Stop ‘saving’ the Barrow – it’s in all of our interests

OLIVIA O’LEARY had free rein on The Late Late Show to promote her pet project about keeping her local walkway along the Barrow River in its natural grassy state. Funny that.

The broadcaster loves to walk her favourite stretch in contemplative silence and fears that all will be destroyed if plans for a hard surface along the 115km towpath from Kildare to Carlow come to pass, bringing with it all manner of outsiders, and cyclists in particular.

One of the best things about living in Ireland is our proximity to beauty spots and natural amenities, places where we can unwind away from the rat race. We have an extraordinary coastline, wild stretches of mountainside and public parks such as the Phoenix Park, the Botanic Gardens, Glendalough and Avondale House, which fill up at weekends.

Surely it is in the public interest that more leisure destinations are developed all the time so that they can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those who have a connection to an area. O’Leary, pictured, heads a campaign whose scaremongering suggests that the plan will cause the same disruption to local wildlife as a new airport runway in its midst. There are already precedents for the style of development earmarked for the Barrow.

The Great Western Greenway between Westport and Achill brings seasonal business to a fairly remote community and gives pleasure to thousands each year.

If O’Leary wants a private beauty spot which only she and a select few can enjoy, then perhaps they could pool their resources and buy something in an underpopulated part of rural Ireland which will not be troubled by the scourge of tourism, cycling or development for several generations.

There are large, unspoiled tracts of Leitrim and Roscommon, along riverbeds and lonely lakeshores where there is not a soul to be seen, and where the locals might only be too happy to allow an eminent broadcaster have it all to herself.