Old Head of Kinsale is reclaimed by the public

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 09, 2003 22:20 by Claire - Cork Peace Alliance claireporter at eircom dot net

A public Meeting about the Old Head of Kinsale will take place this Thursday, (12th June, 2003) at the Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork, 8pm. All welcome. Here is our chance to discuss the issues that the Supreme Court case failed to even scratch the surface of.

A public Meeting about the Old Head of Kinsale will take place this Thursday, (12th June, 2003) at the Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork at 8pm.
Professor John Maguire and Ted Tynan will speak briefly, but the main focus of the meeting will be an open discussion with a view to launching a new campaign group to gain public access on the Old Head of Kinsale.

The recent Supreme Court ruling was based on some quite astonishing assumptions, suggesting that the public never used to visit the Old Head: "There is presently no use of the golf course lands for general public access for any purpose: it seems to me that the effect of a public access condition is to create a new use and not to control or restrict an existing one" (No 45 in the judgement).
Most importantly however, the judgement quite consciously did not touch on the issue of 'imperitives of public access' versus 'the rights of property' as it found the 'wider picture' to be outside the realms of this particular law.

The court case deliberately restricted itself to the discussion of one narrow aspect of planning law (s26 of the Local Governent (Planning and Development) Act, 1963, claiming that An Bord Pleanala overreached its authority in imposing a condition of public access as part of planning permission.

At the meeting on Thursday, we will discuss what the ruling left out.

What should the rights of the public be with regard to access? Do developers have any rights?
Does the fact that people have been using a piece of land 'as long as anyone can remember', count in terms of 'rights' or law?
Why has the Old Head not been officially declared a public right of way?
If public access to scenic Ireland is closed off bit by bit, what are implications? For locals? For tourists? For tourism in the long term?
What can we do to reinstate a right to access?

For the full Supreme Court Decision:
http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/2003/13.html