Sir, - I am at a loss to understand why there has been little or no comment on the proposed £100 million development at Luttrellstown, a nationally important 18th century landscape in the Liffey Valley in Co Dublin. Everything that has been said about planning, or the lack of it, at the nearby Carton House demesne is relevant also at Luttrellstown - at least one golf course, a major international hotel and a large number of houses. In keeping with the language of the ad-men these are referred to as "residential units".
One might think that golf courses are not destructive to the landscape, but this is not the case as modern golf course construction requires major feats of engineering and the alteration and obliteration of landscape features, be they natural or man-made.
It is time we in Ireland stopped having such a blinkered attitude to such important national treasures be they in the form of either our largely unblemished landscape and environment and our man-made heritage. Our archaeology and history are yet to be fully discovered and understood. Remains from earlier centuries deserve to be respected and retained unless the greater public good can be argued to prevail.
As citizens of this country is it too much to expect that our media will honestly report and investigate topics of interest? How the development of up to 50 golf courses on historic properties in the past 15 years can have happened without substantial debate and full monitoring by the relevant local and central government is hard to understand.
Robert O'Byrne's article "Rethinking our golf industry" in the Changing Landscapes series was a welcome salvo in the investigation of this overlooked aspect of the new Ireland. Now it is time for a change and the first move should be the commissioning of at least a map-based survey, the results of which should become the backbone of a register of historic parks and gardens. This resource could be set up by either D·chas or the Heritage Council or both.
Golf is not just an enjoyable pastime but a sport with a worldwide following. That such global corporate interests can move in on Ireland on such a scale without debate and serious comment is indeed worrying. - Yours, etc.,
Cormac Scally, Marlborough Park, Belfast.