Carrauntoohil summit should be left untouched

I first climbed Carrauntoohil when I was 14 with a group of scouts from the 21st Cork CBSI.

It was brushed with snow flurries and flashes of sunlight, was bitterly cold and stunningly beautiful. I was hooked for life on wild and high places. On reaching the summit our leader, Fr Angus remarked on the cross, saying such a man-made intrusion had no place on a mountain which should be left in its natural state.

After many excursions to the summit I returned there in 2006 to celebrate my 60th birthday and was saddened to see an even bigger iron cross. We had an opportunity to demonstrate our maturity as an inclusive nation and our increased awareness of natural beauty, by not restoring this symbol. The mountain should never have been used as a prop for the triumph of a belief system. As that now departed priest wished, let the mountain revert to being just a magnificent mountain.