Keep Ireland Open AGM

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | event notice Thursday March 28, 2019 23:18 by kio

Dublin International Youth Hostel (An Oige) 61 Mountjoy St Dublin 7.

Non-members welcome
Candidates for local elections: If you are prepared to support our campaign for better access to our countryside please come along and you will given an opportunity to say a few words.

Their AGM is always fascinating for the reports of the situation regarding Rights of Way around the country.

For further info contact Roger Garland at 01-4934239 or [email protected]

Who we are

Keep Ireland Open is a voluntary body composed of concerned individuals and a large number of bodies interested in the outdoors and the environment. These bodies include An Óige, the Catholic Guides of Ireland, the Irish Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association, Irish Rural Link, the Federation of Local History Societies, the Friends of the Irish Environment, Scouting Ireland and many more clubs and organisations.

What we do

Keep Ireland Open is the only national voluntary organisation campaigning for the right of recreational users to responsible access to the Irish countryside, whether mountains, seashore, lakes, rivers, historic monuments or other natural amenities.

We are campaigning for clearly-marked legal rights of way, mainly in the lowlands. and the legal right to roam freely in more remote and upland areas. We also campaign against barbed-wire fencing, especially prevalent in the West, which is both unsightly and denies access.

Our primary goal is legislation to give recreational users the right to access our countryside.

Our role is to lobby Government, politicians, tourism interests and other bodies to protect and enhance access to the countryside.

We have written articles and had letters published in the national and local press and argued our case repeatedly on TV and radio.

We have recorded and publicised areas where access is barred, researched the much more favourable status of access in other European countries.

We have taken a case to the EU complaining against Ireland's excessive use of barbed-wire fencing (this case is ongoing but so far successful).

We also try to resolve access disputes as they arise, (though with limited numbers of active members we can deal with only some of the simpler cases). Our approach is to resolve these disputes in the early stages and so avoid a hardening of attitudes and entrenched positions. However, we have not the resources to tackle all cases that arise. This should properly be the role of local authorities or tourism interests.

We monitor all local authority development plans and make submissions with regard to rights of way - a huge task. We also publish a quarterly newsletter and maintain this website