Madam, - Lorna Siggins's Irishwoman's Diary of May 28th makes sad reading. In fact, not only has Eyre Square been turned into a sterile and unattractive space, but Galway city itself now has only three or four streets that are historically distinctive.
Otherwise it is largely a mass of roundabouts feeding into shopping malls or dreary housing estates, interspersed with hideous apartments and hotels. This is now the norm in Irish planning and has been so for many years.
One would have imagined that at least some smaller towns and villages would be spared this averaging out of character but just think of the ugly apartments on the hill overlooking Kinsale and then take a trip along the southern shore of Lough Gill, in Sligo, and look across at the northern slopes on which another indescribable horror is emerging from the hillside, destroying what was a totally unbroken view, other than that of Parke's Castle.
Thus, as a society in pursuit of the baubles and trinkets which we pretend make us happy we have destroyed, to a great extent, the simple historical and distinctive beauty, (our landscape ), that will not be there to provide any inspiration or comfort to those who inherit the fruits of our greed. - Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM, Monalea Park, Firhouse, Dublin 24.