahill is getting his information. (From his increasingly vivid imagination, I suspect.)

Looked at from the deer perspective, of course, six fatalities a year is still too many. But at least they can go about their business every day knowing that motorists are not deliberately targeting them, unlike their cousins in Meath who run the risk of being chosen to be chased around the place by yahoos from Ward Union.

Gormley's bill need not stop these people from playing their silly little game. They can turn to drag hunting, where their dogs follow the scent of a deer rather than the deer itself. But I suspect they are addicted to the joyous feeling that only comes from terrifying an innocent animal. They represent the worst that rural Ireland has to offer. Gormley deserves credit for his bill, limited and all as it is.

Misleading: the songs do not remain the same

A radio ad for Paul Weller's November concerts in Dublin features clips from three of his songs, two of which he recorded when he was with The Jam, almost 30 years ago, and one from his new album, Wake Up The Nation. The strong impression given for people who may not have followed his solo career is that this will be a greatest hits show, with a few newer tracks thrown in. Nothing could be further from the truth. Weller's recent shows have concentrated on his solo career and there's no reason to think that the Dublin dates will be any different. There may well be a few oldies but not to the extent the radio ad suggests. It seems very much like misleading advertising.

ddoyle@tribune.ie