Sir, – Much of what Bill Bailey writes about footpaths in the UK is very true (December 22nd). There are, however, two quibbles with what he says.
By the end of the second World War, in the UK, under emergency orders thousands of paths had been closed, obstructed, or ploughed up, with little public protest. The government of the day became so concerned that in 1949 it passed the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. This Act required each (then) county council, rural district council and parish council to compile and keep a definitive, up-to-date map of the paths in their areas. This is where the public began to guard seriously their access rights. A newer and definitive map was published under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. These Acts were a major factor in how rights of way are viewed in the two countries.
Most Irish country people of 70 years or so can clearly remember dozens of paths and laneways. These took the form of Mass paths, church paths, fishermen’s paths and well paths, now mostly gone. Our forefathers were not idiots and had no intention of walking five miles if they could use a path and do the journey in two. – Yours, etc,
KEN WARD,
Gorey,
Co Wexford.