A campaign has been started to save the Rocky Road, an ancient pilgrimage route in Ennis and now a hazel scrub amenity area. It is in danger of being cut in two by a dual carriageway and roundabout.
This has led to more than 1,800 people putting their names to submissions sent to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey.
The initiative was taken by a local resident, Mr Paddy Brennan, who says the old roadway, which is still visible, formed a pilgrims' way from the town to Killone Abbey, believed to have been founded as a nunnery in the 12th century, two miles from Ennis town centre.
He remembers his grandfather telling him that it was used as a drovers' route for cattle and horses going to fairs in Ennis.
The one-mile roadway, which runs south of the town, comprises about 40 acres of scrub and examples of the distinctive karst limestone paving of the Burren. It has a stream, the Hawn, running through it, and is a habitat for a herd of wild goats.
In the distance, the town's cathedral of St Peter and St Paul can be seen - the limestone for its spire was quarried from the Rocky Road area.
Mr Brennan says it was a favourite picnic area in his childhood when access to the nearby resort towns on the Atlantic coast was not so easy. "It was a recreation area for the town of Ennis, particularly the poorer areas of Ennis. Cars were not as plentiful as they are now."
Today it is a lovers' lane, a scouts' camping ground and a walk for many of the new residents of the town of 20,000 people.
A section of the roadway is the subject of a compulsory purchase order by the Minister, involving the extinguishing of a right-of-way so it can become part of the proposed u£72 million Ennis bypass scheme, part of the National Roads Authority's programme to upgrade the N18 Limerick to Galway road.
Although the proposed bypass will run to the east of the town, there is also a plan to construct a four-mile western relief road taking traffic for Kilrush, Lahinch and Ennistymon.
Ennis Urban District Council approved the plan in 1993 and councillors have since shied away from objecting to the scheme after being told they faced the risk of losing the whole western relief project.
They were also told by consultants Babtie Pettit that the bypass would offer increased recreational opportunities on the Rocky Road.
"In its own way, the proposed relief road will make the Rocky Road accessible for significant areas of the town," the county engineer, Mr Tom Carey, says.
He adds that although the CPO involves the purchase of seven acres of the Rocky Road, not all of that would be developed. He is examining the possibility of moving the round about off its proposed location, lessening the impact on the Rocky Road, and the local authorities have undertaken to purchase additional lands and develop them for amenity purposes.
With about 85 per cent of households having a personal computer as a result of the Information Age Town designation, the campaign is now an example of latter day civic protest. The local Green Party branch made available a letter on its website along with information on the disputed area.
"There has been a phenomenal amount of interest in it," says Mr Brian Meaney, chairman of the Ennis Green Party branch. "It is important that people are aware that this is more than a road. It is an entire area."
The Minister has received 54 objections to the CPO, five submissions on the Environment Impact Statement and 1,800 objections, including petitions, to the bypass going through the Rocky Road. A public inquiry is expected to be scheduled for the autumn.
Mr Donal O Bearra, a Green Party UDC member, says that Ennis, a town which is experiencing burgeoning growth, is close to the bottom of a league table for having green areas. "What Ennis as a town needs is more active amenity areas. We have the information age town and everything is virtual reality. This is real reality, this is so natural people can touch it."
The campaign started with Mr Brennan collecting signatures as people went for a Sunday afternoon walk along the route. It was then taken up by the local media and fought in the letters page of the Clare Champion.
