The nine-year controversy over the visitors' centre at Mullaghmore in the Burren is set to take another twist this week when a planning appeals hearing opens in Ennis tomorrow.
This latest stage has arisen following an appeal by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, against Clare County Council's decision to refuse permission for a revised plan for visitors' facilities. The council had decided that the revised proposal contravened the county development plan.
It is perhaps timely that two books and a map on the fragile landscape should be appearing on "just published" shelves in some bookshops over the coming days.
Mr Tim Robinson, Connemara cartographer, will be issuing an up-to-date Folding Landscapes map of the area, while Ms de Valera is launching a Clasp Press edition of Thomas J. Westropp's Archaeology of the Burren: Prehistoric Forts and Dolmens of North Clare in the National Museum, Dublin, on Thursday.
Already published is a handsome field guide of Burren and Aran island flora by Dr Charles Nelson, who served for 20 years as senior research botanist and horticultural taxonomist at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin.
Listing over 120 plants, ranging from Irish eye-bright and lady's bedstraw to the common cowslip and ragwort, the illustrated guide dismisses the "tourist propaganda" image of the Burren, and parts of the Aran Islands, as desolate, grey limestone pavement.
This image has ancient origins, he reminds readers in his foreword. It was Lieut Gen Edmund Ludlow, one of Cromwell's generals, who described in his memoirs "a country where there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him . . .".
However, Dr Nelson notes he could be forgiven for missing out on the Burren's natural wonder. It seems he came in early November, when it had been snowing and blowing a gale.
Wild Plants of the Burren and the Aran Islands: A Field Guide by Charles Nelson is published by The Collins Press at £10 paperback.