Letter about the sacred Tara landscape

international | miscellaneous | other press Wednesday May 04, 2005 12:55 by watcher

Letter to The Irish Times from sacred sites group.

TARA AND THE M3 MOTORWAY

Madam, - The Landmarks Foundation is a New York-based organisation with the mission of conserving sacred sites and landscapes around the world. Over the years we have successfully intervened and protected the great statues on Easter Island and other threatened sites in South and Central America, Bhutan, India and Turkey.

We have been aware for some time that a plan had been mooted by the National Roads Authority in Ireland to run a motorway through the sacred landscape of Tara. A belief that such an invasion was impossible has kept us from voicing our opinion up to now. This belief was based on knowing that Ireland, of all the countries in the world, treasures its sacred sites and would protect them against all threats from whatever source.

We were also aware that an independent watchdog named Dúchas existed to reinforce the protection of Ireland's great and proud heritage.

We cannot find words to describe our horror at learning that your country is actually planning to go ahead with the construction of this invasive motorway with its accompanying hideousness and that all appeals to reason have been dismissed out of hand. "But where," we asked, "is Dúchas, the independent protecting body that was established to guard against such desecration?" Abolished, we are told, abolished for being too effective and for making decisions that actually reinforced its position as an independent body.

Disbelief was heaped upon horror when we read that your Taoiseach has been quoted as saying, "I don't know who was there five thousand years ago, and I'm sure they were very significant people, but somewhere along the way you have to come to an end of a process." And another politician has called for bulldozers and not archaeologists with tablespoons to be brought to the sacred lands.

What are these politicians up to? Are they not to be compared to the Taliban, who erased their past with dynamite and destroyed forever the important Bamiyan Buddhas in their country? Where is the famed Irish national pride, the great national spirit? Are you sacrificing everything to Mammon, the god of greed?

The need for motorways is less than a century old. The sacredness of the landscape at Tara has been of fundamental national importance for 5,000 years. The proposed roadway will probably be obsolete in less than a century, and the contemptuous politicians dead. The destruction of one of Ireland's treasures and one of the world's historical monuments will last forever.

Have all alternatives really been exhausted? At this late stage we can only pray that common sense will prevail and that a compromise route will be found for a motorway which, we are assured, is needed. This is not just an Irish issue. The world is in awe of Tara, the world reveres Tara. The world is watching with disbelief. - Yours, etc,

SAM GREEN, Director, Landmarks Foundation, East 75th Street, New York, USA.