Madam, - Like M McNamara (August 15th), I always knew ragwort as "buanchalán". It is also called "buafanán" and "buafalán" in the West - where, when I was young, farmers were fined under a Noxious Weeds Act if the weed was growing on their land.
What has happened to that Act, or is buachalán no longer considered noxious? Apparently not, since this year, despite drought and the vagaries of the climate, the weed is everywhere, colonising fields, ditches, the roadside - even in the most scenic parts of Kerry - in wild, untrammelled, ragged abandon.
Apart from its unsightliness, buachalán is poisonous to cattle, and it should be rooted out of the country. But does anyone care? More importantly, does the Minister for Agriculture care? - Yours, etc,
VERA HUGHES, Cartronkeel House, Moate, Co Westmeath.