Madam, - While the reaction of the IFA and other farming organisations to the report of the expert group on recreational access to the countryside set up by Minister Ó Cuív is profoundly depressing, it was, I suggest, historically predicted.
The Irish Land League was set up in the 19th century with a primary aim of abolishing "landlordism" in Ireland and enabling tenant farmers to own the land they worked on. It is with sadness I quote the negative thoughts of one of the Land League leaders, Matthew Harris, when he said:
"When the farmers would be emancipated and get their lands, such men would look on the boundary of their lands as the boundary of their country, because farmers as a rule are very selfish men."
Given the negative attitude of the farming organisations to reasonable proposals for recreational access to the countryside it would seem that his prediction has proved true, and a new "landlordism" is alive and well in 21st-century Ireland.
In my opinion, the Minister has little choice but to follow the radical approach taken by the 19th-century Land League. He must legislate now for the right of our citizens, and visitors, to enjoy our recreational heritage, just as Michael Davitt fought for the economic rights of the current landowners' predecessors. - Yours, etc,
MIKE KEYES, Greenpark Avenue, South Circular Road, Limerick.