Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

It is interesting to watch the club championships every year because one finds to one's surprise that a large number of the clubs that reach county and provincial finals and even go on to win the national championship are from communities without any significant urban settlement. Will we destroy this on the altar of some dogma put forward by town planners or will we run this country in the interests of ordinary people who want to preserve the communities to which they have always belonged?

One of the extraordinary differences between this country and other countries is our great attachment to place. Large numbers of high powered, well educated young people return to their parishes every weekend because that is where their hearts are and they want to be part of them. This is due to the attachment to place that is prevalent in this country.

I have often noticed that people who do not have any real experience of rural Ireland other than looking at it as they drive around tend to view the countryside as a collection of houses. They are utterly stunned when we say they do not understand the geography because each house belongs to a village, not in the sense of a village in continental Europe because, as Professor Caulfield has frequently pointed out, our villages pre-date much of the modern history of continental Europe. People within boundaries that might not be visible to those who do not understand have an attachment and a connection that is absolutely vital to their well-being.

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