EVERY New Year's for the past five years the Burren Action Group has organised a walk around Mullaghmore, as part of its campaign against a proposed interpretative centre near the mountain.
This year is no different, and shortly after noon on Wednesday conservationists from all over Ireland will gather at the Green Road crossroads near Killinaboy for the annual pilgrimage. It is hard to believe, but the row that everyone thought was over is set to continue into 1997 and beyond.
The latest move sees Clare County Council considering an application to build an "entry point" to the Burren National Park at Crag Road, Gortlecka and Knockaunroe - in other words at the original Mullaghmore site.
Opponents snort derisively at the change of name, and say if the tactic didn't work for Windscale/Sellafield then it is hardly going to work in Clare.
The new plan replaces the original proposal which was withdrawn by the Government in March 1995, following a convoluted wrangle which included various courtroom dramas. It was submitted by the Office of Public Works (OPW) on behalf of the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins.
It comprises a decent sized building (110 square metres) which houses offices, a storeroom and toilets, together with a covered waiting area (60 square metres) and an open waiting area (75 square metres). There is also provision for a reservoir and sewage treatment plant. The total area of the site is about 15 hectares, including "ancillary parking" for 72 cars and four minibuses.
To minimise its visual impact, the main building would be faced in stone and set into the contours of the land, with its roof covered by earth. The rest of the original site "will otherwise be backfilled and the land reinstated to its previous condition", according to an explanatory leaflet issued by the Minister.
Mr Higgins has described the plan as a "compromise" but it has angered the Burren Action Group which has vowed to continue its opposition to a centre of any kind at the site.
About 100 groups have joined the BAG in objecting to the development, including An Taisce, the Mountaineering Council of Ireland, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the World Wide Fund for Nature, Plant Life the Conservation Foundation and the Green Party.
Clearly, the Minister's attempt at compromise has not worked. Mr Higgins will need to think again if he is to avoid being caught between a rock and a hard place in the appropriately named Gort Leacach or "stony field".
The objectors have found a new and powerful ally in the Heritage Council, which was placed on a statutory basis by Mr Higgins and has shown its teeth by biting the hand that fed it. The council which under its founding legislation is bound to consider such matters, submitted a devastating critique of the planning application to Clare County Council earlier this month.
It examines the application within the overall context of the Burren, rather than within the relatively small parcel of land which comprises the Burren National Park.
"The establishment of a State owned parcel of land of 1,562 hectares to conserve the ecological and landscape integrity of an area which comprises approximately 500 square kilometres (50,000 hectares) is inadequate," it says.
"Conservation measures must be developed to deal with the total landscape unit which is the Burren, and attempt to integrate conservation and best practice in all activities in the region."
It says the choice of the Gortlecka site is based on a study which confines itself to the existing national park boundary.
"There is no question but that the area in the vicinity of Mullaghmore, Lough Gealain, Knockaunroe and Trauvaun is of extremely high conservation value, and should be afforded the highest level of protection possible.
"However, the current boundary of the national park bears little or no relationship to ecological, geological or landscape boundaries, but is based almost exclusively on land ownership."
RATHER than consider it in isolation, the current national park area should be regarded as "the core area of any management system, where no visitor facilities or other structures are constructed. This is to ensure that in protected areas the special attributes which lead to and encourage the development of tourist economies are not themselves threatened."
To support this argument, the council quotes from a document drawn up by the Federation of National and Nature Parks in Europe.
The document is called Loving Them to Death? Sustainable Tourism in Europe's Nature and National Parks. It says: "The tourism sector should promote the idea that, in protected areas, breath taking scenery and glimpses of wildlife are only revealed to those who make the effort."
The council says the boundary of the national park should be extended, particularly to south and south west, so that it extends to the main Corofin to Killinaboy road, and includes the wetlands extending to Lough Atedaun at Corofin. This could be done by way of "partnership agreements" with land owners.
A proper zoning system for the Burren area should also be developed, which would incorporate a buffer zone surrounding particularly sensitive habitats.
It says much of the area in the immediate vicinity of Crag Road is a priority habitat under the EU habitats directive and is of high conservation value. "Whether or not the proposed development at Gortlecka will actually cause damage to the area in the long term is a subject of dispute, but adherence to the precautionary principle of sustainable development would preclude the development progressing as there is a risk that some damage could ensue."
It criticises the draft management plan for the Burren National Park, which was published by Mr Higgins in February as a discussion document for public consultation over a 12 week period.
The "draft" nature of this document has since become obscured.
The present planning application flows from a statement in the draft plan that the Gortlecka site remains "the most suitable location" for "the major visitor centre at Mullaghmore. The council disputes this interpretation.
"While the Heritage Council welcomed the consultative process as outlined at the time, it is disappointing that the finalised version of the Burren National Park Study incorporating the various submissions made on the draft document was not published."
There is more, but the message to the Minister is clear: complete the much vaunted consultative process and publish the overall plan before you press ahead with an ill judged application for a new interpretative centre. It is a thorny political problem for Mr Higgins, one which he and the Labour Party could well do without in an election year.