Last week (6th June), the Hill of Tara was named one of the world's top one hundred most endangered heritage sites.
The New York based World Monument Fund (WMF) has placed Tara on its crisis list after Government plans to build a motorway near the site look likely to go ahead, despite court battles and campaigns to reroute the road.
In a communication with the League last month the Private Secretary of Mr. Dick Roche, T.D ., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government said:
"The M3 motorway scheme, as prepared by Meath County Council and the NRA, was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2002 and was approved accordingly in August 2003, following an environmental impact assessment and a lengthy public oral hearing. Archaeology and a range of other relevant factors were addressed as part of this process and, prior to that, in the route selection process carried out by the NRA."
However, there has been large scale opposition to the route that the planned M3 motorway is expected to take, which will run just one and a half miles from the sacred site. The League described the building of the road as "cultural terrorism" in a letter to Minister Roche. This became even more poignant when a massive temple, dating back to the late Bronze Age/Iron Age, was unearthed by road diggers near Lismullen. It is not clear though whether the site will be saved and it is currently being excavated by archaeologists.
Campaigners confronted construction workers at the site in May in an attempt to stop further work being carried out and the League has received calls from concerned campaigners to publicise the plans in other Celtic countries.
All hope now rests on the formation of a new Government in Éire, as negotiations between Fianna Fáil and the Greens continue, despite some setbacks last week. It has been rumoured that one of the issues raised by the Greens at the coalition negotiating table last week was the M3 motorway proposal.
One thing that is for sure is that if the building of the M3 Motorway does go ahead as planned it will be a national disgrace for Ireland and a travesty for Celtic heritage.
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
10/06/07
■