Madam, - The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said recently that it must never happen that people who were using advertised and agreed walkways were accosted in any way (The Irish Times, November 20th).
Such incidents were particularly damaging to Ireland's international tourism reputation, he said.
I could not agree more with Mr Ó Cuív - but unfortunately such incidents are happening everywhere in Ireland and nothing is being done to stop them.
Originally a native of Holland, I arrived in Ireland planning to do the walks I had read about in the guidebooks you can buy all over the world, only to find that many of these walks were blocked by gates and signs stating that walkers were not welcome.
Many local people have since assured me that these gates and signs can be ignored, either because they are left over from the foot-and-mouth period, or because the roads are in fact public. But this does not help tourists who are here for just a short holiday. They will just go away disappointed, never to return to Ireland again.
It is important not to confuse their needs with the broader discussion of the demands to "roam free" through farmers' land. All these walkers want to do is to walk the route they read about in their guidebook.
I urge the Minister to do more than talk about this issue and take concrete steps to safeguard at least the advertised walks that bring thousands of tourists to Ireland annually. - Yours, etc.,
JULIE ASCOOP, Castle Avenue, Dublin 3.
Madam, - At the recent conference of the Countryside Recreation Council the farmers' representatives repeated their superficially reasonable demand that hill-walkers should ask landowners' permission to cross their land.
Let's tease this out a little. Most walks start directly on rough grazing land miles from anywhere, but occasionally walkers have to traverse a farmyard in order to reach that rough land. While no walker could object to asking a farmer to cross a farmyard, could the farmers' representatives explain how we are to do so in other circumstances?
To do this properly the walker would have to go to the Land Registry, find out who owns each stretch of land s/he intends to cross and contact each landowner to explain the circumstances. Since the Heritage Council reported recently that there were 29 landowners on a three-kilometre stretch this could take a considerable time. If one landowner refused, the route would have to be changed, since even one refusal might make the intended route impossible.
It's a ridiculous demand and has been made nowhere else except in exceptional circumstances.
If this is to be the norm, walking tourists will shun Ireland, as so many are doing already: walking tourist numbers are down by over one-third in a decade. Walkers who live here will go abroad when possible. After all, the whole of western Europe offers a warm and friendly welcome, in startling contrast to the selfish myopia prevalent here. - Yours etc.,
DAVID HERMAN, Meadow Grove, Dublin 16.