Madam - I have just returned from a walking holiday in Austria, where there are thousands of kilometres of legally protected rights of way in lowlands, uplands and mountains, where everything is done to encourage walking tourism and where, as a result, everyone benefits, especially the local community. Austria is not an exception in Europe. That unhappy position belongs to Ireland, where walkers have no right to put a foot on to private property.
Your edition of October 4th reports that farmers in Sligo, including Andy McSharry, who has already been convicted of assaulting two hapless walkers, have allowed walkers on to their precious rough grazing land for one day. This is provided that they show the necessary gratitude and deference.
Shame on the Mountaineering Council of Ireland in participating in a humiliating PR charade that any self-respecting walker would have rejected out of hand. What we urgently need are not cheap stunts but legal rights of the type that are taken for granted elsewhere in Europe. - Yours etc.,
DAVID HERMAN, Meadow Grove, Dublin 16.