Sir, – Recent mention of the deserted village on Achill recalls my recent experience of the island’s beauty (“Deserted Achill Island settlement lives on in century-old journal”, June 25th). Not far from Keel, on the old road up to Slievemore, we passed a field; one small field of buttercups and wild iris. But what was so stunning in the bright sunlight was the amount of buttercups – apart from two or three smallish patches of flowering yellow iris to complement the composition and present smooth and broken surfaces, the buttercups, so densely prolific, made an almost dazzling splash of summer gold. I hope we were not the only ones to enjoy such a blaze of mid-summer glory.
Are we losing the ability to observe and appreciate the wonder of simple, unspoiled things? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL AUSTIN,
Hazelwood,
Gorey, Co Wexford.