The Irish Times

Only four per cent of us take an active interest in protecting Ireland's heritage, according to a Heritage Council awareness survey. The survey also found that we tend to think of "heritage" more in terms of historic buildings than our landscape and natural environment. Imposing neo-classical public buildings and the streetscapes of planned towns are no longer contaminated by alien associations with invaders, landlords or belted earls; they have all been embraced as part of what we are, even if we still have our blind spots.