(How The West Was Lost)

By Robert Allen

''Under penalty of death, no Irish man, woman, or child, is
to let himself, herself, itself be found east of the River Shannon.''

- A 1654 order from the parliament of England.

Three and a half centuries ago, Celtic Ireland was scattered to the winds by an indomitable enemy. The Brehon laws by which the people lived were abolished. Anti-Catholic laws were introduced. The Celtic chiefs were killed or exiled. The Celtic poets were banished. Peoples' land was taken away from them unless they took the Oath of Abjuration - which was an act of apostasy. The people fled, mostly to Connaught. It was hell east of the Shannon.

Despite colonial oppression, successive generations of Irish toiled and sweated on the rocky bogland and the barren soil of Connaught. For many it wasn't much of a life and particularly during the Famine years, when hundreds of thousands died in the West and others emigrated, it seemed that hell was Connaught itself.

People, however, prevailed, rebuilt their homelands and established communities which survived on mutual aid, sharing and cooperation. This was the West of Ireland Tony Waldron grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, a place which was for him a paradise.

People were not well off, many lived in unhealthy accommodation. Emigration was the generational safety valve. Yet people got by and it is only now that the older generations realise that the West of their youth was a much richer place than it is now.

Having found a kind of paradise, suddenly it has been lost again. Connaught has become a living hell for many people. When the Western Bishops launched their `Save the West' campaign at the start of the 1990s, Bishop Eamonn Casey said it was so depressed that ``what is left is more depressing''.

The West is depressed because it has become a forgotten place. Much of the work that exists outside the factories on the edges of towns and cities is in agriculture, retail, catering and services, and in the seasonal service and tourist industries. Despite its economic potential, the tourist industry is drastically underdeveloped. Most work is poorly paid. To make ends meet, people engage in a variety of occupations, from small-scale farming, to fishing, running B&Bs, craft work and odd jobs. Many people only survive because they are able to do odd jobs for cash. Incomes are also derived from social welfare payments, headage (sheep) payments, wages and profits from trade activities.

Much of the West is still unsullied by modern development. When Tony Waldron looks at his beloved West he still sees its unspoilt beauty, its delicate ecosystems, its undisturbed tranquility. He knows that most tourists come to Ireland to wash their senses with this beauty and tranquility.

This is the dilemma facing the people and the 26-county state: whether to introduce modern industry or to protect the environment. In the industrialised western world the West of Ireland is relatively unpolluted, but that is changing rapidly. The land is poisoned. The mountains have been denuded. The rivers, lakes and watercourses are polluted.

When the bishops' study `A Crusade For Survival' was published five years ago, it immediately caused controversy. Among its many recommendations, the authors advocated several environmentally destructive activities - such as intensive farming, golf courses and pine forestry.

Tony Waldron's belief - that tourism is the single most important sector in the west and that eco-tourism has the greatest potential for expansion - is based on his intimate knowledge of the rivers and lakes, flora and fauna, forests and fields, hills and mountains - and that this diversity is the reason why tourists make their sojourns to the West of Ireland.

Now the Western Development Commission (WDC) - which was created to ``save'' the West - has published its policy document. It is full of promises. The most significant is the £3.7 billion the WDC expects to receive from the EU until 2006.

Waldron's concern for our environment has been lost on Dublin's bureaucrats, and now it seems it may be lost on the people who control and run the WDC. Liam Scallon, chief executive officer of the WDC, has said that the ``the path to hell or to Connaught is paved with good intentions. It is not enough to have ideas and enthusiasm. One needs a robust structure not only capable of generating ideas but of backing up these ideas and seeing them through into implementation. There is no structure for doing that, only an attitude and a belief that it is desirable and possible. Structure, tactics and professionalism are also needed - or right thinking will not become right implementation by government.''

What exactly does he mean by this? Is he advocating the kind of development that has flighty wings, like the corporates who pull out when their profits are affected, or would he like to see community-led development which is labour-intensive and ecologically sustainable?

``The way ahead for the West is to nurture a `gentler form of development' - a development that taps into the deep natural and spiritual heritage of the place,'' said Scallon. ``The old Celtic spirit found strength from passion and spontaneity. The western development initiative is sourced in the will of Irish Catholic bishops, yet must succeed in the advanced bureaucracy of modern Ireland. It must, therefore, proceed with a mixture of passion and prudence into the new millennium.''

Does this mean that the WDC is really a Western Industrial Development Agency? If it is, the choice between hell and Connaught will once again be a decision the disempowered and disadvantaged must face. What the state must realise is that they have nowhere to go.