Sir, What Dun Aengus is to Inish Mor, or the beehive huts to Skellig Michael, the Old Lighthouse and Watchtower are to Oilean Chleire. Imagine the outcry were access to Dun Aengus denied to the public. Well, Cape's key site was closed off last January by the alleged land owners. And there hasn't yet been a public peep.
Since February the island's tourism and environment committee has been actively approaching the Cork county council's enforcement office to try to effect the re opening of this site, to which, for over 100 years, the public has had an established right of way. (The Napoleonic watchtower was registered a National Monument in 1990). Throughout the summer the enforcement office promised legal action, but when the court convened in October, the alleged land owners' solicitor had started querying boundaries, a diversionary tactic which halted the promised legal proceedings by the council's solicitor. Who actually owns boundaries is irrelevant to this issue; denial of public access is not.
Now we don't blame landowners for worrying about being sued by someone who has an accident on their land, given the growing sad sue mentality in the country. But the Owner's Liability Act of 1994, Part III, Section 10, makes it clear that obstruction of a public right of way to a place of this character is against the law.
Cape's hitherto most accessible historic high point, frequented by tourist and islander, a spot from which one commands a 360 degree view of the south coast, from the Mizen to Galley Head, including the mountains of West Cork, Roaringwater Bay and the Fastnet Lighthouse, should be reopened. Yet there seems nothing we can do about it given the Cork County Council Enforcement Office's "If you don't make a decision, you can never be wrong" approach. Thus this letter. We hope by going public we all may regain access to heritage. - Yours, etc.,
Committee for Tourism and the Environment, Glen West, Cape Clear Island, Co Cork.