Madam, – Ciara Kenny refers in Go (April 20th) to the mountain hut in Greenane, Co Wicklow. This two-storey cottage is situated at the head of the Glenmalure valley beyond Drumgoff and Barravare Ford .
In the early 1900s, literary visitors to this secluded cottage included Maud Gonne MacBride, Countess Markievicz, Lennox Robinson, WB Yeats, Synge, Francis and Iseult Stuart.
In 1955 the cottage was bequeathed to the Irish Youth Hostel Association by a prominent paediatrician and politician Dr K Lynn. It was opened as a youth hostel by Éamon de Valera in 1956.
This scenic historical valley, considered one of Ireland’s great glacial valleys, is now a polluted waste land and dump. Denuded by Coillte of its majestic fir trees (possibly on maturity) the valley and river is strewn with bottles, cans, barbecue metals, excrement, etc. left by drinking parties or tipplers lacking pride and consideration for this former place of beauty. Shame on the polluters and Wicklow Co Council.
When will they ever learn? – Yours, etc,