Picture that framed our enduring values

THANK you for Valerie O’Sullivan’s picture of tranquillity (Fisherman collecting seaweed near Keel in Co Kerry, backpage, February 25).

The death of the Celtic Tiger has provoked anger, frustration and lamentation, but a tiger of any sort has never been native to these shores.

Nature has been generous in other ways and we need to reevaluate our priorities so we don’t become a people who, in the words of Oscar Wilde, know “the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

The building spree destroyed so much of our countryside that we’re now lucky still to have anything left and Valerie O’Sullivan’s picture reminds us that we have.

Handbags costing €800 provide an appropriate icon for the Celtic craze. Not one of those consumer goods could compare with the beauty of the Lee or Bandon Valleys or to the natural splendour of Kerry.

Maureen O’Donnell

Haig Gardens

Ballinlough

Cork