08.08.07
Protesters blocking Lismullin moved on by gardaí
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Nine News: Richard Dowling, North-East Correspondent, reports that despite protests the excavation at Lismullen in Co Meath has begun
Six One News: Richard Dowling, North-East Correspondent, reports excavation work at the national monument found in the path of the M3 has begun
One News: Richard Dowling, North-East Correspondent, reports that demonstrators did not prevent the start of excavation at the site
Morning Ireland: Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch says he believes there may be protestors who will not let archaeologists enter the site today
Morning Ireland: Dr Conor Newman, archaeology lecturer at NUI Galway and a member of the Lismullen Advisory Committee, says the site needs to be excavated because it is being washed away
Protesters blocking Lismullin moved on by gardaí
The Irish Times – Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Ronan McGreevy
Protesters blocked access to the national monument at Lismullin, Co Meath, yesterday just before controversial excavation work began at the site.
Fifteen demonstrators formed a human chain which blocked the only access road into the site. They prevented workers going on site for 45 minutes yesterday morning, but were moved on after being threatened with arrest by gardaí.
Excavation work on the national monument at Lismullin was given the go-ahead last Thursday by Minister for the Environment John Gormley’s Lismullin advisory committee.
Mr Gormley’s chief adviser on Tara, Dr Conor Newman, said the site was “literally washing away” from the deluge of rain this summer.
He said it was the unanimous decision of the committee that the excavation should take place as the Lismullin henge was showing signs of rapid disintegration since it was uncovered earlier this year.
He told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that the disintegration of the henge was being caused by a combination of the unprecedented amount of rain and the gradient of the site.
“I would be much happier to say to you that the monument would be preserved in situ and that was my earnest desire myself until I inspected the site itself and saw the types of conditions under which it was trying to survive.”
Dr Newman said that if Mr Gormley put a preservation order on the site, it would be of no use in the circumstances.
“We’re at a situation now where, under ideal circumstances, the site would be covered over again and there would be no prospect of any development at all. The problem is that the site is not sufficiently robust to be covered at all, regardless of what might happen in the short term,” he said.
The Lismullin henge was discovered earlier this year and the announcement of its discovery came just a day after the then minister for transport, Martin Cullen, turned the sod on the €850 million road project in May.
The semicircular enclosure, which has a diameter of about 80m, dates from between 380 BC and 520 BC and is thought to have been some kind of ceremonial site.
Initial excavations of the site also revealed a ring ditch, which is a prehistoric burial site, a souterrain, which carried water, and corn-drying kilns dotted around it.
Former minister for the environment Dick Roche used the National Monuments Act 2004 to announce the “preservation by record” of the Lismullin henge on his last day in office. It will mean that all valuable artefacts from the site will be preserved, but the site itself will be covered over to become part of the M3.
The 30-strong team of archaeologists began work at about 9am yesterday.
The initial work will involve the cleaning of individual features on the site.
That will be followed by a scale drawing and then the process of preservation by record will begin. The process is likely to take three months.
Protesters said their decision to move on when confronted by gardaí was taken because their numbers would have been diminished had any of them been arrested and bailed. “We had seven people arrested last month and a condition of their bail was that they couldn’t turn up on site any more,” said protester Aogán Delaney. “If they arrested the rest of us, it could wipe us out.”
Meanwhile, TaraWatch has sent solicitors’ letters to Mr Gormley, the National Roads Authority, Meath County Council and the Attorney General demanding that the excavation work be stopped.
TaraWatch says the National Monuments Act 2004 is contrary to EU law because it does not require a new environmental impact assessment following the discovery of the Lismullin site.
WRITE TO lettersed@irish-times.ie
Tara group vows legal action over controversial burial site dig
By Paul Melia
Wednesday August 08 2007
LEGAL action will be taken within a week to stop the excavation of a national monument site on the route of the controversial M3 motorway unless the Government orders all work to stop.
The TaraWatch campaign said that unless Environment Minister John Gormley stopped excavations by next Tuesday it would seek a High Court injunction on the basis that the works were illegal and contrary to EU law.
There were peaceful protests at the site of Lismullin national monument yesterday as archaeologists began excavating the ritual burial site discovered last May.
A decision to preserve the site ‘by record’ – meaning it will be destroyed to make way for the road – has been criticised by demonstrators who want the motorway re-routed away from the Hill of Tara.
Opponents blocked archaeologists and construction workers from entering the site. However, following the arrival of gardai the protestors ended their standoff.
Mr Gormley has appointed an expert committee to oversee the excavation works. He has repeatedly said he does not have the power to re-route the road or to leave the national monument at its current location. His predecessor, Dick Roche, ordered that the Lismullin monument be studied and destroyed to allow the motorway be constructed.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley said yesterday that unless there was a material change in circumstances, he was powerless to alter Mr Roche’s decision.
However, TaraWatch maintains otherwise, adding that the EU Commission has warned that demolition of the national monument is contrary to EU law.
The EU claims the National Monuments Act, which allows the Environment Minister to decide if a national monument should be preserved or destroyed, is contrary to EU law.
- Paul Melia
WRITE TO: independent.letters@unison.independent.ie
Expert: Part of Tara site saveable
Irish Examiner
08 August 2007
By Seán McCárthaigh
A LEADING expert on Tara Valley archaeology has suggested it may still be possible to avoid the demolition of part of the historical Lismullen site being excavated to make way for the M3 motorway.
Dr Conor Newman of NUI Galway said a section of the ancient amphitheatre, which lies outside the route of the controversial motorway, could still be kept in situ.
About a third of the Lismullen site, which was declared a national monument after it was uncovered during construction work on the M3 last March, does not form part of the area required for the construction of the motorway near the Hill of Tara.
Dr Newman, who was appointed in June by Environment Minister, John Gormley, to a committee to advise on the excavation of Lismullen, expressed hope that discussions could still be held with various authorities on how part of the site could be preserved. However, he stressed that it could be kept in situ if certain precautionary measures were taken.
He said the advisory committee had unanimously agreed that the majority of the Lismullen site had to be excavated.
“Of course, I would be much happier to say the monument was being preserved in situ but this recommendation should not be seen as giving a green light to the motorway,” said Dr Newman.
He said he would continue to campaign to have the proposed route of the M3 altered.
Meanwhile, it is expected that Tara Watch, one of the groups that took part in a peaceful demonstration at the Lismullen site yesterday, will mount another legal challenge to the M3 roadworks if there is no positive response to a solicitor’s letter sent to Mr Gormley, the National Roads Authority, the Attorney General and Meath Co Council.
WRITE TO letters@examiner.ie
Protesters are bulldozed in Tara row
Irish Independent – Letter to the Editor
By KENNETH MC GREAL,
Wednesday August 08 2007
The excavation of the prehistoric site at Lismullen in Co Meath is due to begin today to make way for the construction of the M3 motorway. I find it totally unacceptable that a previously undiscovered relic of our past, which has just been put on the list of national monuments, can be razed to the ground without some kind of independent survey being carried out.
Yes, there was an environmental impact assessment carried out on the proposed motorway route, but this was carried out by NRA archaeologists on the assumption that no monument or archaeological site would be uncovered on the proposed route.
The NRA are the bosses here, calling the shots. The people have no say. Peaceful protesters are pests in the eyes of the Fat Cats in the government. Well if this is progress, I don’t want to live to see its end, cars hurtling down the M3 every morning to pay two tolls and then join the graveyard that is the M50.
It doesn’t sound like progress to me.
Please Minister Gormley, STOP the destruction of our national monuments and renovate some of the old railway lines.
Now that’s what makes sense to me.
l Yes, it is sad and shameful that we allow such an important part of our ancient history to be destroyed. It would not be tolerated in other countries. Very generously, our government will allow that a monument be recorded. Does that mean a bronze plaque on the roadside? I must say that it’s very noble of them. What do our beloved elected ministers, TDs and senators have to say on the matter? Nothing, as far as I can see.
I am very pleased to hear that the European Commission is taking legal action against Ireland over the apparent problems with the M3 Environmental Impact Assessment in light of the Lismullen discovery. Myself, I am also very grateful to read of the TaraWatch Group and to know that some people care about their ancient history. Keep up the good work TaraWatch Group and I wish you every success. If there is anything that we abroad can do, please let us all know.
- KENNETH MC GREAL,
WRITE TO independent.letters@unison.independent.ie
Irish Examiner – Letter to the Editor
07 August 2007
HAS our long-held respect for the dead and the sanctity of graves been forgotten in the rush to progress and prosperity?
It seems so following the desecration of our ancestral graves, day in and day out, in the Gabhra Valley for the construction of a motorway.
We were once renowned as a spiritual people in a blessed land, but now we’ve become shallow and obsessed with materialism.
To quote a Jamaican hero, Marcus Garvey: “A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without its roots”.
Roibeárd McElroy
1 Oak Grove
Santry
Dublin 9
WRITE TO letters@examiner.ie
NRA seeks additional €500 million
Tim O’Brien
Irish Times
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
The National Roads Authority (NRA) is to ask the Government for an additional €500 million per year, which it claims to need to speed up delivery of the National Roads programme.
Chairman of the authority, Peter Malone, said the money could be spent bringing forward projects from the end of the Government strategy Transport 21, starting and completing them considerably ahead of schedule.
Mr Malone said the money would be spent on roads such as the N11 south of Rathnew in Co Wicklow, the N21 Adare bypass in Co Limerick, as well as the N20 bypass of Mallow in Co Cork, among others.
Currently the National Roads programme priority is to complete the inter-urban routes from Dublin to the regional cities of Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Galway.
Transport 21 provides that a western or “Atlantic Corridor” linking Donegal, via Galway, to Limerick and Cork would then be completed over the following five years. Although not strictly on the Atlantic Corridor, former transport Minister Martin Cullen was keen that Waterford would be included on this route by a motorway level link to Cork.
But last week, at the opening of the cross-border N1/A1 road, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said it had been decided at a North-South Ministerial Council meeting to prioritise further cross-border routes including remaining sections of Euroroute 01. This eastern seaboard route which encompasses the cross-border road, links Larne in Co Antrim to Rosslare, Co Wexford.
In addition, the Taoiseach has said that there is a plan to upgrade the development of the N2 to motorway standard, serving Northern Ireland and Letterkenny, bringing a motorway standard route to the northwest.
Such is the volume of road schemes currently being developed by the National Roads Authority that last year it was asked by Government to ensure that its individual schemes were not competing with each other for the attention of construction firms. Such a situation could lead to road price inflation.
But the authority told the Government that it believed the construction industry could well handle all the schemes then on offer and that in fact another €500 million a year could be spent before inflationary pressure was felt.
Now Mr Malone has decided to ask the Government for that extra €500 million a year to speed up the building programme. He told The Irish Times that the move would bring the annual budget to about €2.1 billion.
A glance at the State’s road building programme indicates that there would be no shortage of schemes on which the money could be spent.
Not counting schemes on the main inter-urban motorways, to the border, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford, there are some 123 further schemes in the National Roads programme.
The Adare bypass, mentioned by Mr Malone, is currently at planning stage. Works on the Blarney to Mallow and Mallow to Croom stretches of road are currently at final design stage.
In Co Wicklow compulsory purchase orders have already been made for a link between the Arklow bypass and a bypass of Rathnew, replacing a notorious 10-mile single carriageway route on which there are frequent fatalities.
However, regardless of the additional priorities which have been given to the authority, the Department of Transport appeared to play down the prospect of additional funding yesterday. In a statement to The Irish Times the department refers to “significant funding” already in place and warns that accelerating any project could delay others.
The statement reads: “The structure of Transport 21 funding was agreed with the Department of Finance and represents significant Exchequer funding for the sector. Based on the state of preparedness of the projects at the time of the launch, the priorities within Transport 21 take account of the funding available for each of the 10 years and of the need to keep disruption to the minimum level possible during the construction periods.
“In view of the set amount of funding available for each year, acceleration of any project would result in the deferral or slowing down of other projects in the Transport 21 framework.”