Sir, - Recently I paid a visit for the first time to Newgrange. I was looking forward to experiencing our ancient past. I had read Peter Harbison's excellent guide to "one of the finest passage graves in the whole of western Europe". I had conjured up images and smells of soil, earth, roots, ritual and human markings showing knowledge of a wider celestial world. The beautiful countryside promised fulfilment of my hopes.
My arrival was a jarring experience. I was met with what can only be described as an airport like atmosphere. The metal building was an intrusion, complete with shopping centre style fountain. There were guides shepherding people around and little blue buses ferrying others to the mounds.
I am Irish, I live here, I do not need hard sell tourism; it is impersonal and depressing. I left Newgrange without seeing it, with any illusions of an experience shattered. I do not mind paying - I realise that these important sites must be protected - but must we make such a commercial assault on our history? Can there be no entrance for those who take pleasure in the unsaid, the unexplained, the silence?
In contrast, Mellifont Cistercian Abbey, now neglected by tour buses preferring the commercialised, was quiet. Although it is not one of our most important examples of a monastic community, one could soak up the atmosphere and choose whether or not to visit the interesting, simple and unobtrusive museum. - Yours, etc.,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.