REDMOND O'HANLON,
Sir, - In the aftermath of the Dodder debacle perhaps you will afford space for one of its victims to air a little steam. While the Dodder Angling Club shall stick to its brief to preserve the river as an angling amenity, leaving the politics of Traveller/trader sites to others, we have a few points to make.
1. The law is an ass. When such a thing can happen, and be allowed to happen for nine months because of the law - indeed, with the assistance of the law - then the law needs to be changed.
2 Given that no one was actually found guilty of littering, and that not one penny or cent was collected in littering fines, when the dogs in the street could see the trailers arriving daily with their trailer-loads of rubbish and leaving next morning with empty trailers ready for another load, then that law too needs updating. We propose that the collection and transportation of junk, debris, household and builders' waste, etc. for money be restricted to licensed carriers only.
3. Finally, where did that 50 tons of junk come from? Well 49 tons of it came from the garages, gardens and back yards of hundreds of middle-class homes of south Co Dublin. The only consideration obvious was that these people did the job on the cheap and no questions asked.
We have no doubt that many of these same "settled" people tut-tutted in their cars as they made their way home to their litter-free houses and gardens past the encampment at Rathfarnham for the past six months. How many, do you think, recognised their own dirt on top of the heap?
It is true: we are a nation of litter louts. - Yours, etc.,
REDMOND O'HANLON,
Honorary Secretary,
Dodder Anglers' Club - Dublin,
Braemor Road,
Dublin 14.