Sir, - Kevin Myers asks many fascinating questions as to why the Irish have such disdain for their rapidly disappearing natural environment. What he should be asking is: why there is such active contempt for anything even vaguely connected with nature?
Every bit of greenery or brownery I see is vengefully garlanded with a variety of litter and refuse. Even window-boxes within reach of the street are thickly planted with cigarette butts. I recently caught the bus from Dublin to Drogheda and was hard-pressed to find a bush not draped in plastic-bags and chip-papers. More distressingly, I recently found almost the whole stretch of Killiney beach covered in refuse. Its current rake-over by earthmovers is at least a much-needed clean-up.
This contempt for the natural isn't just a reflection of Dublin city-life. I was stunned to find the beach of Kilronan Bay on Inis Mor also liberally festooned with beer-cans, bottles, plastic bags, and papers.
I tend to dislike questions, so my theory to account for this hatred for anything natural is that nature reminds Irish people of the days when most of them were tied to the land. Now, reeling proudly through the Great Boom, they can bury any reminder of the past in refuse, or chop it down, or smear it in concrete.
Please tell me I'm a pig-ignorant paranoid pansy Englishman. - Yours, etc.,
John McKeown, Bray Road, Shankill, Co Dublin.