TaraWatch

Watch video of Jonathan Rhys Meyers interviewed on Hill of Tara
View Slideshow of Images of the making of the human harp
Interview with Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch from the Hill of Tara during event (audio)
Irish Post: Filmstars line-up for photootest to save Hill of Tara

Stars pull strings to try to protect historic Tara

Irish Independent

Monday September 24 2007

IT’S a long way from Tinseltown to the Hill of Tara but Hollywood star Stuart Townsend was one of the first to make the journey when he heard his ancestral homeland was under threat.His famous girlfriend Charlize Theron was too busy filming to travel, but that did not stop him sacrificing his time to help protect the site of the druids.The heartthrob from Howth aligned his body with thousands of others yesterday to make up a string in the world’s first human harp on the famous Meath mound.Over 3,000 people posed for an unprecedented aerial shot at the ancient site in protest at plans to site the M3 motorway nearby. Townsend had a guiding hand in the proceedings and even brought in a pal to snap the spectacular formation from a helicopter, but laughed at suggestions that he is becoming the Bono of the environmental world. It was a thrilling, if bizarre, moment for more than a few fans to find themselves side by side with Charlize Theron’s boyfriend to form the shape of the traditional instrument.They were in for another A-list surprise when the not unpleasant shape of actor and Hugo Boss ‘face’ Jonathan Rhys Meyers also appeared on the sacred ground. The actor, who has more recently been travelling through time to the era of the Tudors for a TV series, was able to put the authoritarian skills he developed as Henry VIII to good use as he roused the Tara campaigners.

Addressing the crowd, he said it was not just the motorway that was horrible, but the subsequent development it would bring. The actor, who was born in Cork and brought up in Dublin, said he appreciated the untouched landscape that remained in Ireland far more since he moved to the US. He said he would like his grandchildren to be able to feel the same way.

Harps or no harps, Townsend also showed that acting was not the only string in his bow. He is exhausted after directing a film about another, very different, protest at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference of 1999. The actor will finally getting a complete break next week when he heads down the country for a holiday.

“I haven’t been home for a while and want to see some friends,” he said. “Charlize is working. She wants to be here, but is overworked. “I am exhausted from the filming process. I went to the Toronto Film Festival and was involved with marketing the movie.” He revealed that — despite rumours — himself and Charlize have not tied the knot. “We didn’t get married,” he said. “Every week someone says we are or that we’re splitting up. We’re married in our hearts and have been together for seven years and have dogs, live in a house, and plan to have children. We don’t need the Church or the state.”

Despite his opposition to the motorway, he was compassionate about the predicament faced by the new Green Environment Minister and invited John Gormley to meet him to discuss an alternative plan for Tara. “I’m sure he’s a good guy and will try to do his best but in a way his hands are tied behind his back,” he said. “His party does not have many seats and that probably curtails his power. “Politics is politics and who knows what pressure John Gormley’s under. I really hope he considers the Tarawatch plan and there is a breakthrough.”

Jonathan Rhys Meyers met up with fellow actor Stuart Townsend

Demonstration at Tara against M3 route

The Irish Times
Monday, 24 September 2007

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Hill of Tara in Co Meath yesterday to form “the world’s first giant human harp” photographed from the air. The event was designed to promote the campaign to reroute the M3 motorway. Those who took part in the elaborate aerial art exercise were requested to dress in white and to “take nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints” on the Tara site.

Amongst the participants were Irish actors Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Stuart Townsend. The gathering was directed by the internationally renowned aerial artist John Quigley, who has completed similar aerial works in the Artic, the Amazon rain forest and Antarctica.

Campaigners also gathered outside Dáil Éireann on Saturday afternoon to continue their protest against the development of the M3 near Tara. About 30 harpists assembled with their instruments on the streets outside Government Buildings in Dublin to demonstrate against the proposed route using the historic symbol of the State. “Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem,” harper Laoise Kelly said. “This shows the importance of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat have been linked with harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.”

The harpers, who presented a petition letter to Minister for the Environment John Gormley, were joined in their protest by Stuart Townsend, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains and MEP Kathy Sinnott. They all spoke out against the proposed M3 route. Townsend said he understood how the locals did not want to spend time in traffic but he said there was a need to balance infrastructural progress “with environmental and heritage protection”.

“I love visiting Tara. I find it a very spiritual and powerful place. “I couldn’t bear the thought of hearing traffic in such a peaceful place. I would urge both the Government and public to take a look at the Meath Masterplan which is an excellent alternative,” he said.

The plan includes upgraded coach services and a rail link to serve the expanding towns of Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells. It also suggests the conversion of the M3 to a toll-free road and modifying part of the route to protect the Tara landscape. One female protester said: “The gathering of harpers shows that we face a musical and cultural loss with what is happening in Tara. The sound of Tara’s harp should not be drowned by cars, traffic or toll plazas.”

Ancient Tara Hill is under threat from plans to build a motorway extension

Henry McDonald
Sunday September 23, 2007
The Observer

Campaigners are preparing to take their battle to stop the extension of a motorway near Tara Hill, the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland, to courts in Strasbourg and Dublin next month.

The World Monuments Fund, a global organisation that protects ancient buildings, put pressure on the European Commission this weekend to use the European Court of Justice to halt the works at the Lismullin national monument in Co Meath.

Meanwhile The Observer has learnt that two Irish campaign groups which oppose construction near the 2,000-year-old site are going to Dublin High Court in early October to seek an injunction to stop further building in and around the monument.

In a statement this weekend to The Observer the WMF said the landscape surrounding Tara Hill – regarded as the ceremonial and mythical capital of ancient Ireland – is set to be destroyed if motorway construction continues. The fund has put Tara Hill on its top 100 list of most endangered archaeological and heritage sites across the world.

Bonnie Burnham, the president of the WMF, said: ‘We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision. It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara is destroyed.’

Burnham’s colleague, Dr Jonathan Foyle, the chief executive of WMF Britain, said overdevelopment of the entire Tara valley would be ‘an injury to the people of Ireland’. Dr Foyle said the WMF had written to the European Commission urging them to seek an interim injunction at the European Court of Justice to halt further development of the M3 motorway route at Tara.

‘The World Monuments Fund calls on the European Commission and the Irish authorities to urgently re-assess the legal and ethical basis for this irreversible action before it is too late,’ he said.

He added that the Irish government had ignored the advice of experts across the world who regard Tara as a heritage site of ‘international significance’.

The fund released its statement following a talk on the Tara’s importance in Ireland and the world at Trinity College Dublin yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the campaign group Tarawatch confirmed yesterday that they are going to Dublin High Court early next month to seek an injunction to halt work at the site.

Vincent Salafia, Tarawatch’s spokesman, said: ‘The next step has to be go to the High Court. Because it’s getting late in terms of saving Tara ourselves and possibly one other campaign group is getting ready to take the case within the next couple of weeks. The combination of our case in the High Court and a parallel case taken by the European Commission might just halt construction in the interim period.’

He also welcomed the World Monuments Fund’s intervention in the Tara controversy. ‘It’s a very welcome development that the WMF have come on side. They have the influence and respect to pile the pressure on the likes of the EU Commission to act.

‘The WMF recognises the importance of Tara and the danger to it from the motorway extension. It would be like deciding to deal with the traffic problems of say New York by building a road through Central Park. That wouldn’t be allowed in New York despite its congestion because the park is such an integral part of the city. It’s the same with Tara which has been around a lot longer than Central Park,’ Salafia said.

This weekend environmental activists intensified their campaign. One hundred Irish harpists played outside the gates of Dail Eireann yesterday in protest. Later today Irish born actor-director Stuart Townsend will fly a plane over the Tara Valley and take aerial pictures of the site. The photographs taken from the plane will be used by artist John Quigley to create a harp-shaped landscape painting of the Tara Valley.

The Irish government argues that it needs to extend the M3 motorway given the massive population growth in towns in Co Meath and north county Dublin. It also claims the motorway will ease chronic congestion in rural towns and villages northwest of Dublin.

WRITE TO letters@guardian.co.uk

Statement on 22nd September 2007

The World Monuments Fund is concerned that the excavation at Lismullin has reached a critical point, and is now entering a destructive phase.

“Tara Hill, which is the centerpiece of a large archaeological landscape with hundreds of significant sites, is the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland,” said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund.

“It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara ‘s surrounding landscape, about which we have much to learn, is destroyed for a highway development that will only encourage more rapid and inappropriate development.  We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision.”

Dr Jonathan Foyle, Chief Executive of WMF Britain, said:

“The Tara Valley is the ancient homeland of those who forged Irish culture. As the personalities of these remarkable people are muted by a lack of recorded literature, archaeology becomes the sole resource for understanding them. Therefore, the destruction in Tara Valley of what is a two thousand-year old time casket is an injury to the people of Ireland, and a last resort. WMF Britain deeply regrets that sound academic advice on the unique importance of Lismullin, which recommends its preservation, is regarded as an inconvenience to be rejected in favour of this destructive and culturally insignificant road building scheme.”

WMF Britain is writing to the European Commission and the Irish authorities and asking them to seek interim measures at the European Court of Justice, to halt the works at Lismullin national monument resulting from the proposed M3 motorway route. WMF Britain also adopts the statement from this summer’s XIII Celtic Conference, hosted by Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, which recognised the significance of the site.

WMF placed the 2,000 year-old archaeological complex of Tara Hill in Ireland on its 2008 WORLD MONUMENTS WATCH LIST OF 100 MOST ENDANGERED SITES, in recognition of its international significance. The panel who voted to include Tara Hill included heritage experts from Europe, Iraq, Kenya and Guatemala and was chaired by Tim Whalen, the Director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, California. This decision was taken before the discovery of an amphitheatre at Lismullin, whose significance was confirmed in a report by Dr Ronald Hicks, Department of Anthropology, Ball State University, USA.

The World Monuments Fund calls on the European Commission and Irish authorities to urgently reassess the legal and ethical basis for this irreversible action before it is too late.

 

HARPERS OF IRELAND TO GATHER AT DÁIL TO SAVE TARA

On Saturday 22nd September 2007 at 3 p.m. the harpers of Ireland will gather at Dáil Éireann to demonstrate publicly the strength of their opposition to the destruction of historic cultural sites at the Tara/Skryne Valley as a result of the current route of the M3 motorway.

The harpers will assemble with their harps along Kildare Street, and will submit a petition to Minister John Gormley insisting he implement alternatives to the continued destruction which is taking place.Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem. This indicates the primacy of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.

Tara was the gathering place for thousands of harpers to 142 kings, and the harp was an integral part of the ancient Irish parliament at Tara. The harp has been used in the coat of arms of Ireland since 1270 and is the symbol of the Irish State today. It is found in the seals of the President, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Government Ministers, on State currency and is the insignia of the Irish Law Courts.

It is an outrage that the Irish people should be forced to choose between infrastructure and heritage. As a country we are embarrassed internationally by profit-driven, shortsighted planning as exemplified by the fact that World Monument Fund has placed Tara on its list of 100 most endangered sites worldwide.

Many can rightly point out that it would be an archaeological loss, and a historical one. It is also a spiritual loss, since even before the conversion by St Patrick of Ireland’s High Kings it was a place where the Irish sought to express their spirituality. And significantly for us as a nation, it was the place of birth of Christianity in Ireland. The gathering of harpers says that it is also a musical and cultural loss and asserts that the sound of Tara’s harp will not be drowned by traffic jams and the cash registers of toll plazas.

Harper events will also take place in NY, Chicago, and Los Angeles outside Irish Consulates.

TARA UPDATE – TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
Swift Theatre 12.00 – 2.00pm, Saturday, 22nd September, 2007
Admission free

• TARA HARPERS
• WORLD MONUMENTS FUND (WMF)
• CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STUDIES, TCD
• UNION OF STUDENTS OF IRELAND, (USI)
• TARAWATCH

Contact:

- Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey, Trinity College Dublin email salynsta@tcd.ie
Tel: +353-1-6082686

- TaraWatch info@tarawatch.org
Tel: +353-87-132-3365

- Tara Harpers – Laoise Kelly laoise.kelly@face.ie
Tel: +353-86-260-3405

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The XIII Celtic Congress, hosted by Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, held in Bonn this summer has sent the following letter to TD Gormley regarding the Tara environs situation:

16 August 2007

Mr John Gormley, TD
Minister for the Environment
Custom House, Dublin 1

A Aire Uasail, a chara,

At its closing session on Friday 27 July, the assembled delegates to the XIII International Celtic Congress, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, instructed us to send you this letter, to protest most vigorously against the destruction of the environs of Tara and of other historic and prehistoric sites in Ireland, such as Lismullin.

These are essential parts of the Celtic and pre-Celtic inheritance not only of Ireland but of the whole of European civilisation. We urge you, Minister, to reverse these official decisions and to act decisively as the protector of Europe’s cultural heritage.

Yours sincerely,

WILLIAM GILLES
Professor of Celtic, Edinburgh University
President of the Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies

ANDERS AHLQVIST
Professor Emeritus of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology, NUI, Galway
Secretary of the of the Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies

The curse of Tara by Hadani Ditmars

Dispatches – Canadian Broadcasting Compny - Radio One

17 September 2007

In Ireland, as everyone knows, they love their history. But not as much as a good commute, apparently.

One of the Republic’s most revered and mystical sites lies between Dubliners and their new four-lane highway.

And despite the clamor from poets and pop stars, they’re now breaking ground and breaking hearts — cutting through the ancient burial site known as Tara.

Dispatches contributor Hadani Ditmars has been recording the poet’s cries.

Listen to Hadani’s dispatch

Hothouse Flowers there, to sing us out of Hadani’s story. And they’re not the only musicians intervening on behalf of Tara.

The harp players of Ireland are also lining the streets and petitioning the government to stop the destruction.

Irish Times Breaking News: Tara protestors hold Dublin rally
Press Association: Road protestors march through city
Irish Times: Taoiseach urged to halt work on M3 motorway
Indymedia.ie: Images from Love Tara 2

Campaigners gather to protest M3 motorway route

Evening Echo 15/09/2007 – 3:14:32 PM

Hundreds of environmentalists took to Dublin’s streets today, demanding a halt to construction of the controversial M3 motorway through the ancient Hill of Tara.

The peaceful march, the second since mid-July, left for Government Buildings from the Garden of Remembrance, calling on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to intervene and stop work on the multi-million euro road project.

It came as officials from the EU Parliament’s Petitions Committee, which earlier in the year inspected works at the Co Meath site, issued a report condemning the routing of the M3 and the damage to the country’s heritage.

“It was a very strong march,” campaigner Vincent Salafia said.

“We’re happy with how it went.

“I think it focuses attention on the Taoiseach and we’re urging him to step forward and take a leadership role in this.

“We’re not going away until there’s some sort of resolution.”

Protesters of all ages, carrying placards demanding Ireland’s heritage be preserved and the road works stopped, marched to the Office of the Taoiseach at Government Buildings.

Also present was the Union of Students of Ireland (USI), which has added its voice to the campaign.

USI president Richard Morrisroe said: “Mr Ahern is being challenged to revise the route of the M3 because public support hangs on this.”
 
The second Love Tara march came after An Bord Pleanala last month ruled that the M3 could be built over newly discovered 2,000-year-old ruins at Lismullen, about 2km from the Tara Hill.

It had been examining whether the discovery last April of the ancient ceremonial structure in the motorway’s path would require a fresh planning application by developers.

The board said the find did not constitute a material alteration to the M3 scheme, which it had already approved in September 2003, and gave the project the green light.

But the EU’s Petitions Committee has questioned the route of the motorway and asked why the state puts so much emphasis on roads and so little on rail.

A report is to be forwarded for discussion by the Commission, which sent a reasoned opinion to the Government earlier in the year highlighting the need for a second environmental impact assessment in light of the Lismullen find.

It is understood that Ireland’s official response has been submitted to the Commission for its review.

Further protest events are being planned by campaigners, including a day of action at Tara on Monday and a demonstration by harpers at the Dáil next Saturday. 

Irish Times: Cases against ten Tara protesters adjourned
Irish Independent: EU threatens huge fines if Tara M3 work is not halted
Belfast Telegraph: Government set to defend Tara decision

The Irish Times
Thur, 6 Sept 2007

Jamie Smyth In Brussels

The EU will decide next month whether to refer Ireland to Europe’s highest court over the demolition of a national monument at Lismullin, Co Meath, to make way for the M3 motorway.

The European Commission confirmed yesterday it had received the Government’s reply to concerns, which the commission raised over the excavation of the Lismullin monument in June. It said it would study the letter before making a decision in October on whether to begin legal proceedings at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The commission issued a “reasoned opinion” to Ireland last June accusing it of breaking EU law by not carry out a second environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the Lismullin site following the discovery of archaeological remains.

Under the National Monuments Act, an EIA is required before the start of a project, but it is not necessary to carry out further EIAs in relation to any archaeological remains found.

The commission argues that this amounts to a loophole in Irish law and does not adequately protect sites of archaeological significance.

The Government’s reply to the commission focuses on whether the National Monuments Act and its actions at Lismullin comply with European law.

It also contains a separate section dealing with the fragility of the archaeological remains at Lismullin.

It argues that excavation work had to be carried out immediately on the national monument because of the instability and fragility of the immediate environment.

It is understood that the commission is unlikely to seek an ECJ injunction to halt excavation work at Lismullin because of the fragility of the site.

But EU officials confirmed that they are considering referring Ireland to the ECJ to close any loopholes in its national law.

If the commission refers the Government to the ECJ and wins its case at the Luxembourg court, the Government may be forced to change its national law. If it refuses to comply with a ruling and change its law, Ireland could face punitive fines.

EMAIL stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu Read the rest of this entry »