FARRELL McELGUNN,
A chara, - The debate on rural housing must be seen in the context of the communities who live in rural areas. Many of these communities live, not in towns or villages but in parishes, some of which contain not even one village. The parish community life is centred on the local church, primary school, community centre, football park, pub and shop.
A parish may contain only a few hundred people, but it usually has a vibrant religious, sporting and cultural life, organised in many clubs and societies - football, athletics, social events, Irish music and dancing, playschools, senior citizens' activities. Parish pride is legendary and parish spirit has often caused the downfall of football teams from towns with vastly larger populations.
For many years these communities have been plagued by unemployment and emigration. Some have only a third or a quarter of their population compared with 1922. Only in the past few years has the tide begun to turn for some. Young people are staying or returning, finding employment locally, setting up homes and establishing families. Why should they not build homes in their native parish, play for the parish team and send their children to the parish school? How can Frank McDonald say, "They are in the countryside, but not of the countryside"? How many of them has he talked to?
Dispersed housing in rural Ireland has been the norm for centuries. Rural no longer equates with agriculture, nor has it for many years. The ESB figures for rural connections do not convey the true picture, as they include connections to groups of houses, hamlets and smaller villages which the ESB counts as "rural".
The politics advocated by Frank McDonald and An Taisce, if adopted by the Government, would kill a resurgent rural Ireland stone dead. Nowhere is this more true than in the Gaeltacht. It is ironic that you carried an Editorial on August 20th on "Preserving Irish", which rightly criticised the British Government's policy towards Irish in Northern Ireland, while at the same time you allow Frank McDonald to advocate policies which would finish off the already fragile Gaeltacht for good.
Is maith an rud go bhfuil Éamonn Ó Cuiv ann chun an fód a sheasamh dúinn ar fad. - Is mise,
FARRELL McELGUNN,
Carrick on Shannon,
Co Leitrim.