There is an unsurpassable feeling as I sit or stand around a campfire – a feeling as though I have always been there. Though I may be meeting people I have never seen before, of races and beliefs I have never known, there is rarely a feeling that I am unwelcome, amidst certain people. An indigenous quality of welcome is present for the benefit of a stranger, to be incorporated wholly into a community to the level of their choice. If I want to be alone, I will be so, and if I want company, they will give it to me. Who are the people of the vigil camp of Tara, who remind me of the inhabitants of the various kinds of living quarters I have loved in West Cork – people who do not judge, but ask important questions. And who am I to be here?
I watch the group of young (16 – 18) girls who seem to run the eatery at Tara, where I eat a drastically overpriced bagel for breakfast. They discuss make-up, tight jeans, sequined belts, and show their affection to one another in giggles and pinches. A culture shock is in the world of difference between the lifestyle apparent here, where I take my breakfast because I can afford it, and that of two fields away where I spent last night, in a tepee with a fellow who has lived and maintained a fire for over nine months, and his companions who have been there about as long, camping outside through the 2006 summer and winter. They maintain a 24/7 Solidarity Vigil, protesting all day each Friday and participating in and organising certain branches of the Tara protests. I drink coffee from a cafetiere and they drink tea that they boil in the pot on the fire. These soldiers’ communal point, a large tepee, has been improved upon even since my last visit to Tara two weeks ago. A local friend and participant in the campaign has helped put together people’ ideas to form a stove from two half barrels and an aluminium pipe, which helps the smoke lift through the smoke hole on top of the wigwam and reduce the amount of rain that can extinguish the fire. Allow me to reiterate that this fire was lit on the Summer Solstice of 2006 and has not gone out, despite several different base locations.
The café is far too warm after last night’s freezing endeavours. The central heating, exploited, overwhelms this spoiled writer, not as used to the cold as those in the camp, but not wanting this strange wasteful heat either. My life, O Reader, was not an uncomfortable one thus far. I have always maintained, or have had maintained for me, the pleasures and comforts necessary to stay healthy, and happy. I have always been warmed by the help of my family, and sometimes my friends. But I now feel cold. I feel rigid and hurt. I wonder if the power of an idol god in the shape of the Euro, has finally sunk its teeth into a formerly generous and moralistic nation. Are we so rich, that not only can we refuse the menial petrol-station-toilet-cleaning jobs in the knowledge of those willing to be paid less, but perhaps we leave it to the foreigners, too, to fight our battles for basic heritage protection?
I feel sick from finally clicking in to the ignorance in which our country is kept, pawning a unique folk land to the dirty whores that run the Ultimate of our society. We all know the evil controlling hands that touch our everyday lives, molesting us through our recreational pleasures, and we are all aware of the extent to which the U.S.A is brutally wiping out anyone who, like the Irish once did, stand against their marauding invaders. To some degree, we all know that it’s not just the puppet-masters of our baby Bush, and that our own evil of greed and petty, shoddy, lazy selfishness is shit-bombing our doorsteps. Authoritarian forces continue to rape our children. We are all aware, and yet we continue to sit around claiming we’re not to blame. Where are all you nationalists now, who so love to quote your fathers’ passions about the so-many-years of oppression, and the War of Independence? Where are you, as our Heart-Land is being destroyed? What does your media report of the full-bodied skeletons of the Fianna being bagged, broken, removed, most being prepared to be ploughed and covered by an unnecessary 10-lane motorway with a 52-acre interchange? Why, in the name of Ireland, is no one being informed about what’s going on in Tara? And why are our prejudices continuing to block us from even looking!
This is not the first time I have wanted to shout at the world. Nearly every day that passes, I am not entirely able to keep peace with myself for not doing more, and I develop world-weariness. But saving the planet is not all about intention, though that is the first need. It was synchronistic to choose the weekend to go to Tara in which I could experience all aspects of what’s going on there. One of the main reasons for my journey recently was to witness the lunar eclipse and to partake in a general ceremony of appreciation of the Life we hold, for which the hill is famous. I was not prepared for the onslaught of information that was borne down on me for the duration of my stay, nor for the emotional depression that I held as I traversed through three of the thirty-eight Skryne-valley archaeological excavation sites (Baronstown, Collierstown and Soldier’s Hill) to see what was being done. I and a number of new friends, including an Irish archaeologist, examined trenches and items that were being dug up – some things bagged and removed, most would be disregarded. What the media called “charred remains” was in fact a sacred cemetery, in which over 30 graves were all pointing towards the King’s Hill, Tara. According to the archaeologist with us, these would likely have been important people – Fianna warriors, leaders, or kings. The land cried to me, and I cried for the land. And I cannot tell you what these moments are like – when the spirits of the environment surround you and screams to you in pain. There is wrong being done! Grave-stones are being used to hold down plastic sheeting, tombs are left exposed to the elements and are disintegrating, purely because of “bad workmanship,” as my archaeologist friend politely called it, and a very evident contemptuous uncaring for anything found, because they do not want to find anything. They do not want people to know that anything is there. They do not want us to know, because we would stop this atrocity if we knew.
“They” are the National Road Authority, who employ large numbers of archaeologists to partake in a mediocre level of excavation – but nothing that stretches beyond the perimeters of the proposed motorway (even though some of the thirty-eight sites spread over larger areas). It is clear that they have a preconception that they will be building this road no matter what they find (anyone remember the Nice Treaty?) Pat Wallace, the Director of the National Museum of Ireland, has written to the Minister for Environment against it, and has been ignored. Where does this leave us?
Along with staying in the camp and seeing several excavation sites, I was also present at one five-hour meeting of the Campaign to Save Tara, effectively the foremost and last group to be working against this. Any questions and confusions about what is being done were quenched. But even this official organisation, made up of members of branch campaigns such as Save Tara, Tara S.O.S. and Tara Watch, can only do so much. Their message is clear: Stop the road going through the Skryne-Tara valley and put into action one of the several alternative routes or methods available to achieve the same goal. They will be having an official campaign launch in the first week of April. Please listen, brothers and sisters: This is the time to act.
http://www.savetara.com
Friday, March 16, 2007
Tara Facts by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain
“For the most part people did not live on Tara; they buried their dead
there and built temples. They lived, instead, in the immediate hinterland,
in the shadow of their sacred mountain.” (Conor Newman, former director,
the Discovery Programme)
Proposal for the M3 in Meath
An Bord Pleanála approved the route of the M3 6-lane motorway in August
2003 and a campaign to reverse the decision began. The initial proposal was
to upgrade the existing N3 and bypass the towns of Dunshaughlin, Navan and
Kells but an existing road cannot be tolled. The motorway includes 2 tolls
and a floodlit 53-acre interchange 1500m from the top of the Hill of Tara
at Blundelstown. The width of this type of motorway is 27 metres but the
actual land take could be double that figure. The width and proximity can
be seen by a visit to the N3 just beyond the entrance to Tara. Fears that
development would follow have been confirmed with the first planning
applications being lodged.
In 2004 the National Roads Authority (NRA) and Meath County Council
(MCC) employed an archaeological company to carry out test-trenching and 38
sites were found in the section between Navan and Dunshaughlin.
In May 2005 the Minister for the Environment gave directions under the
National Monuments Act 2004 for the excavation and removal of these sites
against the advice of the director of the National Museum and leading
archaeological experts worldwide. He could have refused according to a
previous minister, Michael D. Higgins. He set up Dúchas and with a new act
this gave Irish heritage the best protection in Europe. This Government
dismantled Dúchas and amended the act.
The NRA and the Government present us who object to the present route as
a minority; the only independent survey, carried out by RedC, found that
70% of people said that they wanted the road rerouted out of the Valley.
The NRA spend hundreds of thousand of euro on propaganda – a booklet to
every house in Meath, full page newspaper advertisements and a huge folder
and DVD posted all over the world.
Route selection
Six primary routes were presented to choose from, two outside and four
inside the Valley between Tara and Skryne. The NRA and MCC ignored the
advice of experts at the time and still downplay the enormity of the sites
on the chosen route. No geophysical survey was done on the other routes
suggesting that they never seriously considered another choice. Tara is
recognised as having a number of defensive outposts including one called
Rath Lugh and the present route divides it from Tara.
The archaeological company owned by Margaret Gowen Ltd. said:
“The monuments around Tara cannot be viewed in isolation, or as individual
sites, but must be seen in the context of an intact archaeological
landscape, which should not under any circumstances be disturbed, in terms
of visual or direct impact on the monuments themselves” (N3 Navan to
Dunshaughlin Route Selection, August 2000, paragraph 7.3)
The same company advised the route selection company, Halcrow Barry:
“It would be virtually impossible to underestimate the importance or the
sensitivity of the archaeological and historical landscape in this area”
(Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., N3 Navan to Dunshaughlin Route Selection:
Archaeology, August 2000, 3.1).
The Environmental Impact Statement said: ‘this section of the N3 runs
through one of the richest and best known archaeological landscapes in
Europe’(Vol.4A p.165).
This concern was seen from as far back as 1999 in V.J. Keeley Ltd.’s
Archaeological Assessment Paper Survey, Preliminary Area of Interest N3
Dunshaughlin North to Navan West, Co. Meath where it is reported that:
“In addition to being highly visible from the Hill of Tara, the route
passes through the archaeologically sensitive landscape of the stream
valley (ibid., 6.5.1.). No mitigation would remove the effects of this
route on the Hill of Tara or on its outlying monuments. It would have
extremely severe implications from an archaeological perspective.”
The routes became known by their colours on the map, and the so-called Pink
route running to the east of the TaraSkryne Valley and the original
preferable route, was regarded as the ‘least intrusive’ and would have no
archaeological impact. The chosen Blue route was recognised as having the
highest number of archaeological sites; the engineer said the three
criteria used were engineering, economics (Cost Benefit Analysis) and the
environment of which archaeology was only a sub-section.
Tara and the Gabhra Valley
The archaeological importance of Tara and the Valley is obvious but Tara
was also the principal site of Irish ritual kingship. The god Lug claimed
kingship of the Tuatha Dé Danann on top of the Hill, Cú Chulainn’s head and
right arm are said to be buried there. Cormac mac Airt built Skryne
(originally Achall) when he lost an eye and could no longer live in Tara.
The last battle of the Fianna, the Battle of Gabhra, occurred in the Valley
where Cormac’s son was killed and buried. King Laegaire confronted St
Patrick at Tara when the first Christians arrived in Ireland.
In 1992 Charles Haughey set up the Discovery Programme and the first
area chosen for study was Tara. Three experts, Dr Edel Bhreathnach
(historian), Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick (archaeologists) were employed to
carry out a unique research project. In 1953 Eamon de Valera turned the
first sod on the excavations carried out by Séan Ó Ríordáin; the
Taoiseach’s son Ruaidhrí de Valera continued this work. Minister Síle de
Valera turned the first sod on the Discovery Programme’s excavations in
1997.
The three experts said in a statement (2004):
“This is a unique landscape ought to be subject to the highest level of
protection. Any surveying or excavation undertaken should happen only as
part of a well thought-out research plan … Clearing archaeological sites
from the path of a motorway does not constitute a research plan … Visible
monuments such as Rath Lugh which form clear confirmation of the ceremonial
complex of Tara will be left stranded on the side of a motorway.”
At the Oral Hearing, the archaeological expert on Tara, Conor Newman
said:
“The Hill of Tara is one of the most important and famous archaeological
complexes in the world … This is not hyperbole, it is a statement of fact.”
He also said:
“The Hill of Tara represents the ritual and political core of a far larger
territory or landscape. It cannot be regarded, or treated of, in isolation
from this broader landscape because this would be to divorce it from its
cultural and geographical context. For the most part people did not live on
Tara; they buried their dead there and built temples. They lived, instead,
in the immediate hinterland, in the shadow of their sacred mountain.”
Tara - a touchstone for later historical campaigns
Aodh Ó Néill, who was considered a national leader in 1599, visited Tara
for a victory assembly. Even earlier, in 1527 another leader Ó Conchobhair
went to Tara to symbolically shoe his horse. The Lord Deputy Sidney, in
1570, asked the Anglo-Irish lords to assemble at Tara and the Meath gentry
gathered there during the 1641 rebellion. There was a battle near Tara
during the 1798 rising; some of the dead were buried on the Hill. Daniel
O’Connell held a monster meeting there 15th August 1843 and said: "We are
standing upon Tara of the Kings … This was emphatically the spot from which
emanated every social power and legal authority by which the force of the
entire country was concentrated for national defence."
For a number of years after 1899, the British Israelites looked for and
received permission to dig on the Hill as they believed that the Ark of the
Covenant was buried there. A letter was sent to the Times in London by
Douglas Hyde, George Moore and W.B. Yeats that said: “Tara is, because of
its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its
destruction will leave many bitter memories”. Not since then has there been
such a threat to Tara.
Legalities and Ministers
A court case taken in January 2006 failed, affidavits were dismissed and
oral evidence was not admitted. A previous judgement on Tara was made in
1972 when Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said: “The
expression ‘national monument’ means a monument or the remains of a
monument, the preservation of which, is a matter of national importance by
reason of the historical, architectural, traditional, artistic, or
archaeological interest. A monument, among other things, is anything that
by its survival commemorates a person, action or event.”
European petitions and complaints have been lodged and some are still
outstanding but even they seem to be powerless.
Archaeological work and methods
There were 38 sites discovered in the section between Dunshaughlin and
Navan by a method known as test-trenching where the soil is stripped back
by mechanical diggers. A more precise way to do this work is to use a
Geophysical Survey that is much less invasive. The areas between those
chosen for test-trenching were not properly tested and their archaeological
content is as yet unknown. Despite the opinion of the Director of the
National Museum that mechanical diggers should not be used on the sites
they are being used throughout. In his 18-page advice to the Minister he
said that sites were being downgraded: “This almost amounts to the
re-definition of a monument type in non-monument terms. In many other
instances there is a lack of archaeological detail – even in summarised
form - in the Resolution Documents relative to that provided in the
testing reports. For example in the case of Baronstown 1, Bronze Age
material uncovered during testing is not mentioned in the resolution
document. Little or no attempt seems to have been made to interpret the
sites as opposed to describing isolated features.”
The omission of such finds is quite sinister in the context of the
rumours that emerge from sites about artefacts that are covered up and
hidden. Couple this with the chilling sentence in the Chief State
Archaeologist’s letter to the Minister: “It could be argued that the M3
will be a monument of major significance in the future and be seen as a
continuation of the pattern of route development through the valley.”
Alternatives
The alternative routes were not seriously considered, neither was the
re-opening of the existing railway line nor the widening of the N3. The
motorway leads to the M50 at Blanchardstown – the NRA admits that the new
M50 will fill up immediately. If the new outer orbital route is built there
will be no need for the M3. Another choice is linking the existing road to
the upgraded N2.
Supporters
The Irish Times and Sunday Tribune published against the route.
Thousands signed the online petition and wrote to the Minister for the
Environment and to the Transport and Environment committees. A march was
held in Dublin (2004) and another in Navan (2006). Hundreds of letters and
articles have appeared in papers from American to Japan, group letters were
signed, one by 30 academics in April 2004, the American Institute of
Archaeologists, another signed by 22 archaeologists based in England,
Scotland and Wales. A statement signed by 320 academics was presented to
the Government in 2005 just before the Minister made his decision; names
are still being added. Sam Green of the Landmarks Trust wrote a letter to
the paper and John Bruton, ex-leader of Fine Gael, said in a letter to the
NRA: “It is undoubtedly the case that the proposed scheme did go through
all of the analysis and procedures … But that does not mean that this is
the right decision. It just means that it went through the right
procedures.”
The Meath Archaeological and Historical Society objected at the Oral
Hearing. Writers signed the academic statement including Frank McGuinness,
Gabriel Rosenstock, Paul Muldoon (who donated a poem), Seamus Deane, Colm
Tóibín, Joe O’Connor and Colum McCann. Stuart Townsend supported the
campaign; the Artists 4 Tara exhibition of 2004 included pieces by Jim
Fitzpatrick who donated the use of a painting. Others who want to save Tara
include Alan Stanford, Nuala O’Faolain, Rossa Ó Snodaigh, Pádraigín Ní
Uallacháin and Coscán wrote a song for Tara. All the main heritage groups
spoke against it: the director of the National Museum, the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, the Heritage Council, the Discovery Programme
and the European Association of Archaeologists. The President of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians signed the on-line petition 2004.
The stance of political parties
The Labour Party tabled a private motion on Tara (November 2004); the
Senate also tabled a debate in 2004. Sinn Féin, the Greens and Labour have
come out against the route as well as Seán Haughey (FF) and independent TDs
and senators Maurice Hayes, David Norris, Shane Ross, Joe O’Toole, Joe
Higgins, Tony Gregory and Proinsias de Rossa MEP.
Present situation
The most recent developments include the Oral Hearing on Tolls in early
January but the minutes are still unavailable although the contracts for
the M3 were signed 7th March 2007.
Since June 2006 there has been a Tara Solidarity Vigil on the Hill and a
new umbrella grouping has emerged – the Campaign to Save Tara. Protests
take place every Friday afternoon from 3pm at Blundelstown.
Tara was put forward by Tarawatch for inclusion on the 100 most
endangered sites in the world - a decision will be made later this year.
In the election, the public should vote for pro-Tara candidates but the
signing of the PPP makes it difficult to interfere with the chosen route.
More information http://www.savetara.com
there and built temples. They lived, instead, in the immediate hinterland,
in the shadow of their sacred mountain.” (Conor Newman, former director,
the Discovery Programme)
Proposal for the M3 in Meath
An Bord Pleanála approved the route of the M3 6-lane motorway in August
2003 and a campaign to reverse the decision began. The initial proposal was
to upgrade the existing N3 and bypass the towns of Dunshaughlin, Navan and
Kells but an existing road cannot be tolled. The motorway includes 2 tolls
and a floodlit 53-acre interchange 1500m from the top of the Hill of Tara
at Blundelstown. The width of this type of motorway is 27 metres but the
actual land take could be double that figure. The width and proximity can
be seen by a visit to the N3 just beyond the entrance to Tara. Fears that
development would follow have been confirmed with the first planning
applications being lodged.
In 2004 the National Roads Authority (NRA) and Meath County Council
(MCC) employed an archaeological company to carry out test-trenching and 38
sites were found in the section between Navan and Dunshaughlin.
In May 2005 the Minister for the Environment gave directions under the
National Monuments Act 2004 for the excavation and removal of these sites
against the advice of the director of the National Museum and leading
archaeological experts worldwide. He could have refused according to a
previous minister, Michael D. Higgins. He set up Dúchas and with a new act
this gave Irish heritage the best protection in Europe. This Government
dismantled Dúchas and amended the act.
The NRA and the Government present us who object to the present route as
a minority; the only independent survey, carried out by RedC, found that
70% of people said that they wanted the road rerouted out of the Valley.
The NRA spend hundreds of thousand of euro on propaganda – a booklet to
every house in Meath, full page newspaper advertisements and a huge folder
and DVD posted all over the world.
Route selection
Six primary routes were presented to choose from, two outside and four
inside the Valley between Tara and Skryne. The NRA and MCC ignored the
advice of experts at the time and still downplay the enormity of the sites
on the chosen route. No geophysical survey was done on the other routes
suggesting that they never seriously considered another choice. Tara is
recognised as having a number of defensive outposts including one called
Rath Lugh and the present route divides it from Tara.
The archaeological company owned by Margaret Gowen Ltd. said:
“The monuments around Tara cannot be viewed in isolation, or as individual
sites, but must be seen in the context of an intact archaeological
landscape, which should not under any circumstances be disturbed, in terms
of visual or direct impact on the monuments themselves” (N3 Navan to
Dunshaughlin Route Selection, August 2000, paragraph 7.3)
The same company advised the route selection company, Halcrow Barry:
“It would be virtually impossible to underestimate the importance or the
sensitivity of the archaeological and historical landscape in this area”
(Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., N3 Navan to Dunshaughlin Route Selection:
Archaeology, August 2000, 3.1).
The Environmental Impact Statement said: ‘this section of the N3 runs
through one of the richest and best known archaeological landscapes in
Europe’(Vol.4A p.165).
This concern was seen from as far back as 1999 in V.J. Keeley Ltd.’s
Archaeological Assessment Paper Survey, Preliminary Area of Interest N3
Dunshaughlin North to Navan West, Co. Meath where it is reported that:
“In addition to being highly visible from the Hill of Tara, the route
passes through the archaeologically sensitive landscape of the stream
valley (ibid., 6.5.1.). No mitigation would remove the effects of this
route on the Hill of Tara or on its outlying monuments. It would have
extremely severe implications from an archaeological perspective.”
The routes became known by their colours on the map, and the so-called Pink
route running to the east of the TaraSkryne Valley and the original
preferable route, was regarded as the ‘least intrusive’ and would have no
archaeological impact. The chosen Blue route was recognised as having the
highest number of archaeological sites; the engineer said the three
criteria used were engineering, economics (Cost Benefit Analysis) and the
environment of which archaeology was only a sub-section.
Tara and the Gabhra Valley
The archaeological importance of Tara and the Valley is obvious but Tara
was also the principal site of Irish ritual kingship. The god Lug claimed
kingship of the Tuatha Dé Danann on top of the Hill, Cú Chulainn’s head and
right arm are said to be buried there. Cormac mac Airt built Skryne
(originally Achall) when he lost an eye and could no longer live in Tara.
The last battle of the Fianna, the Battle of Gabhra, occurred in the Valley
where Cormac’s son was killed and buried. King Laegaire confronted St
Patrick at Tara when the first Christians arrived in Ireland.
In 1992 Charles Haughey set up the Discovery Programme and the first
area chosen for study was Tara. Three experts, Dr Edel Bhreathnach
(historian), Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick (archaeologists) were employed to
carry out a unique research project. In 1953 Eamon de Valera turned the
first sod on the excavations carried out by Séan Ó Ríordáin; the
Taoiseach’s son Ruaidhrí de Valera continued this work. Minister Síle de
Valera turned the first sod on the Discovery Programme’s excavations in
1997.
The three experts said in a statement (2004):
“This is a unique landscape ought to be subject to the highest level of
protection. Any surveying or excavation undertaken should happen only as
part of a well thought-out research plan … Clearing archaeological sites
from the path of a motorway does not constitute a research plan … Visible
monuments such as Rath Lugh which form clear confirmation of the ceremonial
complex of Tara will be left stranded on the side of a motorway.”
At the Oral Hearing, the archaeological expert on Tara, Conor Newman
said:
“The Hill of Tara is one of the most important and famous archaeological
complexes in the world … This is not hyperbole, it is a statement of fact.”
He also said:
“The Hill of Tara represents the ritual and political core of a far larger
territory or landscape. It cannot be regarded, or treated of, in isolation
from this broader landscape because this would be to divorce it from its
cultural and geographical context. For the most part people did not live on
Tara; they buried their dead there and built temples. They lived, instead,
in the immediate hinterland, in the shadow of their sacred mountain.”
Tara - a touchstone for later historical campaigns
Aodh Ó Néill, who was considered a national leader in 1599, visited Tara
for a victory assembly. Even earlier, in 1527 another leader Ó Conchobhair
went to Tara to symbolically shoe his horse. The Lord Deputy Sidney, in
1570, asked the Anglo-Irish lords to assemble at Tara and the Meath gentry
gathered there during the 1641 rebellion. There was a battle near Tara
during the 1798 rising; some of the dead were buried on the Hill. Daniel
O’Connell held a monster meeting there 15th August 1843 and said: "We are
standing upon Tara of the Kings … This was emphatically the spot from which
emanated every social power and legal authority by which the force of the
entire country was concentrated for national defence."
For a number of years after 1899, the British Israelites looked for and
received permission to dig on the Hill as they believed that the Ark of the
Covenant was buried there. A letter was sent to the Times in London by
Douglas Hyde, George Moore and W.B. Yeats that said: “Tara is, because of
its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its
destruction will leave many bitter memories”. Not since then has there been
such a threat to Tara.
Legalities and Ministers
A court case taken in January 2006 failed, affidavits were dismissed and
oral evidence was not admitted. A previous judgement on Tara was made in
1972 when Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said: “The
expression ‘national monument’ means a monument or the remains of a
monument, the preservation of which, is a matter of national importance by
reason of the historical, architectural, traditional, artistic, or
archaeological interest. A monument, among other things, is anything that
by its survival commemorates a person, action or event.”
European petitions and complaints have been lodged and some are still
outstanding but even they seem to be powerless.
Archaeological work and methods
There were 38 sites discovered in the section between Dunshaughlin and
Navan by a method known as test-trenching where the soil is stripped back
by mechanical diggers. A more precise way to do this work is to use a
Geophysical Survey that is much less invasive. The areas between those
chosen for test-trenching were not properly tested and their archaeological
content is as yet unknown. Despite the opinion of the Director of the
National Museum that mechanical diggers should not be used on the sites
they are being used throughout. In his 18-page advice to the Minister he
said that sites were being downgraded: “This almost amounts to the
re-definition of a monument type in non-monument terms. In many other
instances there is a lack of archaeological detail – even in summarised
form - in the Resolution Documents relative to that provided in the
testing reports. For example in the case of Baronstown 1, Bronze Age
material uncovered during testing is not mentioned in the resolution
document. Little or no attempt seems to have been made to interpret the
sites as opposed to describing isolated features.”
The omission of such finds is quite sinister in the context of the
rumours that emerge from sites about artefacts that are covered up and
hidden. Couple this with the chilling sentence in the Chief State
Archaeologist’s letter to the Minister: “It could be argued that the M3
will be a monument of major significance in the future and be seen as a
continuation of the pattern of route development through the valley.”
Alternatives
The alternative routes were not seriously considered, neither was the
re-opening of the existing railway line nor the widening of the N3. The
motorway leads to the M50 at Blanchardstown – the NRA admits that the new
M50 will fill up immediately. If the new outer orbital route is built there
will be no need for the M3. Another choice is linking the existing road to
the upgraded N2.
Supporters
The Irish Times and Sunday Tribune published against the route.
Thousands signed the online petition and wrote to the Minister for the
Environment and to the Transport and Environment committees. A march was
held in Dublin (2004) and another in Navan (2006). Hundreds of letters and
articles have appeared in papers from American to Japan, group letters were
signed, one by 30 academics in April 2004, the American Institute of
Archaeologists, another signed by 22 archaeologists based in England,
Scotland and Wales. A statement signed by 320 academics was presented to
the Government in 2005 just before the Minister made his decision; names
are still being added. Sam Green of the Landmarks Trust wrote a letter to
the paper and John Bruton, ex-leader of Fine Gael, said in a letter to the
NRA: “It is undoubtedly the case that the proposed scheme did go through
all of the analysis and procedures … But that does not mean that this is
the right decision. It just means that it went through the right
procedures.”
The Meath Archaeological and Historical Society objected at the Oral
Hearing. Writers signed the academic statement including Frank McGuinness,
Gabriel Rosenstock, Paul Muldoon (who donated a poem), Seamus Deane, Colm
Tóibín, Joe O’Connor and Colum McCann. Stuart Townsend supported the
campaign; the Artists 4 Tara exhibition of 2004 included pieces by Jim
Fitzpatrick who donated the use of a painting. Others who want to save Tara
include Alan Stanford, Nuala O’Faolain, Rossa Ó Snodaigh, Pádraigín Ní
Uallacháin and Coscán wrote a song for Tara. All the main heritage groups
spoke against it: the director of the National Museum, the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland, the Heritage Council, the Discovery Programme
and the European Association of Archaeologists. The President of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians signed the on-line petition 2004.
The stance of political parties
The Labour Party tabled a private motion on Tara (November 2004); the
Senate also tabled a debate in 2004. Sinn Féin, the Greens and Labour have
come out against the route as well as Seán Haughey (FF) and independent TDs
and senators Maurice Hayes, David Norris, Shane Ross, Joe O’Toole, Joe
Higgins, Tony Gregory and Proinsias de Rossa MEP.
Present situation
The most recent developments include the Oral Hearing on Tolls in early
January but the minutes are still unavailable although the contracts for
the M3 were signed 7th March 2007.
Since June 2006 there has been a Tara Solidarity Vigil on the Hill and a
new umbrella grouping has emerged – the Campaign to Save Tara. Protests
take place every Friday afternoon from 3pm at Blundelstown.
Tara was put forward by Tarawatch for inclusion on the 100 most
endangered sites in the world - a decision will be made later this year.
In the election, the public should vote for pro-Tara candidates but the
signing of the PPP makes it difficult to interfere with the chosen route.
More information http://www.savetara.com
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