‘Year after year, we see fire after fire at the same time’

Looking at the damage caused by a gorse fire in Killarney’s National Park, which destroyed thousands of acres of habitat, local solicitor and environmental campaigner Pat F O’Connor is visibly angry.

“We have some of the most wonderful scenery and natural habitats in the world and every year it is criminally and sacrilegiously destroyed,” he says. “In truth we do not deserve it for the way we have forsaken it.”