Sir, - I would like to comment on Lorna Siggins's article on the protest by "Keep Ireland Open", at Uggool, Co Mayo (June 29th). What is at issue here is a right of way leading to a magnificent beach, a right of way which has been used by generations of Mayo people and others from all over Ireland and abroad.
The route to this beach has been blocked by an unauthorised fence and an unauthorised road constructed behind it. No amount of bluster from the IFA will get away from these plain facts, no matter how much it is determined to defend the landowners concerned.
Mayo County Council knows all this. Its action to date has been to sit on the case for five years and then to declare that it could do nothing because it had done nothing for that time. Such abject neglect of duty is nothing new to this County Council. Another right of way in Mayo which had been a pilgrim route since early Christian times and which featured in the Council's own promotional literature has also been illegally fenced off. The council's response so far has been to blithely inquire if those protesting against this could demonstrate that it was a traditional right of way.
Since Mayo County Council's inaction is not altogether atypical of local authorities across the country, "Keep Ireland Open" has every reason to be concerned. If rights of way can be so easily extinguished it will shortly have to retitle itself "Make Ireland Open Again". - Yours, etc.,
David Herman,
Meadow Grove,
Dublin 16.