Sir, - As someone who once lived in Dublin and has since visited Ireland regularly to enjoy walking in the mountains, I have noted reports of access problems in recent years with increasing concern.
I have been shown copies of recent comment in your columns and these, combined with my experience of trying to obtain information from the Irish Tourist Board in London, prompt this letter.
Easy access to unspoilt and largely unfrequented mountains has made Ireland a considerable attraction for many British hill-walkers, and visiting walkers must make a substantial contribution to the Irish tourist industry.
The extent to which countryside access underpins tourist activity has been very evident in the UK this year, where closure of footpaths as a result of the foot and mouth epidemic has seen the tourist industry crippled in many areas.
If no-entry signs and confrontations with angry farmers become the norm in Ireland, foreign walkers will undoubtedly stay away. They have plenty of hassle-free alternatives: access rights in England and Wales are being improved under the right-to-roam legislation, and most other European countries have well established arrangements which ensure that walkers are made to feel welcome.
In January this year (well before foot-and-mouth became an issue), I tried to obtain up-to-date information on the access situation from the Irish Tourist Board in London (including specific questions on the legal position and whether there were likely to be problems in following routes in published guidebooks). After a number of reminders, I received several pages of information about foot-and-mouth restrictions and, eventually, earlier this month, a largely incoherent letter, including the generally reassuring advice that you can "walk any were in Ireland without too much of a problem".
Clearly, there is a need to ensure that prospective visitors to Ireland are given much more realistic advice on the difficulties they may face in the hills. More importantly, for the long-term health of the Irish tourist industry, there is surely an urgent need to put access on a proper legal basis by establishing a right to roam and a network of undisputed rights-of-way, so that hillwalkers can once again visit Ireland in the knowledge that they will find cΘad m∅le fβilte in the countryside. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Hudson, Balearic, Essex, England.