TORONTO STAR: Celtic Tiger threatens 'very soul of historic Ireland'

2008-10-07T16:49:00.001+01:00

Archaeology Magazine - News Headlines: Here’s a summary of what preservationists have tried to do to save Ireland’s Hill of Tara from highway construction. Their new argument suggests that the downturn in the country’s economy requires Ireland to save its historic resources as tourist destinations.

Celtic Tiger threatens 'very soul of historic Ireland'

MITCH POTTER - TORONTO STAR
Europe Bureau - Oct 07, 2008

HILL OF TARA, Ireland–It is a battle worthy of the old Irish legends, pitting history against modernity. But as a controversial highway creeps ever closer to the spiritual home of the early Celtic kings, it now appears both sides may lose.

For advocates of the twin ribbons of asphalt called the M3 now under construction north of the Irish capital, there is no choice but to live pragmatically with the roar of a commuter corridor in the shadow of the sacred Hill of Tara, because getting to nearby Dublin is a nightmare without it.

For opponents, the new toll highway is the most painful example of the Celtic Tiger's propensity for gnawing through all obstacles – up to and including "the very soul of historic Ireland" – in the pursuit of the almighty euro. Worse, they say, the highway is arriving just as the economy curls up into what many expect will be a deep slumber, worn ragged by a broken property bubble and the global credit squeeze.

Scheduled to open in 2010, the M3's loudest critics concede much of the damage is already done – 38 archaeological sites unearthed during construction thus far have been carved from the landscape. Among the now vanished finds, a newly discovered national monument at Lismullin that one leading archaeologist described as "the wooden equivalent of Stonehenge."

"All these sites, including the monument at Lismullin, were part and parcel of the greater whole that is the Hill of Tara complex and now they are gone, demolished. The damage is complete and irreversible," said Vincent Salafia of Tara Watch. "Some would say, `Give up the fight. The deed is done.' But we're not giving up because what we are most against is the building of the motorway through the valley that is at the heart of the Tara complex. It's a long ways from completion and there is still time to come to our senses.

"We say reroute it. Turn the M3 into a heritage trail and it will make much more money than a toll road, which is now looking at ruin as a concept with the economy today, because nobody is going to use it."

A walk to the summit of Tara itself, with the guidance of local historian and author Michael Slavin, reveals the multiplicity of historical layers at the heart of the quarrel, from a Neolithic passage tomb predating the Celts to Iron Age earthworks within which as many as eight centuries of Irish High Kings are believed to have been crowned.

Slavin points to a standing stone, thought to be the fabled Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, which legend holds would scream loud enough to be heard throughout the island when a would-be king met a series of challenges and was deemed worthy of royal rule. Another layer still commemorates the 1798 Battle of Tara, when some 400 rebels died fighting against British forces, encoding the hill even more deeply as a symbol of Irish independence.

Other earthworks reveal 20th-century excavations conducted on the mistaken belief that the Irish were part of the Lost Tribes of Israel and that the hill contained the Ark of the Covenant.

"In the time of the pyramids, a spiritual people were on this hill. And for centuries to come, Tara was a place to project power through ceremony, right through to the time of the later Irish kings. That's why it matters," said Slavin.

Slavin admits he has "a bit of a jaundiced view" toward the great wealth that flowed through Ireland for the past generation. It brought a building boom to the nearby town of Navan, which swelled from county town to a northern outpost of Greater Dublin.

"Money was something we never had. But now we have thousands of people in Navan living in these new houses that have to get to Dublin every day. Can you say to them, `Sorry, you can't have a road?'"

The answer, according to the overwhelming majority of Irish archaeologists, is yes. Foremost among them is George Eogan, professor emeritus of archaeology at University College, Dublin, who has invested a lifetime of excavation throughout County Meath, becoming famous for the discovery and understanding of the rich belt of Neolithic passage tombs that ring the Boyne River valley, from Tara to nearby Newgrange and Knowth.

"This highway is shocking. It is one of the great scandals," Eogan told the Toronto Star. "People need motorways. Fine. But the evil thing they've done is to build this motorway into crucial areas alongside Tara. They could have found a way around it. But instead we are left with a depressing, cannibalistic and ruthless plan that runs directly through virgin territory."

With the Irish economy falling into recession last month, the Tara Watch campaign is now shifting tactics, arguing "the radically new economic landscape" calls for the scrapping of the government's six-year National Development Plan, under which the M3 is being built. The downturn, the group says, requires that Ireland rethink the assumptions of what kind of economy it will have moving forward.

"We're in a struggle to define ourselves," said Salafia. "With the Celtic Tiger roaring along we were able to ignore the commercial and cultural advantages of properly protecting this history. People thought, `Craft shops and Leprechauns? No thanks, we're better than that now.'

"It's ironic that we've always relied on tourism, yet there is so much there that has never been properly marketed. And there is a stupid assumption that we have so much we don't really need to protect. But the way the economy is turning now, we're asking for a chance to revisit these assumptions."

Downriver at Newgrange, the fuss surrounding Tara comes as no surprise to Claire Tuffy, who manages what is widely regarded as Europe's most impressive Stone Age monument. Dating to 3,200 BC, the estimated 200,000 tonnes of stone were arranged in such a way that daylight penetrates into the 20-metre passageway for about 17 minutes each year – precisely on Dec. 21, marking the winter solstice.

Tuffy says visitors are continually looking to attach ever-greater meaning to the site. One theorist claimed a drawing in the chamber constitutes the first map of the moon. Another declared the stones at Newgrange were acoustically tuned to a specific musical note.

"It is just so much to ask of our ancestors. You get the stones, you pile them up, you line them up with the sun and the stars and moon and then, oh yes, they need to make a certain note," Tuffy laughed.

"What it says that humans are always looking for answers. And in the backs of our heads we have a notion that at some time in the past there was a golden age where people knew exactly what they were doing and they weren't struggling to find their way."

Tuffy doubts it was so. She points out that after the completion of Newgrange, the builders immediately began work on secondary monuments at the site.

"God love these poor people who were dragging these stones up the hill, they were searching for answers as well ... And obviously they didn't get all the answers, because the guys in charge said, 'Now we've got to start building another one on Monday,' " she said.

"That same spiritual fascination is what keeps Tara and the rest of these monuments special. They are real, living spiritual places where people connect to the past. And if we lost that, we'd all be a lot poorer."

More:

Watch interview with Professor George Eogan

EU Speak out on Tara

2008-10-01T10:25:00.001+01:00

EU Speak out on Tara

South Meath Post 30-9-08
by Evan Short

Tarawatch anti M3 protesters claimed last week to have been backed by the EU in their continuing campaign against the motorway.

According to Vincent Salafia, the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament has expressed its "ongoing concern" regarding the impact of the M3 on the Hill of Tara archaeological complex and the demolition of the Lismullin National Monument.

In its annual activity report from 2007 released last Wednesday, the Committee commented specifically on the absence of any assesment in advance of a 2007 decision to remove a national monument situated at Lismullin in the path of the M3 Motorway project near Tara in County Meath.

The Lismullin Henge, described by the American Archaeological Journal as one of its most signiicant finds of 2007, was removed in January to permit the M3 to go ahead. According to Vincent Salafia, the comments were a welcome boost for Campaigners.

" We welcome the ongoing concern of the Petitions Committee in this matter and urge the EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas to speed up his legal action against Ireland over Tara.The M3 isstill 3 years from completion as it has been delayed due to multiple sub contractors withdrawing from the project, and there is still plenty of time to resolve this issue"

Irish Independent: M3 motorway partners see 12pc drop in share price

2008-09-02T12:33:00.001+01:00

Nicolas Villen Jimenez, chief financial officer of Grupo Ferrovial SA, poses at his office in Madrid on May 28, 2007. Photographer: Daniel Sanchez/Bloomberg News

M3 motorway partners see 12pc drop in share price

Irish Independent - Tuesday September 02 2008

THE Spanish construction giant Ferrovial Group , a partner in the construction of the controversial M3 motorway, saw its shares fall 12pc yesterday , after it reported a 25pc drop in earnings for the first half of 2008. While the group's cash flow remained healthy at more than €1bn over the period, it said earnings before interest and tax fell 25pc to €691m.

Ferrovial reported that Ireland was among the best performing areas for the group internationally. While traffic volumes on its toll roads grew by 8pc, revenues from this source were up a significant 13.5pc over the period, although the company declines to give an exact figure for those revenues. Despite the economic slowdown affecting some countries, the toll road business, including holding companies, expanded revenue by 7.3pc to €444.6m in the first half of 2008. "The results were affected by exchange rates and an up-tick in costs, together with a slowdown in traffic on some routes," said Luis Padron, an analyst at Fortis Bank . "Still, that was compensated by higher tolls and there were no great surprises overall."

Ferrovial ended the period heavily in debt -- net financial debt with recourse to the parent company was €2.201bn at the end of the half year. Tara Watch, the group which has opposed the building of the M3 close to the national monument at Tara, said the debt burdens under which construction firms such as Ferrovial are operating, as well as declining toll revenues worldwide, posed a serious problem for the Government.

Downturn

Vincent Salafia of Tara Watch said: "The global financial downturn has hit construction companies hard , and the increase in gasoline prices has also reduced toll revenues worldwide. These two factors are combining to create an ominous environment for the M3 contract, the National Roads Programme under the National Development Plan , and Transport 21 . We are calling on the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, to investigate the matter, and to reveal the consequences of contractor liquidation, under the Public Private Partnership agreement."

Related articles:

- Bloomberg: Ferrovial Declines After Posting Quarterly Loss on Heathrow

- Wall Street Journal: Debt Costs Help Slash Net at Spain's Ferrovial

- Financial Times: Ferrovial profits dive as strong euro and rising costs add to woes

- Peninsula Star On-line: Ferrovial announces profit collapse

Email Ferrovial Shareholder Relations: accionistas@ferrovial.es

Downgrade for builders as concern over debts grows

Irish Independent - Wednesday July 23 2008

Hochtief , Germany's largest construction company, and other European builders were downgraded by Merrill Lynch on concern debt-financed acquisitions will add extra strain to their finances as economies deteriorate.

Merrill cut its recommendation on Hochtief, Bilfinger Berger and Ferrovial of Spain to "neutral" from "buy", according to analyst Luis Prieto. Merrill lowered Eiffage and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas to "underperform'' from "neutral" and kept "buy" ratings on ACS and Vinci.

"The fact that contractors have not been stress-tested by previous economic downturns in their current configuration makes us adopt a very conservative approach," Mr Prieto said in a note.

"Negative sentiment" surrounds European builders' shares," added Mr Prieto. Attempts to diversify have exposed European contractors to additional risk. (© Bloomberg )

Motorists can be a driving force

Letter to the Editor - Irish Independent - Tuesday September 02 2008

I CANNOT for the life of me understand why Irish motorists take so much crap from the National Roads Authority and the Government. Here we are again with another stealth tax that the already hard-done by Irish motorists have to pay. What is wrong with you motorists? Do you not realise that you have an ace in your hands that, if used properly, could see the M50 tolls removed permanently?

A few years ago I was in Alicante, Spain. A new motorway had just been opened up and toll booths had been placed on the motorway. The Spanish motorists did not use the motorway; they did not want to pay the tolls and the government for the region had to remove the tolls and the motorway is now free to use. Can the Irish motorists not do the same? We know that Irish motorists using the M50 have paid for it many times over and now are being ripped off again with an increase in the toll charges.

Irish motorists, lend me your ears. Awaken in yourselves the passion and drive of our forefathers and unite as one to boycott the M50 motorway. Bring this rip-off to a close once and for all. I feel very strongly about this.

TONY LEGGETT
CO LIMERICK

write to independent.letters@unison.independent.ie

Tara campaign to give away money outside Government offices

2008-08-25T14:23:00.002+01:00

Plush new Department of Finance offices - Merrion Row, Dublin

Breaking News - Ireland: 25/08/2008 - 12:22:46

Tara campaigners are to give money away to members of the public at noon tomorrow, outside the new Department of Finance offices on Baggot Street.

The gesture is being done to protest the Government's adherence to the National Development Plan, and the M3 motorway, despite the economic downturn.

Dressed as 'fat-cats', demonstrators will give passing members of the building trade €1 each. However, employees in the medical or educational fields will be given only 20 cents. Homeless people will not be given anything.

This is to symbolise what campaigners claim is an imbalance in Government priorities, where support for builders is higher than any other area of Irish society.

The action is being taken in response to Bertie Ahern's opinion piece in yesterday's Sunday Independent, calling for Taoiseach Cowen to ignore the financial crisis and proceed with the multi-billion investment in the NDP, and in particular the roads programme and Transport 21.

The takings from the TaraWatch benefit concert tonight at the Arts Club in Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin will fund the giveaway.

Campaign spokesman Vincent Salafia said: "The economic justification for the NDP and the M3 has evaporated, with the economic downturn, and it is economic suicide to carry on as if nothing has happened.

"Fianna Fáil, mindlessly propped up by the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats, have clearly made a lot promises to their supporters in the building trade that they feel cannot be undone, no matter what logic it defies or what damage it does to the economy as a whole.

"We are demanding truly sustainable development, not the corrupted version we are being fed at the moment, that is harming rather than improving society as a whole."

COPY OF TARAWATCH RELEASE AND DETAILS OF EVENTS BELOW

PRESS RELEASE

TARAWATCH.org

25 August 2008

'Proceeds from Tonight's Tara Benefit to be Given Away Outside Department of
Finance Tomorrow'

The takings from the TaraWatch benefit concert taking place tonight at the
United Arts Club will be given away to the public at noon tomorrow, outside the
plush new Department of Finance offices on Baggot Street, as a form of protest.

The gesture is being done to protest the Government's stubborn adherence to the
National Development Plan, and the M3 motorway, despite the drastic economic
downturn.

Dressed as 'fat-cats', demonstrators will give passing members of the building
trade one euro each. However, employees in the medical or educational fields
will be given only 20 cents. Homeless people will not be given anything. This
will symbolise the imbalance Government priorities, where support for builders
continues to be radically higher than any other area of Irish society.

The action is being taken in response to Bertie Ahern's opinion piece in
yesterday's Sunday Independent, calling for Taoiseach Cowen to ignore the
financial crisis and proceed with the multi-billion investment in the NDP, and
in particular the roads programme and Transport 21.

It is predicted that Taoiseach Cowen and his Cabinet will slash cuts in
education and medical services, bring back university fees and raise taxes,
rather than cancel any of the contracts they have agreed with their supporters
in the building trade, when he gives his speech at the Ballybrit think-in on
September 15. Demonstrations will be held there too.

The benefit tonight at the Arts Club, 3 Upper Fitzwilliam St, will begin with a
reception at 6:00 pm, followed by a debate at 7:00 pm and music and poetry
beginning at 9:00 pm. The debate will be on whether the Hill of Tara should be
declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, despite the M3 passing through it. Music
will be by celtic/jazz singer and RTE broadcaster Melanie O'Reilly, accompanied
by Sean O Nuallain â€“ Guitar; Colm O Sullivan-flute; Miles Drennan â€“ Piano.
Poetry will be by Trinity College Professor, Iggy McGovern. Suggested donation
is 10 euros.

Vincent Salafia said:

"The economic justification for the NDP and the M3 has evaporated, with the
economic downturn, and it is economic suicide to carry on as if nothing has
happened.

"Fianna Fail, mindlessly propped up by the Green Party and the Progressive
Democrats, have clearly made a lot promises to their supporters in the building
trade that they feel cannot be undone, no matter what logic it defies or what
damage it does to the economy as a whole.

"We are demanding truly sustainable development, not the corrupted version we
are being fed at the moment, that is harming rather than improving society as a
whole.

ENDS

Irish mail on Sunday: Truth on Tara was buried deep due to culture of lies

2008-06-30T00:54:00.002+01:00

My findings on Tara were altered, says archaeologist

Irish Mail on Sunday - 29 June 2008 - By Luke Byrne

A LEADING archaeologist employed to survey the M3 Tara Valley route has claimed her findings were changed to support the motorway when in fact there was evidence against it. In a devastating attack, Jo Ronayne - who was working for the National Roads Authority - says her findings were altered before being presented to ministers. Miss Ronayne, who was an excavation director at the Tara valley site in Co. Meath, claims she was told to 'change interpretations' so as to 'lessen to potential of numbers of sites'. And she says she was excluded from NRA meetings in which her evidence was altered before reports were passed on to the Government. The damning allegations will shatter the Governments defence that it would not change the Tara route because there is no significant archaeological site on it. And it will lead to disturbing questions about whether ministers - and in turn the public or even the courts - were misled about the archaeological finds.

Miss Ronayne, who was directly employed by NRA subcontractor Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, suggests in an explosive academic article that her role appeared to have been a sham. 'I didn't realise that the testing and my reports would be used to facilitate rather than stop the project going ahead. Or that they don't let you write the truth in the reports or give you enough time to do a proper job,' she wrote. The archaeologist - whose sister Maggie, an archaeology lecturer in NUI Galway, is due to attend today's World Archaeological Congress in Dublin - remains utterly disenchanted with how she says her reports were used and portrayed. She said: 'I held the licence and was responsible for the work, but the NRA archaeologist would come down and tell me what I should be doing. 'Directors or field archaeologists working on the sites were not allowed to attend meetings where decisions were made by the NRA's own archaeologists about how to interpret and present what we were finding.' She added: 'A number of times I was told to change an interpretation which served to lessen the potential numbers of sites. We were also told to excavate large sections even tough you are not supposed to excavate in the testing phase. 'They edited our reports before the Minister saw them.'

In May 2005, following preliminary archaeological reports made by the NRA, the then-environment minister Dick Roche sanctioned 38 archaeological excavations in the Tara-Skryne valley in Co. Meath, effectively approving the route. It was reports such as those complied by Miss Ronayne that Mr Roche would have been presented with before he eventually gave his approval for the project. Following the decision to go ahead with the road, Miss Ronayne and a number of archaeologists refused to work on the excavations. Since the route of the M3 was approved, there have been a number of protests aimed at highlighting the archaeological value of the stretch of motorway.

However, the results of initial test-trenching were often highlighted by advocates of the route of the motorway. In March 2005, Frank Cosgrave of the Meath Citizens for the M3 group, told the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government: 'Nothing that could be described as a "national monument" has been found. At the same meeting, Cork TD Billy Kelliher said: 'The argument put forward by the archaeologists with regard to the richness of the area is a bit of a myth.' Labour Environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said: "If this is true, I think we need to bring in a completely independent archaeological survey to make sure that anything that can be salvaged will be. 'At this stage we've already gone too far so we can't turn back.' Miss Tuffy added: 'This incident is something that I will raise in the Dail.

Truth on Tara was buried deep due to culture of lies
Irish Mail on Sunday - EDITORIAL
29 June 2008

BUILDING a much-needed road ought to be reasonably straightforward. Yet, years after Meath commuters were promised the M3 motorway, the project has been hit by another completely avoidable scandal. The revelation of official interference in the archaeological studies at Tara mean more misery for those stuck in tailbacks, but it is the culture of official deception that poses the gravest questions.

A lot of people have been badly misled. Archaeologists hired for their professional expertise and integrity have not in the words of one, been allowed to 'write the truth'. Altering independent advice to fit hidden agendas is a dangerous corruption of working of Government in itself, more typical of systematically dishonest regimes than a democratic country like ours. Dail and public debates were based on information that cannot now be trusted. The courts have been asked to make judgments premised, in part, on studies that contain the taint of offical tampering. And a difficult decision whether to put the real needs of the travelling public nover the genuine loss of a part of our patrimony has been subverted by bureaucrats trusted to give us accurate information.

Those responsible cannot be allowed to hide behind the monolithic facade of the public sector. This is a dishonest decision with serious consequences. The individuals responsible - who must be known to those who can blow the whistle on their misdeeds - must be held to account. But the culture of dishonesty that makes such flagrant interference possible is harder to root out without clear direction from the very top. This is a Government that routinely plays fast and loose with the accuracy of the information it serves up. Bitter experience has taught the public not to take on trust the official information it receives. Yet the truth will always out. Public confidence in politics is as low as it is because political standards are so low. This sort of deliberate dishonesty needs to be stamped out, with the Taoiseach and the Cabinet setting standards at the top.

PRESS RELEASE

TARAWATCH.org

29 June 2008

'Outrage Over NRA Archaeologist Expose On Tara/M3 High Court Case Evidence'

Tarawatch member, Vincent Salafia, is seeking legal advice in response to the article that appeared in today's Irish Mail on Sunday, which contains allegations that the National Roads Authority (NRA) misled the courts, by falsifying reports, which were used in a 2006 High Court case over the M3.

The article quotes an academic paper by NUI Galway archaeologist, Maggie Ronayne, which is to be presented to the Sixth World Archaeological Congress, which is beginning in Dublin today. The
Congress will be debating the ethics of the Hill of Tara/M3 issue.

Maggie quotes an interview with Jo Ronayne, who worked for an archaeological consultancy company, contracted to examine some of the 38 sites. Jo claims: "A number of times I was told to change an
interpretation which served to lessen the potential or numbers of sites." Not only were archaeologists forced to make false statements, she claims, the NRA "edited our reports before the minister saw them."

Salafia sued the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, as well as Meath County Council, and claimed that many of the 38 sites discovered along the M3 between Navan and Dunshaughlin, were national monuments, which they failed to report, and that the Minister should not have granted licenses to excavate them.

Justice Tom Smyth (now retired) ruled against Mr Salafia, in 2005, because the judge agreed with the NRA archaeologists that none of the 38 sites were in fact national monuments, and also that the greater
Tara complex does not constitute a single national monument. In his judgement, Justice Smyth stated:

"The Applicant alleges that the County Council failed to report the discovery to the Minister. (I reject this as an unfounded allegation as there was no national monument and there was no failure having carried out the exploratory test-trenching on the 38 sites...)"

Salafia lost the cause, and was liable for 600,000 euros in damages, which effectively prevented him from taking a Supreme Court appeal. The loss also resulted in the 38 sites being excavated and demolished,
and M3 construction works proceeding. He agreed to withdraw his Supreme Court appeal, in exchange for the Government not pursuing him for costs.

The loss also had a significant effect on Mr Salafia personally, who was left liable for his own costs, which were also in the hundreds of thousands of Euros.

The case also had an adverse effect on his experts, such as Conor Newman, the new Chairman of the Heritage Council, who had argued that certain sites were national monuments. His professional opinion was
scuppered by the Judge.

TaraWatch were contacted by the World Archaeological Congress Standing Committee on Ethics on 5 June and identified as stakeholders in a round table discussion on the M3 and the Hill of Tara, to be held at UCD, next week. TaraWatch was invited to submit a position paper on the matter. That paper is now being amended, in response to the revelations.

TaraWatch is also travelling to Quebec City for the 32nd Meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, 2-10 July, to lobby on behalf of Tara. We will lobby UNESCO to oppose the proposal of the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, to make Tara a World Heritage Site, with the M3 bissecting it, and insist that the M3 motorway is re-routed first.

Mr Salafia of TaraWatch said today, in response to the article:

"I am astonished by these revelations of evidence fabrication. They confirm what we have suspected all along, but have never been able to prove. It appears that the NRA lied about everything, misled the Courts, and are intentionally wrecking Tara.

"I was accused of wasting the tax-payers money, when it now appears NRA were wrongfully using tax-payers money, not just to destroy our environment, but to destroy peoples lives.

"Legal advice is immediately being sought, and we are calling for a full Dail investigation into the affair. There may also be a possibility of vacating the judgement, and suing for damages.

"Work should cease immediately on M3, and the entire matter must be re-evaluated. While many of the national monuments are gone, the M3 is still two years from completion, and should not be completed
through the middle of the Tara landscape.

"We call on John Gormley, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to stand up and exercise his constitutional duty to protect our national heritage, and to put an end to this scandal
for once and for all."

"These revelations are bound to have a major impact on UNESCO. We are very optimistic that the UN will now find against the Irish Government in this case, and that the European Commission will now seek an injunction, in ongoing case against Ireland over the M3.

ENDS

Contact - Laura Grealish 087-972-8603 / Vincent Salafia 087-132-3365 or email info@tarawatch.org

EXCERPT FROM MAGGIE RONAYNE PAPER, QUOTING JO RONAYNE:

"Jo Ronayne directed M3 test trenches for IAC Ltd (Irish Archaeological Consultancy, one of the archaeology companies contracted to work on the M3). She says:

I should have said no when asked to direct on it but I didn't have the experience to realize that the testing and my reports would be used to facilitate rather than stop the project going ahead. Or that they don't let you write the truth in the reports or give you enough time to do a proper job. I suppose I thought I and others could make a difference by showing the wealth of what was there, that it might stop the motorway. After a while I realized that the NRA would not let this happen. I was the director, I held the license and was responsible for the work, but the NRA archaeologist would come down and tell me what I should be doing. And directors or field archaeologists working on the sites were not allowed to attend meetings where decisions were made by the National Roads Authority's own archaeologists about how to interpret and present what WE were finding.

A number of times I was told to change an interpretation which served to lessen the potential or numbers of sites. We were also told to excavate large sections into one type of site [fulachta fiadh or Bronze Age mounds] even though you are not supposed to excavate in the testing phase. They edited our reports before the minister saw them. (Interview, 2006)

[From page 122 of 'The State We Are in on the Eve of World Archaeological Congress (WAC) 6: Archaeology in Ireland vs Corporate Takeover' in Public Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 2008, 114-129 by Maggie Ronayne, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway]

Art auction for Tara delegation to UNESCO - 21 June - Pearse family home, Dublin

2008-06-17T16:29:00.002+01:00

TaraWatch is sending a delegation to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting, to the held in Quebec City, 2-10 July, to lobby for the preservation of the Hill of Tara archaeological complex, being threatened by the M3 motorway construction works.

This initiative is being taken in response to the proposal by Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, to make a World Heritage site, with the M3 passing through the middle of it. TaraWatch supports the nomination of Tara, but wants UNESCO to insist that the M3 is re-routed first.

An art auction is being held on Saturday, 21 June, in the Pearse family home, at 27 Pearse Street, Dublin, in order to fund the delegation. The house was the birth place of Pádraig Pearse, (10 November 1879 – 3 May 1916) Pearse was a teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the revolutionary leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. The perfectly restored building now houses the Ireland Institute for Historical and Cultural Studies. Pearse is recorded as wanting the 1916 Proclamation of Independence read out on the Hill of Tara, as well as outside the General Post Office,on O'Connell Street, where he read it out at the beginning of the Easter Rising.

Works of art are being donated by a number of celebrated Irish artists, including Louis le Brocquy, Jim Fitzpatrick and Tom Mathews. The auction remains open for other artists to donate works, if they wish to participate.

The print being donated by Louis le Brocquy can be viewed at the Taylor Galleries, 16 Kildare Street, up until the day of the auction. Mr le Brocquy will also provide a written statement, concerning the artistic importance of Tara, to be submitted to UNESCO.

All the works will be on display at Pearse House, from 11.00am onwards, on 21 June. The auction itself will take place at 7.00pm.

For more information, please contact info@tarawatch.org / +353-87-972-8603

The artists

Jim Fitzpatrick is an Irish artist famous for Irish Celtic Art. Perhaps his most famous piece is his iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968 and based on a photo by Alberto Korda. In 1978, he wrote and lavishly illustrated a book called The Book of Conquests, retelling of a cycle of Irish myths, the Lebor Gabála Érenn. The book retells the legends interpolated into a linear story via a series of exceptionally detailed illustrations matched with text of the deeds of might and valour contained in the myth. It is replete with intricate Celtic scrollwork and knotwork. This was followed up by The Silver Arm, which retells further portions of Irish myth. A third volume, The Son of the Sun, is listed as "in preparation" as of 2004. He has also produced artwork for Thin Lizzy, for Sinéad O'Connor's 2000 album Faith and Courage and for The Darkness' 2003 single Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End).

Louis le Brocquy (born November 10, 1916) is an Irish painter. Born in Dublin, Louis le Brocquy's work has received much international attention and many accolades in a career that spans seventy years of creative practice. Le Brocquy is widely acclaimed for his evocative "Portrait ‘Heads" of literary figures and fellow artists, which include William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon and Seamus Heaney. In 1967 Louis le Brocquy was commissioned by the publisher Liam Miller to illustrate Thomas Kinsella's inspired version of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the dramatic record of Ireland's proto-historic past. He and his partner, artist Anne Madden, have been very vocal in their opposition to the M3 at Tara, writing letters to the Irish Times, and attending marches.

Tom Mathews was born in Dublin in 1952. After working for a time in advertising he studied Fine Art at NCAD, since leaving which in 1974 he has worked as freelance writer, critic, and cartoonist. His work appears weekly in The Irish Times and The Sunday Independent as well as in Cara Magazine, Hot Press, and other publications. He has had sixteen one-man shows to date including three exhibitions of paintings. These have also featured in the Living Art and RHA. His cartoons are in many private and public national and international collections.

Work by Tom Mathews, 2005

NEW SAVE TARA PETITION WEB SITE www.savetarapetition.net

2008-06-08T19:02:00.002+01:00

Dear Tara supporter,

Thank you to all of the 37,750 people who signed the original online petition to save the Hill of Tara from the M3 motorway in Ireland.

That small contrubution was very welcome, and all of those signatures were submitted to the Minister for Transport and the Minister for the Environment, as well as the Taoiseach himself, before he resigned. They also received significant media attention.

We now have a new peitition, addressed to UNESCO, ICOMOS and WAC, located at http://www.savetarapetition.net/

It is critical that we collect as many signatures as possible before the Sixth World Archaeological Congress (WAC-6), to be held in Dublin, beginning 29 June 2008, and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec, Canada, beginning 2 July 2008. WAC-6 will be holding a round table discussion about the ethics of the M3 and Tara.

The Minister for the Environment, John, Gormley, has proposed making Tara a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but with the M3 passing though the middle of it. We support the nomination to UNESCO, but want them to insist that the M3 is rerouted first.

So, please sign the new petition, forward the link to your friends, and post the link and logo on as many web sites as you can.

TaraWatch operates a SAVE TARA Cause application, on myspace and facebook. Our facebook cause has over 2,500 members, and the new myspace cause is is now ranked 1st amongst among new Envrionment causes. Please join us there, or join our email discussion list, with over 1,000 members.

If you would like to make a submission to WAC-6 or UNESCO, larger than that allowed for in the comment box of the petition, please email us at info@tarawatch.org

Thank you for your support,

TaraWatch

URGENT CALL for submissions and petition signatures to save Tara, Sixth World Archaeological Congress to meet in Dublin and discuss Tara/M3 29 June

2008-06-07T04:29:00.005+01:00

URGENT! PLEASE SIGN THE NEW TARA PETITION

Irish Times - Breaking news: 'Archaeology event to discuss Tara'
Press Association - Archaeologists discuss Hill of Tara'
Melton Times (UK) - 'Archaeologists discuss Hill of Tara'

The Sixth World Archaeological Congress (WAC-6), will meet in Dublin from 29th June to 4th July, 2008, at University College Dublin, and will hold a round table session about the ethics of the Hill of Tara / M3 motorway issue. The World Archaeological Congress (WAC) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization and is the only archaeological organisation with elected global representation. WAC holds an international Congress every four years to promote the exchange of results from archaeological research; professional training and public education for disadvantaged nations, groups and communities; the empowerment and betterment of Indigenous groups and First Nations peoples; and the conservation of archaeological sites.

The co-organisers of the WAC Ethics Forum have selected the M3 Motorway/Hill of Tara "debate" as one of two themes to frame and discuss in public round table sessions. TaraWatch was informed yesterday by Dr Angela Labrador, Department of Anthropology, at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, that WAC has identified them as a stakeholder for this debate. TaraWatch have been asked to submit a written position statement on the matter. This is part of the “Exploring WAC’s Approach(es) to Ethics Theme” sponsored by the WAC Standing Committee on Ethics.

Congress attendees are visiting Tara and Navan Forth Armagh for the WAC-6 Mid-Congress Tours on Wednesday 2nd July Tour 3:

"Tara and Navan – Royal Landscapes Tara in Co. Meath is associated with the high kingship of Ireland in the early medieval period. Emain Macha or Navan in Co. Armagh is the ancient capital of Ulster. Both sites are characterised by a range of archaeological sites going back in date to the Neolithic, but with a major monumental focus on the later prehistoric period. Tara and Navan both have enduring symbolic importance in modern Ireland and have been at the centre of recent debates about the impact of development."

Co-incidentally, TaraWatch launched an international online petition drive yesterday, asking UNESCO and ICOMS to intervene in the Hill of Tara issue. The petition is also addressed to “all those in attendance at WAC-6”. The petition states that it would be a breach of international law, for UNESCO and ICOMOS to declare the Hill of Tara a World Heritage site, with the M3 motorway being built through the middle of it. TaraWatch has agreed to participate in the forum. A comprehensive position statement is being prepared, with the co-operation of a number of historians, archaeologists and lawyers. The paper alleges that it would be a breach of professional ethics, as well as the World Heritage Convention, and other international charters, for UNESCO and ICOMOS to allow the M3 construction to proceed through the Tara landscape. It is of critical importance that the online petition receives as many signatures as possible, with as many comments as possible, from as many countries as possible, before the WAC-6 forum. Please do whatever you can to promote it. We already got 200 in the first 24 hours, so we're off to a good start.

WAC says it "seeks to promote interest in the past in all countries, to encourage the development of regionally-based histories and to foster international academic interaction. It is committed to the scientific investigation of the past, ethical archaeological practice and the protection of cultural heritage worldwide. It supports the empirical investigation and appreciation of the political contexts within which research is conducted and interpreted, and promotes dialogue and debate among advocates of different views of the past. WAC is committed to diversity and to redressing global inequities in archaeology through conferences, publications and scholarly programs. It has a special interest in protecting the cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples, minorities and economically disadvantaged countries, and encourages the participation of Indigenous peoples, researchers from economically disadvantaged countries and members of the public. Past Congresses have been held in England, Venezuela, India, South Africa and the USA. Patrons for past Congresses include Prince Charles (WAC-1), Nelson Mandela (WAC-4) and Harriet Fulbright (WAC-5). Selected papers from these conferences are published in the One World Archaeology Series."

NOTE - If you consider yourself a stakeholder, and want to make a submission on this, please forward it to info@tarawatch.org as soon as possible.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS on Hill of Tara / M3 motorway issue for Sixth World Archaeolocial Congress (WAC-6) round table sessionDeadline 12th June.

Please sign the new Tara petition to UNESCO/ICOMOS and WAC-6

TaraWatch recived notification on Thursday 5th June, from the WorldArchaeological Congress (WAC), Committee on Ethics, that we had been recognised as stakeholders in the ongoing Hill of Tara / M3 issue for the upcoming Sixth World Archaeological Congress, (WAC-6) to be held at University College Dublin, from the 29th June to 4th July.

We would like to extend the invitation to the public, and are offering to submit individual and group submissions, on their behalf. WAC have approved this process, and are anxious to hear from all converned parties. Submissions need to be made as soon as possible.
This is a massive boost for the Tara campaign, as it will be an opportunity for heritage experts and professionals from around the world will be looking at it from an objective and ethical standpoint. It is absolutely critical that this process is used to the utmost, to make the case for Tara, while there is still a whisper of time left to save it.

This notice is designed to share that news, and serve as a public consultation, under the laws principles and principles of Agenda 21, and sustainable development, which all public bodies, NGOs and stakeholders in the envionmental arena (including media outlets) are required to follow. Everyone has a stake in this issue, and a right to have their opinions heard. National surveys have shown that 70% of people want the M3 re-routed and an Irish Times survey showed that 82% of people surveyed think Tara should be a UNESCO site. Minister Gormley has responded that he will declare Tara a World Heritage Site, but with the motorway through it. We are campaigning to have UNESCO dcline that offer, and insist that the M3 is re-routed first.

Given the enormity of the issue, and the multiple events that have occurred over the last ten years, in relation to this project, compiling a complete dossier is a mammoth task, particularly when laws like the World Heritage Convention and the National Monuments Acts are applied to those facts, in an attempt to formulate arguments that are coherent. Expert affidavits, and technical reports make the mater all the more challenging. We are lucky to be working with some heritage experts, in this regard, but we need all of the information available, and as much co-operative assistance as possible. Hopefully, like with our successful World Monuments Fund - 100 Most Endangered Sites List nomination, we will get the job done.

The shortage of time in this matter is not our doing. We only received notice yesterday, that this issue would be raised and that we hold stakeholder status. Submissions need to be submitted in time for all the participants in the round table to have time to read and understand them - which is a week before the event, at a minimum. So, we are setting June 21, the Summer Solstice, as our date of submission. In order for us to process third party submissions, and integrate them into our own, we need to receive them at week before then, which brings us back to the 14th of June. So, we have a week to hear from as many people as possible. We are going to schedule a public event very shortly, which will explain the process in detail. In the meantime, there are a number of things you can do if you want to communicate your opinion on this matter to WAC-6, and indeed UNESCO and ICOMOS. If you prefer to stay anonymous, we will pass along the material as we are given it.

1. Please write a concise account of your opinions and/or experiences, in relation to this the Tara / M3 controversy. Address issues such as:
- why do you consider yourself a stakeholder/ why is Tara important to you?
- what is wrong/right with the M3 motorway, in relation to Tara?
- is this an indigenous rights, religious, philosophical, environmental, political, moral, economic, practical issue for you?
- what specific experiences have you had in relaiton to Tara?
- what specific experiences have you had in relation the authorities?
- what laws do you think apply?
- what solutions are available?
- how did it come to all this?

2. Place your statement into the online petition, as a comment, or mail it to info@tarawatch.org

TaraWatch launched an online petition on Wednesday 4th June 2008, addressed to UNESCO, ICOMOS and WAC-6 attendees. It was designed as a method of trying to raise the Tara issue with the WAC-6 delegates, as we were unaware that we would be invited to make a submission. Now, that peition is going to serve as a key part of our submission. It makes it easy for people to participate, and make their views known.

3. If you feel you want to assist further, there is a lot of work to be done compiling the full dossier. If you are interested in law, the environment, heritage, globalisation etc, and want to play a key role in making the case for Tara, on a world stage, please come and help us.
- please forward this notice to anyone you think might be a stakeholder
- please forward the petition link to all your contacts
- please try and attend the upcoming meeting, which will be noticed on TaraWatch.org
- please drop a line, and we'll find something for you to do.

Go raibh maith agaibh and thanks for your support!

Sign the new online SAVE TARA - UNESCO petition

2008-06-05T17:38:00.003+01:00

HILL OF TARA / M3 MOTORWAY - UNESCO / ICOMOS PETITION

THIS PETITION is addressed to:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which includes:

• The Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura
• The Executive Committee of the General Conference
• The Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, called the World Heritage Committee
• All parties in attendance at the 32nd Session of the World Heritage Committee, Quebec, Canada, 2-10 July 2008.
• The Irish UNESCO Representatives

AND

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which includes:

• ICOMOS International
• ICOMOS Ireland
• All other national ICOMOS bodies, such as
- ICOMOS Canada,
- ICOMOS UK,
- ICOMOS US,
- ICOMOS Australia,
- ICOMOS Norway, and
- ICOMOS Aotearoa/New Zealand
• All parties in attendance at the ICOMOS Ireland AGM, Dublin, 4 June 2008
• All parties in attendance at the Sixth World Archaeological Congress, University College Dublin, 29th June to 4th July 2008

WHOSE JURISDICTIONS have been jointly invoked in this matter of great national and international importance by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local overnment, of the Republic of Ireland, John Gormley, on 11 May, 2008, in his address at the launch of the legal incorporation and charitable status designation of ICOMOS Ireland. He announced that he had retained an ICOMOS member, Dr Jukka Jokilehto to visit the sites currently on Ireland’s tentative list, as well as the Hill of Tara. Minister Gormley concluded,

“The Hill of Tara National Monument has strong merit for inclusion in an application to UNESCO for consideration as a World Heritage site”, and that he did “... not see the proposed new road (the M3 motorway) as being an obstacle to making this recommendation.”

I EARNESTLY AND RESPECTFULLY PLEAD THAT:

[I.] The Hill of Tara archaeological complex / cultural and natural landscape, in it's entirety, (hereinafer referred to as “Tara”) be inscribed onto the UNESCO List of World Heritage sites.

BUT ONLY on condition that:

[II.] The proposed M3 motorway, (hereinafter referred to as “the M3”) currently under construction, is re-routed beyond Tara, before the site is given World Heritage Site status, because he M3 is destroying the integrity of the site and landscape,

I MAKE THIS PETITION FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

- UNESCO adopted the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (“The Convention”) in 1972. Ireland ratified the Convention in 1991. The Convention has as its goal the identification and protection of cultural and national heritage of “outstanding universal value”.
- The Hill of Tara complex qualifies as a natural and cultural landscape of outstanding universal value, due to it's unique cultural significance, and the extent of the surviving remains. Tara covers a much larger area than that the 100 acres of State-owned land on the summit of the Hill, which currently delimits the 'national monument'. The M3 passes through the middle of the area to be protected. The entire Tara archaeological complex and cultural/natural landscape should be declared a World Heritage site. Expert bodies, such as the Heritage Council, have recognised Tara consists of the entire Hill of Tara along with the Tara / Skryne valley, as well as the defensive forts that encircle the hill, including national monuments such as the defensive forts of Rath Lugh (to the east), Rath Miles (to the north) and Ringlestown Rath (to the west).
- Ireland has been in breach of the Convention since 1991, by failing to nominate the Hill of Tara to be a World Heritage site, until after the M3 motorway was approved. Article 3 of the Convention states: “It is for each State Party to this Convention to identify and delineate the different properties situated on its territory". A recent UN report on Ireland's implementation of the Convention found that “Inventories, established at national and local levels, have not been used as a basis for selecting World Heritage sites”. This has resulted in the contradictory approach being taken by the Irish Government, which is on one hand facilitating destruction of significant parts of the Tara complex, and on the other, seeking International legal protection for those same parts.
- The Minister for the Environment, has breached his responsibilities under the Convention by initiating the inscription process of making Tara a World Heritage site, while at the same time, failing in his legal duty adequately protect the Tara complex from the immient threat of the M3 motorway. John Gormley, said in a department press release, 11 April 2008, that he did not see M3 motorway preventing the Hill of Tara from being nominated as a world heritage site. He said his department had engaged Dr Jukka Jokilehto, a member of ICOMOS to visit Tara and issue a report on it. It is these statements and actions that have as well as other failures to act, that have invoked the jurisdiction of international law.
- ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organization of professionals, dedicated to the conservation of the world’s historic monuments and sites, and is an offical Advistory Body to UNESCO, for purposes of implementing the World Heritage Convention. Both UNESCO and ICOMOS would also be in breach of the Convention by accepting the Minister's nomination of the Tara archaeological complex and cultural/natural landscape, without insisting that the M3 motorway is rerouted, while it still can be.
- National survey's have shown that 70% of Irish people want the M3 rerouted and an Irish Times online survey showed that 82% of people want Tara declared a UNESCO site.
- The World Monuments Fund have placed the Hill of Tara on the 2008 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

SIGNED

_______________________________

[Published by TaraWatch.org, 4 June 2008]

SAVE TARA myspace and facebook Causes ranking high - please add to profile

2008-06-01T23:37:00.001+01:00

If you support efforts to save the Hill of Tara from the M3 motorway, you are invited to join the new SAVE TARA myspace cause, which was launched in the last week.

We already have over 250 members and currently we are ranked:

- Ranked 2nd among small Public Advocacy causes in new members in the past week - Ranked 4th among small Public Advocacy causes in new members in the past month

The myspace Cause app is not as functional yet, as the facebook equivalent, and does not allow you to email all members, but it is still a great awareness tool. More features are promised though.

Following on from the success of the SAVE TARA facebook Causes application, which already has over 2,500 members, TaraWatch is utilising the Causes application which has now been installed our myspace page, to further the campaign to save the Hill of Tara archaeological complex from the M3 motorway.

We will be using these apps to promote the new Tara UNESCO/ICOMOS petition, which will be launched on Wed 8 June, at the ICOMOS Ireland AGM, being held at at Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin

SAVE TARA MYSPACE CAUSE

SAVE TARA FACEBOOK CAUSE

TARAWATCH

Tara UNESCO Petition launch at ICOMOS Ireland meeting. Wed 4 June. Come and demonstrate!

2008-05-31T20:42:00.000+01:00

The Hill of Tara is Ireland's ancient capital, and premier national monument. However, the Irish Government is planning to build a motorway through the Gabhra Valley between the Hill of Tara and the Hill of Skryne, County Meath, just 1000 metres from the top of the Hill. It was placed on the World Monuments Fund, List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, 2008, after being nominated by TaraWatch.

The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, said in a department press release, April 2008 that he did not see M3 motorway preventing the Hill of Tara from being nominated as a world heritage site. Mr Gormley said that he believed it would be possible to take a series of initiatives to preserve the site. The initiatives would prevent “commercial spread” alongside the motorway, the Minister said. He also said a directive would be put in place to provide landscape protection. Mr Gormley commented that with these measures in place Tara could still meet the strict criteria for incorporation on the list of UN world heritage sites. Such criteria rely heavily on natural or man-made heritage being well preserved.

Referring to the review of the tentative list of proposed world heritage sites, Mr Gormley spoke of his desire to include the Hill of Tara national monument. He said his department had engaged Dr Jukka Jokilehto, a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to visit Tara and the other sites currently on what is known as the “tentative list” for inclusion.

ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organization of professionals, dedicated to the conservation of the world's historic monuments and sites.

Mr Gormley said Dr Jokilehto had “concluded that the Hill of Tara National monument has strong merit for inclusion in an application to Unesco for consideration as a world heritage site.

TaraWatch supports the nomination of the Hill of Tara archaeological complex and natural landscape to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites, but is opposed to the construction of the M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley. The Minister for the Environment and the Irish Government have the power to reroute the M3 motorway, away from Tara.

We call on UNESCO and ICOMOS to support the nomination of the Hill of Tara to the World Heritage list, but to insist that the M3 be rerouted first. Allowing the M3 to proceed would destroy the integrity of the site, and be a breach of the World Heritage Convention, which Ireland signed in 1992.

ICOMOS Ireland is holding its AGM in Dublin next Wed, 4th June, at Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

TaraWatch will use this occasion to launch the UNESCO/ICOMOS petition, reflecting the arguments made above. We will gather there at 9.00am, peacefully demonstrate, and give copies of the petition to ICOMOS members attending the meeting.

Contact: info@tarawatch.org - +353-87-132-3365

Aosdána, the national Irish arts organisation, unanimously passed a motion petitioning Minister Gormley over Tara / M3

2008-05-29T02:34:00.001+01:00

Aosdána, the national Irish arts organisation, unanimously passed a motion at it's annual General Assembly, on Thursday, 8th May, agreeing with statements made by Seamus Heaney about the negative impact of running the M3 motorway through Tara. The Irish Arts Council established Aosdána in 1981 to honour those artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland, and to encourage and assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art. Aosdána members meet annually in a General Assembly, to elect new members, to review the affairs of the organisation and to discuss the position of the artist, and the arts in society. The following motion, proposed by Michael Holohan and seconded by Dermot Healy, was passed by the Assembly -

"That Aosdána supports the recent statement (in The Irish Times 1st/2nd March 2008) [below] by our fellow member Seamus Heaney that the surrounding archaeological landscape beside the ancient hill of Tara has been "desacralised" by the construction of the M3 motorway and consequently Aosdána calls upon the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to strengthen the present legislation (National Monuments Act 2004) immediately in order to prevent the further destruction of our other national archaeological sites"

Further reading: Sunday Tribune - A portrait of the artists ignoring the elephant in the drawing room

Heaney claims motorway near Tara desecrates sacred landscape

The Irish Times - Saturday, March 1, 2008

POET AND Nobel laureate Séamus Heaney has described the M3 motorway as a ruthless desecration of the sacred landscape around the Hill of Tara, in a BBC documentary to be broadcast today at 11.30am on Radio Ulster, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

In the same programme, Dr Jonathan Foyle, British chief executive of the World Monuments Fund, which placed Tara on its endangered sites list last year, likened the motorway to the destruction by Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001 of the Bamiyan Buddhas. In his interview with BBC reporter Diarmaid Fleming, Prof Heaney said the motorway "literally desecrates an area - I mean the word means to desacralise' and, for centuries, the Tara landscape and the Tara sites have been regarded as part of the sacred gound".

Referring to the 1916 Proclamation having summoned the Irish people "in the name of the dead generations", he said: "If ever there was a place that deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations from pre-historic times . . . it was Tara". Prof Heaney added: "I suppose Tara means something equivalent to me to what Delphi means to the Greeks or maybe Stonehenge to an English person or Nara in Japan . . .It conjures up what they call in Irish dúchas, a sense of belonging a sense of patrimony, a sense of an ideal. "The traces on Tara are in the grass, in the earth. They aren't spectacular like temple ruins in Greece but they are about origin, they're about beginning, they're about the mythological, spiritual source - something that gives the country its distinctive spirit."

He recalled that WB Yeats, George Moore and Arthur Griffith had written a letter to The Irish Times (below) complaining that the British Israelites, who thought the Ark of the Covenant was buried at Tara, were desecrating a "consecrated landscape" by digging there.So, I thought to myself, if a few holes in the ground made by amateur archaeologists was a desecration, what's happening to that whole countryside being ripped up [for the M3] is certainly a much more ruthless piece of work," Prof Heaney said. According to Dr Foyle, the entire Tara complex "is the equivalent of Stonehenge, Westminster Abbey for its royal associations and Canterbury for its Christian associations all rolled into one" yet it was being destroyed "to shave 20 minutes off a journey time".

Support SAVE TARA, by installing the Causes application on your Myspace

For more information please visit www.tarawatch.org

M3 protestors focus on Gormley UNESCO plan

2008-04-20T17:14:00.000+01:00

ICOMOS International: World Heritage Day 2008 Description
ICOMOS Ireland: Main Objectives of the company
Kashmir News: On World Heritage Day, students wake up to Kashmir heritage 'vandalism'
Pakistan Daily TImes: UET Abbottabad Campus to celebrate World Heritage Day
BBC Scotland News: Flags fly for World Heritage Day
The Indian: ASI asks public to adopt monuments on World Heritage Day
Heritage Canada Foundation Marks World Heritage Day
Iranian orchestra honors world heritage

M3 protesters focus on Gormley's Unesco plan

The Irish Times - 19 April 2008

- By STEVEN CARROLL

RENEWED CALLS to reroute the M3 motorway from the valleys of Tara and Skryne in Co Meath have been made in response to Minister for the Environment John Gormley's recent comments on the site. The Minister said last week he did not see the planned M3 motorway preventing the Hill of Tara from being nominated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) world heritage site. He said he believed it would be possible to take a series of initiatives to preserve the Gabhra Valley between the Hill of Tara and the Hill of Skryne. Campaigners believe Tara would struggle to achieve the status Mr Gormley desires because of the nature of the works.

Vincent Salafia of Tarawatch said the Minister's proposal had created an opportunity to revisit the whole issue. "We're calling on Unesco to designate the Tara site and to insist that the motorway be rerouted from the area."
Mr Salafia said the designation of Tara as a world heritage site could drum up international support. "International pressure is our best hope for saving Tara. If Ireland wants to use Unesco to help deliver tourists to world heritage sites in Ireland, they must enforce Unesco standards of preservation in those areas." He also said there was a possibility that another legal challenge to try to reroute the motorway would take place.

His comments came yesterday on International Day for Monuments and Sites 2008, which was marked by a World Heritage Forum at Trinity College, Dublin. The theme for the forum, which focused heavily on the Hill of Tara situation, was "Religious Heritage and Sacred Places".

Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College, asked why the Minister had left it until this late stage to seek Unecso status for the Tara site when archaeological evidence of the site's historic wealth had been present for so long. Speaking last week, Mr Gormley said his department had engaged Dr Jukka Jokilehto, a Finnish-born conservation expert, to visit Tara and the other sites on what is known as the "tentative list" for Unesco.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW TO HELP SAVE TARA

Tara can still be played. There are many things you can do to make that happen. Write to UNESCO and ICOMOS, demanding that the M3 be rerouted before the Hill of Tara is declared a World Heritage Site. Join our mailing list, for more information, or email us at info@tarawatch.org

WRITE to the Irish Times: lettersed@irish-times.ie

JOIN TaraWatch mailing list

JOIN TaraWatch facebook cause

WRITE TO ICOMOS

ICOMOS International Secretariat
49-51, rue de la fédération
75015 Paris, France

Tel: +33 (0)1 45 67 67 70
Fax: +33 (0)1 45 66 06 22
e-mail: secretariat@icomos.org

WRITE TO UNESCO!

7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
France

1, rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15
France

- General phone:
+33 (0)1 45 68 10 00
- Fax:
+33 (0)1 45 67 16 90
- Telex:
204461 Paris;
270602 Paris
- Website:
www.unesco.org
- E-mail: bpi@unesco.org

Hill of Tara / M3 motorway

Pre-Budgetary Submission to Dept of Finance - M3 motorway will lose money