Madam, - I found it depressing to read your Editorial of July 16th, "Walk this way", because I know it reflects accurately the state of affairs concerning land access in Ireland. I would urge Pádraig Walshe and the IFA to reconsider their position and look no further than the excellent leadership displayed by Joe Rea in 1986/87 when he put sectional interests to one side and acted in the common good.
Mr Walshe and IFA leaders should be aware that they have title to their lands today because of the Land Acts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They came about as a result of Parnell's and Davitt's Land League agitation of the 1870s and 1890s.
One of the local leaders who suffered as a result of this campaign was my great grand uncle, Henry O'Mahony of Ballydehob. He was one of the leaders imprisoned under the Coercion Act of 1881. On release from prison after two years he was forced to sell his farm at Kilcoe at great loss and emigrate to Texas. The freedom of the American West suited him and he ended up with a large cattle ranch in the north-west Texas Panhandle.
Last year my wife and I travelled there for the 100th birthday of his granddaughter. While there the same freedom was afforded us and we were able to ramble the pathways and headlands of the O'Mahony and neighbouring ranches. There were no restrictions or charges and we were made welcome everywhere.
Mr Walshe and IFA leaders would deny us the same rights in Ireland. I doubt that Parnell, Davitt, O'Mahony and others made such sacrifices 130 years ago for this state of affairs to apply in the Ireland of today.
Farmers of today have made great benefits from our EU membership. All that is being asked of them now is to apply the same conditions regarding land access to hills, mountains and uncultivated land as applies in the other member-states. Failure to do so could very well mean that they will be remembered in history as a worse lot than those awful greedy absentee landlords they replaced. - Yours, etc,
HENRY QUIRKE, Skeagh, Schull, Co Cork.