Madam - It is noteworthy that your Irish tourism supplement of October 21st contained no more than a fleeting reference to walking and even less to hill-walking. In contrast, such minority activities as skydiving and surfing had full-page features.
The reason for this omission is obvious: lack of access rights to the countryside. Walking tourism is in terminal decline with tourist numbers down 50 per cent in a few years; anecdotal evidence suggests that even Irish walkers living in the Dublin area are increasingly walking in Snowdonia rather than the west of Ireland.
It is not just that walkers in Ireland face the possibility of an encounter with a hostile farmer and the distinct chance of "Keep Out" signs. The lack of legal access means there are hardly any marked trails in the mountains, few stiles, and a paucity of guidebooks, all facilities that walkers elsewhere now take for granted. No doubt other countries are delighted at not having to share their lucrative and growing walking tourism market with Ireland.
The irony is that, with farming on the decline, agri-tourism could be a great money-spinner for farmers themselves if their organisations could see beyond their noses and the Government was not so afraid of taking them on. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CARROLL,
Keep Ireland Open,
Dublin 16.