January 11, 2004
A walk in the country
About a decade ago, a few of us decided to climb Ben Bulben. It was a bitterly cold February day so we kitted out in the usual layers of clothes, jackets and boots. We made it up to the top of the plateau after about 90 minutes. We didn't get much time to admire the view. A searing wind dragged a cloak of cloud and sleet across the mountain-top, and after shivering in the gloom, we decided to make our way down. As we walked down, a figure appeared out of the whiteness. It was an old man, wrapped in an old black coat tied with baling twine, and only a flat cap to protect against the icy wind. He was obviously a local farmer, probably up on the mountain to check on his sheep. The bemused look he gave us said it all - three Goretex gimps kitted out to the last for an expedition that he had been doing daily for the last sixty years, and even then, at seventy or so years of age, he could probably get up and down the mountain faster than us.
'The Bull' Mcsharry got some moral support yesterday. He's in prison for a couple of weeks, for threatening a couple of hill-walkers. The Bull owns a farm in Sligo, and took exception to the presence of the walkers. Now, it's perfectly legal to tell walkers to leave your land - the Bull overstepped the mark, was given a fine in the District Court in Sligo. He's behind bars for not paying the fine 'on principle'.
Hill-walking in Ireland should be a doddle. Vast tracts of land in the north, west and south are virtually uninhabited - there are beautifully desolate mountain ranges, more and more broadleaf forests are being restored and the landscape is dotted with rolling fields and glittering lakes. Unfortunately, much of the landscape is also dotted with "Keep Out" and "Beware of the Bull" signs (if the number of signs reflected the true number of bulls in the country, there'd be a lot of nervous cows feigning headaches). In many places, barbed wire is a less eloquent but more effective statement of intent.
There is no right of access in Ireland. A field or road is either public (and therefore open to anyone) or private land. We don't have that much public land in Ireland - we can thank Gladstone and the various Land Acts for that. So if you want to climb many of Ireland's hills or mountains, or even traipse across the bogs of the west, you'll have to walk across privately owned land.
The problem is that a farmer is responsible for any person who enter his or her land, whether that person is a welcome guest or an intruder. Actually the law is no different from that which applies to private dwellings - my own home insurance includes a clause that would cover me if Aunt Jemima decided to go for one big payoff and throw herself down the stairs. Similarly, the same policy would cover me if an intruder broke into my home and injured himself lugging my widescreen TV out the back door (the law is great, isn't it?). Of course, a jury might look a little unfavourably on a burglar's claim. They may be more sympathetic to a couple of walkers who fell into a hole in a field, or injured themselves in an unfortunate barbed-wire-straddling incident. It wouldn't matter to the farmer that the walkers set off with the best of intentions - people become amazingly litigious when the opportunity arises - he would be liable.
Farmers are rightly protective of their land. Farming is a vocation, not a job that you just turn up for. The ownership of land was a hard-fought for right in this country, and not one that would be relinquished easily by anyone. I grew up on a farm, and I fully understand the sense of intrusion to discover someone walking on our property, even if you know them. In the west, the land was bad to begin with, and much of it was reclaimed by hand. All those pretty stone walls - you didn't think the stones picked themselves, did you?
And what about walkers that wander through herds of cattle or flocks of sheep, scaring them half to death ? That one is a little harder to believe. Most townies are scared of anything larger than a well-fed cat, and usually steer clear of groups of large ruminants. And so they should. An affectionate puck from a Charolais bullock is nearly as bad as a Navan man proposing marriage (though at least in the case of the bullock, it will probably take no for an answer). As for the stringy balls of fluff that you might encounter on an Irish hillside, the sooner that they are gone the better. These flocks of sheep have no real economic value whatsoever - they are only there because they are little woolly European Union money orders to the farmer. Their price is artificially controlled, and without subsidy, no farmer would keep them. (In fact, the latest reform of the Common Agricultural Policy - the Fischler reforms - deliberately separates the grant aid from the individual animal, so that in future, the farmer will get paid even if he doesn't actually keep any sheep). As an excuse to keep people from traversing land that has no other economic value, it is a very poor one.
To be honest, you need to half-mad to run your life based on the capricious nature of the Irish weather, and half-mad people with easy access to shotguns and plenty of places to bury things should not be unnecessarily provoked. But I wonder what the 300 farmers holding the vigil outside Lochan House (which included the IFA president, John Dillon) really want. Do they really want to ban all access to their land in perpetuity ? If so, they're on a hiding to nothing.
A compromise is required - that should be obvious to all. Farmers should not be liable for people who injure themselves if they have entered land without permission. It can't be that hard to make such a law (though we are quite good at making a bollix of legislation in this country). But we should be encouraging people to go walking. A national scheme that offers an incentive to farmers to provide access is required -and that requires farmers to participate when the land in question contains either a national monument or an area of particular scenic value (such as Ben Bulben). However, there should also be a national insurance scheme required for anyone who goes walking - that way, the question of cover becomes a duty on the walker rather than the owner of the land.
Could it be done ? Sure , it's not like there's a shortage of lawyers - they could figure it out. But will it be done ? Ah. In an ideal world, the farming organisations would drive this issue rather than just react angrily to it. Anything that benefits and sustains rural communities benefits farmers too - sub post offices, rural pubs, B&Bs all benefit from walkers - so there is a huge incentive to resolve this problem. And given the likely future policy of the EU on farming subsidies, there will be a lot of landowners whose boggy or mountainous land will never be part of a housing scheme, motorway or decentralised government department. And if the hills are no longer dotted with sheep, better that they be dotted with people than nothing at all.
Posted by Monasette at January 11, 2004 05:19 PM