The Supreme Court will hear an appeal by An Bord Pleanala shortly to decide if public access to the Old Head of Kinsale is a traditional right held by the people through force of common usage by countless generations. If the court decides the people do have such a right, then one of Ireland's newest and most successful golf courses will close.
For Ashbourne Holdings, the private development company responsible for the course, this is an issue which allows no compromise. Either there is no right of way and the golf course prevails, or there is, in which case the public will be free to roam over the Old Head and golfers will have to go elsewhere.
In three recent public protests against the golf course, the Free The Old Head of Kinsale campaign group, led by, among others, Mr Ted Tynan of the Workers' Party, has sought to bring the issue into the public realm. Hundreds of people have turned up for a public "picnic" at the course, and as they see it, managed to re-establish the public's right to walk the land at the Old Head and enjoy the unparalleled scenic views.
Mr John O'Connor of Ashbourne Holdings, who with his brother, Pat, is the joint developer of the course, dismissed the claim that rights can ever be re-established at the Old Head, because, he said, there never was a right of access in the first place.
Long before he purchased the land with his brother it was in private ownership as a farm, and even then, despite the fact that members of the public traditionally used it as a public amenity, they were doing so illegally, he said.
On two separate occasions, he added, the High Court upheld the present owners' right to operate a golf course and to exclude the public from it. For the campaigners, the question is whether the Old Head should be the exclusive land of those who can afford to play golf there (membership costs £50,000, the annual subscription is £1,000 and a visiting four-ball would have to pay £1,200 per for a round). For Mr O'Connor it is a matter of his entitlement as land-owner and proprietor of a business.
Now in its fourth season, the Old Head course has quickly become established as one of the "must play" courses on the international golfing scene. It boasts that its restaurant offers the finest club-house food anywhere. Fresh fish on the bone is on the menu each day at around £25, while a lobster lunch would cost up to £30.
The club, the course and its entire ambience are geared towards the high end of the market. Tiger Woods has played there, as has Bill Gates and most of the leaders of the corporate US. The helipad is in constant use, whisking in the rich and famous.
Actor Michael Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, played there last week. From the welcome at the helipad, or the gates for those who arrive by road, to the reception by a staff member on the 18th green who takes the players' clubs away to be cleaned, the club provides "the ultimate golfing experience", said Mr O'Connor, "and people don't mind paying for that".
But it's the course itself that provides the main attraction. Links golf magazine has described it as "the most spectacular course on Earth" while many other international golf glossies have waxed lyrical about its virtues.
The key to the Old Head course which has cost £15 million to develop to date, according to Mr O'Connor, is that it is unashamedly aimed at the US market. It has set out to court wealth and the golfer who doesn't have to worry about the cost of a quick trip across the Atlantic. In that, it has succeeded, and in just four seasons, annual revenues have reached £5 million.
It has brought a new level of tourism to this part of Ireland. Ashbourne is now planning to build a 120-bedroom fivestar hotel in Kinsale to cater for the burgeoning market which has developed because of the course.
All these plans will be scrapped if it is established that a public right of way should be confirmed on the Old Head, Mr O'Connor insists.
"We are serious about closing the course, because quite simply you cannot have people rambling around a golf course. This is private land, and we are hopeful the Supreme Court challenge by An Bord Pleanala will not be upheld," he said.
"But if it is, we will have no option but to close the course. We tried in the early days to accommodate public access. We charged a nominal fee, but it just didn't work, and our insurers warned that they wouldn't underwrite us if the public was allowed on the land. It seems we have to keep repeating that there never was a right of way on the Old Head of Kinsale," he added.
The O'Connor brothers purchased the 220 acres of land at the Old Head from Mr Michael Roche in May 1989. In June 1997 Cork County Council granted planning permission for a golf course, but imposed a number of conditions requiring Ashbourne Holdings to permit public access to the area during daylight hours.
After an appeal, An Bord Pleanala upheld most of the conditions imposed by the council, in a decision of October 31st the same year. The company then sought a judicial review, and on March 23rd last Mr Justice Kearns found that walkers and golfers were "inimical to each other" and potentially dangerous.
The last act in the protracted legal drama will now be played out in the Supreme Court appeal announced by An Bord Pleanala last April.
Mr Tynan said his group would take the case to Europe if the High Court decision was upheld. He rejected Mr O'Connor's assertion that "cranks and headbangers with a political agenda" had been among the protesters and said those who had gone to the Old Head in support of public access were concerned people and lovers of the free outdoors.
"Ask old people in Kinsale, and they will tell you they were taken for a ramble there by grandparents. The traditional right of way has existed for generations. The Old Head belongs to everyone, not just an exclusive few," he added.
"This is a business on private property, and that right should be respected," Mr O'Connor said.