Sir, - We arrived on Barleycove beach at noon on a misty but bright day in July. The finest beach in West Cork was completely empty. I had never before seen it empty on a fine day. The tents, caravans and camper vans which once had filled the dunes had been banned by the council since I was last there. This empty beach was the result. I could not help wondering how many of the great number of Continental camper vans I encountered that week were heading for Barleycove, only to be disappointed.
Later that day, we went to revisit Three Castles Head. When we arrived we found a little knot of tourists gathered around a new sign. It claimed that no right of way existed to the castle, and warned against trespassing. In just ten minutes, we saw groups from Germany, Holland and France obediently trudging back to their cars, having wasted their journey.
Barleycove Beach is one of the best beaches in Ireland, especially for children. For who exactly is it being preserved? There are few more spectacular sights than Three Castles Head in the whole of Ireland, let alone the Mizen Peninsula. It seems this too must be denied to pesky tourists.
Urban taxpayers are constantly reminded, by the likes of Marian Harkin, of their duty to subsidise rural life. Rural dwellers are "custodians of the countryside". The urban taxpayers of Ireland and Europe in general have been strangely well disposed to this self-serving argument for many years. How long will this tolerance last if more and more of the countryside is closed off? The Irish Times reported later that week that 70 per cent of Irish farm income is derived from direct subsidy, mostly from the EU. I wonder how this nugget of information would have gone down with our continental friends who were declared unwelcome by the custodians of Three Castles Head. - Yours, etc.,
Tim O'Halloran, Ferndale Road, Dublin 11.