ANNETTE LEHSNAU,
Madam, - What has gone wrong in Ireland and where are the welcomes that were so nice when I first came there 15 years ago?
My husband, my friends and I love nature and walking in the mountains and the countryside.
In recent years, however, we have had more and more bad experiences that have made us decide never to go to Ireland again.
The west of Ireland has been ruined from grazing by far too many sheep, paid for - last but not least - by our money from Germany in form of EU subsidies.
Worse, however, there is now a lot of barbed wire where once were traditional stone walls, and there are unpleasant changes too in many of the farming people.
In West Cork and the Dingle Peninsula we were shouted at and told we could not use walking paths or climb up on mountains where we had been before. The hills are empty and we never caused any damage, but still the people just did not want us.
We were told we could not walk on a big beach in Mayo, and found out afterwards that a man there has closed it off for many years. There was nowhere even to park our car. Later we moved on to Donegal after we were threatened in the Sligo mountains.
The pollution of the environment is also very depressing and the country has become far too expensive. All these reasons have made us decide to spend our holidays elsewhere in future.
Why is it necessary for more and more of them to be saying "Keep out"? Is the west of Ireland becoming the new verboten place? - Yours, etc.,
ANNETTE LEHSNAU, Trierer Strasse, Wittlich, Germany.