Madam, - Niall O'Donohoe writes (November 25th) of the "destruction and despoliation" of our Donegal coastline and hinterland "by rampant and uncontrolled development", as visible from an aeroplane.
May I, from the perspective of a resident, endorse what he says? Perhaps no part of the county has suffered more destruction than this neighbourhood, stretching from Marble Hill to Dunfanaghy. Archdeacon Tommy Doherty was fond of displaying to visitors the view out towards Horn Head from the Portnablagh road; a developer was allowed to take that view away.
For some 15 years now, our small resident community has lived in a building site, not indeed by choice. Daily the cordon of building tightens about us. There is the incessant noise of rock-breakers, compressors, cement mixers and hammers. Gargantuan machines, diggers, earth-movers, cranes and others pound along our wholly inadequate roads. The Breaghy road is in worse condition than I have ever seen it.
Why does the Co Council permit this attack on the rights of a small community of taxpayers? Why now no longer cottages but mansions? These in fact are not "holiday homes", but investments. Where does the money come from? And what do the owners bring into the local economy?
They appear at weekends for the cheap golf; in summer they come with their SUVs, boats, dogs, even horses, and supplies from supermarkets. The beaches are stripped of protective marram grass; the corncrake and cuckoo have vanished. So too have the small shops. And so too are the young folk disappearing.
As our last remaining shred of privacy disappears with our view, we ask why this attack on our peace? - Yours, etc.,
Rev JOHN J SILKE, Portnablagh, Co Donegal.