LANDSCAPE / 09
PERCEPTION
EARLY IRISH TRUMP WALL AT OLD HEAD OF KINSALE TO EXCLUDE SO-CALLED IRISH, MEXICAN AND FRENCH CITIZENS
Landscape Architect, activist and founder of Landscape Alliance Ireland, Terry O’Regan shares some surprising French perspectives on Ireland’s landscape he definition of landscape in the European Landscape Convention, which is now also part and parcel of our planning and development legislation, features the word ‘perceived’. That has always given me some cause for unease as it seems to separate the cerebral from the reality. A recent illuminating experience has not quite eliminated that unease, but it certainly gives us all some food for thought. At the end of January, Ireland hosted an exploratory visit of experts from the French Ministry of Sustainable Development. The visit, initiated by our French colleagues, was prompted by the fact that since May 2015 Ireland has a national landscape strategy and the French authorities, despite having a wide range of measures in place that deliver on the aims and objectives of the European Landscape Convention, do not in fact have an overarching landscape strategy. To inform their deliberations they are visiting a number of states with such strategies in place. Assisted by our own Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs they experienced an intensive three day programme of meetings and site visits that concluded with a short day visit to Cork, jointly hosted
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by Brendan O’Sullivan of the Centre for planning Education & Research at University College Cork and myself representing Landscape Alliance Ireland. As is the nature of such visits, both sides gained from the exchange of experiences and methodologies. But what I found particularly interesting was their different perception of our landscape. They were very taken with the number of large mature natural trees in the rural landscape. Now I would have thought on my visits to France that they had a landscape very generously endowed with trees, but they said yes, they do have plenty of trees in their towns and cities but they are inevitably pruned and contained, whilst in the rural areas the trees are typically contained and controlled in defined woodlands and forests. They also remarked on the diversity of paint colours applied to houses in our landscape, enquiring if people are free to choose whatever colour they desire. Apparently in France you may be told by the authorities what colour paint to use. Our lack of footpaths along roads in rural areas was also remarked on, with the rider that in France this tends to be overdone and to urbanise the landscape. Maybe we failed to show them more of our sometimes ‘overcooked’ roadside walls and balustrades? Our itinerary in Cork was rather limited due to time constraints, but a short walk around Kinsale elicited the observation that it was a vibrant small town with a wide range of shops not just offering tourist fare, but also ‘butchers and bakers and candlestick makers’ and more outlets providing for the practical needs of the local population. We ended our journey at the ‘no entry’ gateway to the Old Head of Kinsale golf course as an example of what is perceived by many in Cork and elsewhere as a failure in our planning process due to the lack of free public access to the
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Spring 2017
