TARA: Running an M3 through our heritage

The construction of a motorway by the Irish Government through one of Ireland's most historic areas is a national scandal.
A few hearty campaigners have stood against them. They have claimed that the road scheme in Co Meath will destroy the Rath Lugh national monument - an ancient fort beside the 2,000-year-old Hill of Tara - and also claim that the road will be a mere 20 metres from the ancient monument.

For centuries, the Tara landscape and the Tara sites have been regarded as part of the sacred ground. The Tara complex is bounded by the Hill of Tara, seat of the ancient High Kings of Ireland, and a place of sacred worship in both pagan and Christian times. This is an area which has been of historical and religious significance in Ireland for thousands of years, with archaeological finds dating back to 4000BC.
The M3 motorway is well under construction through the luxuriant green and historical countryside of County Meath. Ireland's biggest ever road project stretches 61km and is expected to cost around 800m euros and will carve a line through the lush pastures and the history of this island.

The motorway will take traffic north of Dublin, serving towns such as Kells and Navan in County Meath, and connect counties Cavan, Fermanagh and Donegal beyond to a national road network.
Numerous new housing estates have sprung up in towns and villages during the recent economic boom. Once more the Celtic Tiger devours its offspring.

Of course the Government will say that the existing N3 road hosts the country's worst traffic jams outside of Dublin, with trips between the city and Cavan, around seventy miles away, taking well over two hours and sometimes even longer during rush-hour. Cars, lorries and buses snake in long lines through towns like Skreen, choking them for hours in mornings and evenings in fumes and irate drivers.

So progress demands change, they tell us. To facilitate change the government decided it would bully a new road through an area which is described by archaeologists internationally as the most important site in Ireland and of major world significance; like Stonehenge, Delphi, the Pyramids and Nara in Japan.

At Lismullen, close to Tara, another monument was discovered last year when an ancient "henge" or ceremonial temple was unearthed in the route of the M3 on 1 April, and then was immediately destroyed after its features were recorded: some April Fool that.

Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney told BBC Radio Ulster that the plan was a "ruthless desecration".

I was just t
hinking actually the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in 1916 summoned people in the name of the dead generations and called the nation, called the people in the name of the dead generations. If ever there was a place that deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations from pre-historic times up to historic times up to completely recently, it was Tara."

How right he is.

This is a vile desecration of our heritage and history sacrificed at the altar of convenience and the need to get cars moving faster. This is terrorism of the worse kind and must be condemned by everyone. This is a national shame and will deprive future generations of a national treasure. Future generations will condemn this Irish Government for this act of terrorism and will also condemn our generation for standing idly by while they were allowed to desecrate our past.

Shame on them, shame on us.