Sir, - Something is badly wrong with Ireland's perception of itself when it is possible for a house of such historical and nationalist importance as Lissadell to be closed to visitors on a Saturday afternoon in mid-September. (The girl in the information kiosk in Sligo had said that it was open.) In the half-hour we waited at least four cars arrived and departed again.
Then there is Woodbrook. That the scene of David Thomson's wonderfully evocative memoir should be practically falling down, its guttering broken and the lodge at its gates in the path of a new road, is nothing less than incredible. Small wonder that the Cadogan Guide to Ireland actually says that the house no longer exists. How many thousands of visitors would journey to Carrick-on-Shannon if only the place was viable. . .
Finally, there is the appalling lack of proper planning controls. There is hardly a field or a lane or a lough from Rosslare to the border of Fermanagh that is not disfigured by pretentious bungalow architecture. Ireland is a marvellous country; but on these terms it will soon case to be anything more than a rusticated housing estate. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Tatham, Ravenstone, Buckinghamshire, England.