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Save the seat of
the High kings!
To: Prime Minister of
Ireland, Mr Bertie Ahern
Dear Taoiseach Ahern,
I object the planned routing of the M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne
valley, and the resulting despoilment this will cause to Ireland’s
oldest and most revered national monument.
The archaeological importance of this area is beyond question. After
seven years surveying the Hill of Tara and its 80km˛ hinterland as
director of the government funded Discovery Programme, Conor Newman
said: “Tara is one of the most important and famous archaeological
complexes in the world.… all of our researches point to the valley
between Tara and Skryne as an area of paramount importance throughout
the history of Tara.”
More recently, 12 eminent Irish historians and archaeologists in letters
to the Irish Independent and The Examiner wrote: “The Hill of Tara
constitutes the heart and Soul of Ireland. Its very name invokes the
spirit and mystique of our people and is instantly recognisable
worldwide. The plan approved recently by An Bord Pleanála for the M3
motorway to dissect the Tara-Skryne valley, Ireland's premier national
monument, spells out a massive national and international tragedy that
must be averted.”
Can anyone doubt the profound cultural importance of Tara and its unique
landscape? A landscape honoured and revered by millions throughout the
world today and countless generations of Irish people gone before us.
Nowhere else in Ireland is there a landscape that can claim the Tuatha
de Danann, Celtic Gods and Goddesses, St. Patrick, Daniel O’Connell,
Thomas Moore, heroes and High Kings from Fionn MacCumhail to Brian Boru,
an archaeological complex of temples, tombs, enclosures and henges
spanning five millennia, and a continuous place at the centre of Irish
spiritual, cultural, political and literary history, as part of it’s
fabric.
Yet it is through the very heart of this landscape, that Meath County
Council, the NRA and the Irish Government wish to build a motorway,
which will impact at least 141 known sites. According to Dr Conor
Newman, this is just “the tip of the iceberg”.
Roads, of course, are necessary to relieving the nightmare of traffic
congestion. However, in the absence of any plans to improve the Navan
Road/M50 roundabout, the M3 project will not relieve congestion, it will
merely move it from one place to another; plugging the worst bottleneck
between Navan and Dublin even tighter. Spending €680m on an ineffectual
motorway that will ruin Tara forever, cannot be described as progress;
rather it constitutes wanton vandalism on a grand scale.
The National Roads Authority has released an estimate of €20m to
excavate the route of the M3. I believe this figure could be closer to
€100m, since there are more than likely so many monuments yet to be
discovered, due to a low-grade geophysical survey carried out during the
EIS. I strongly object to this amount of Irish taxpayers money being
used to dig up our prize national monument, and other national monuments
all around the country, especially in light of the recent High Court
finding that heritage protection regulations enacted by your Government
are unconstitutional.
And so I am moved to ask you three questions:
1). The M3 plans include the construction of a 34 acre floodlit
intersection (Blundelstown) a mere 1,090 meters from the Hill of Tara’s
core zone (as defined by OPW); what has, or will, your Office do to
preserve the national monument of Tara from this permanent defacement?
2). Why are the people of Ireland being asked to pay €1.3 billion (via
toll charges and taxes) for a project estimated at €64, but which cannot
demonstrably relieve congestion, will lead to more violations of the
Kyoto agreement, and will damage our national heritage irretrievably?
3). What will your Office do to urge re-consideration of the currently
approved route for the M3, and/or to engage in a process of generating
alternative effective solutions to the very real problem of traffic
congestion in the area, such as reopening the Dublin to Navan railroad?
I look forward to your reply, and in the meantime urge you, in your
capacity as Taoiseach to oppose the imminent despoilment of Tara by the
M3 motorway, and to do all you can in working for the reversal of this
disastrous decision.
Sincerely,
The undersigned
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