TaraWatch

SAVE TARA MARCH

NAVAN

4th NOVEMBER

A demonstration against the proposed M3 motorway route through the national monument of the Tara Skryne Valley is to be held in Navan on Saturday, 4th November, starting at 3pm.

The purpose of the March is to create an opportunity for people to voice their objection to the Government, particularly Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government at the bad planning, corruption, toll roads, public-private partnerships, overspending on motorways, lack of investment in public transport as well as the widespread rapid destruction of Irish Heritage being funded by Irish Taxpayers money.

Groups and individuals from all parts of Ireland have already pledged their support, as have members of the Opposition Parties.

A meeting for all those wishing to take an active part in assisting in the organisation of the March will be held on Thursday 12th October at The Newgrange Hotel, Navan at 8.30pm.

MOTORWAY MADNESS
by Father Sean McDonagh. Dalgan Park

I deplore Bord Pleanala’s decision to approve the M3 motorway on August 25, 2003.

Everyone will agree that, after decades of neglect, there is a need to improve the transport infrastructure in Ireland. The place to start this is with an effective national spatial plan to guide all infra-structural projects towards serving the needs of ordinary people.

Unfortunately, the last government put the cart before the horse by publishing and proceeding with a National Development Plan before National Spatial Plan was completed. Unfortunately, the latter only appeared in November 2002)

In terms of roads there is a need to upgrade many roads, bypass towns and villages and in some circumstances build new roads in order to cut down long, daily commuting journeys that are taking a huge toll on the well-being of individuals, families and communities.

The rail system for transporting people and goods needs to be improved, modernised and extended. This will cost a lot of money. Finally serious thought ought to be given to using rivers and canals as a means of transport. This is the direction that transport policy ought to take according to the White Paper -European Policy for 2010. It states on page 13 that in the new context of sustainable development, community co-financing should be redirected to give priority to rail, sea, and inland waterway transport.

In this paper I will argue that the National Roads Authority’s (NPA) plan to build the M3 motorway is not justified on transport, financial, ecological and ethical grounds.
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Tara protesters to be removed
Breakingnews.ie
07/09/2006 – 18:59:02

Members of the Tara Solidarity Vigil, who have been holding a vigil on the Hill of Tara since June 21, have been warned by Mr William Foley of the Office of Public Works that they will be removed tomorrow by the authorities if they do not leave now.This is the second warning they have received from the authorities. In mid-July they were approached by the Gardaí and threatened with prosecution under the Housing Act 2002, which criminalises trespass on public or private land.Members of the Tara Solidarity Vigil, who have been holding a vigil on the Hill of Tara since June 21, have been warned by Mr William Foley of the Office of Public Works that they will be removed tomorrow by the authorities if they do not leave now.This is the second warning they have received from the authorities. In mid-July they were approached by the Gardaí and threatened with prosecution under the Housing Act 2002, which criminalises trespass on public or private land.

The vigil, taking place on publicly owned land, on top of the Hill of Tara intends to garner support campaign to save the Tara complex from the M3 motorway and subsequent development, such as the dump being proposed for the northern slope of Tara.

Political affairs officer for TaraWatch Siobhan Rice said: “People camp on Tara all the time. The Tara Vigil is being singled out, not for what they are doing, but because of what they are saying; ie reroute the M3.”

“The Vigil speaks for 70% of Irish people who want the M3 moved now, but our Government refuses to listen. They are there to support us. Now it is our turn to support them, and object to their removal.”

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‘Open letter to the Office of Public Works concerning threats to remove the Tara Solidarity Vigil’

[send your own comments to info@opw.ie]

On behalf, of TaraWatch, and the 70% of Irish people who seek to protect the Tara complex, I would like to formally object to the threatened removal of the Tara Solidarity Vigil from the public lands at Tara.  It is bad enough that the Office of Public Works is sanctioning the desecration of the Tara complex, an act that will itself go down in history as an all-time low in the administration and protection of the shared national heritage of Ireland.  Practically every reputable expert in the world, including some of your own archaeological consultants, has put you on notice of the perversity of the current route.

But threatening innocent, Irish, peaceful civil objectors with criminal prosecution, for simply lamenting the demise of Tara at your hands is morally and legally perverse. These are the actions of a failed administration, that props itself up with Irish taxpayers money being spent on public relations exercises, misinformation and media manipulation. Now public money is to be spent prosecuting private citizens who object to what they believe to be a criminal act on the part of the Government; ie, the unlawful commercial development of our proudest national monument, the Hill of Tara.

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