M3 protesters focus on Gormley’s Unesco plan
ICOMOS International: World Heritage Day 2008 Description
ICOMOS Ireland: Main Objectives of the company
Kashmir News: On World Heritage Day, students wake up to Kashmir heritage ‘vandalism’
M3 protesters focus on Gormley’s Unesco plan
The Irish Times – 19 April 2008
RENEWED CALLS to reroute the M3 motorway from the valleys of Tara and Skryne in Co Meath have been made in response to Minister for the Environment John Gormley’s recent comments on the site. The Minister said last week he did not see the planned M3 motorway preventing the Hill of Tara from being nominated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) world heritage site. He said he believed it would be possible to take a series of initiatives to preserve the Gabhra Valley between the Hill of Tara and the Hill of Skryne. Campaigners believe Tara would struggle to achieve the status Mr Gormley desires because of the nature of the works.
Vincent Salafia of Tarawatch said the Minister’s proposal had created an opportunity to revisit the whole issue. “We’re calling on Unesco to designate the Tara site and to insist that the motorway be rerouted from the area.”
Mr Salafia said the designation of Tara as a world heritage site could drum up international support. “International pressure is our best hope for saving Tara. If Ireland wants to use Unesco to help deliver tourists to world heritage sites in Ireland, they must enforce Unesco standards of preservation in those areas.” He also said there was a possibility that another legal challenge to try to reroute the motorway would take place.
His comments came yesterday on International Day for Monuments and Sites 2008, which was marked by a World Heritage Forum at Trinity College, Dublin. The theme for the forum, which focused heavily on the Hill of Tara situation, was “Religious Heritage and Sacred Places”.
Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College, asked why the Minister had left it until this late stage to seek Unecso status for the Tara site when archaeological evidence of the site’s historic wealth had been present for so long. Speaking last week, Mr Gormley said his department had engaged Dr Jukka Jokilehto, a Finnish-born conservation expert, to visit Tara and the other sites on what is known as the “tentative list” for Unesco.
- By STEVEN CARROLL
WRITE TO lettersed@irish-times.ie / independent.letters@unison.independent.ie
UNESCO status is only a distraction
Irish Independent – Letter to the Editor
Tuesday April 22 2008
I AM writing in relation to Environment Minister John Gormley’s calls for the Tara Skryne Valley to be considered for nomination to UNESCO’s World Heritage List (Irish Independent, April 12).This list represents cultural and natural heritage properties of “Outstanding Universal Value” from signatory nations to the World Heritage Convention. It also affords a veil of protection to these sites by requiring that they are managed in a way which will preserve their value for future generations.
As one of Ireland’s most eminent and important historical sites, the Tara Skryne Valley, I believe, meets UNESCO criteria and clearly demonstrates this “Outstanding Universal Value”.
However, central to this is the notion of integrity, which signifies the “wholeness” or “intactness” of the site and is the benchmark upon which it may be inscribed to the list.
It is interesting therefore to consider Mr Gormley’s intentions to have Tara nominated to the list when it will clearly be in breach of one of its central tenets.
The proposed M3 motorway which passes within 1km of the Hill of Tara has already brought with it irrevocable destruction of our most sacred of landscapes.
Its cultural and historical value to the Irish people is deserving of a national recognition and protection, before international recognition.
No inscription to the World Heritage List will legitimise the ongoing work of the M3 motorway through the Tara Skryne Valley, nor will it bestow an air of respectability upon the office of Mr Gormley.
It would also not serve the credibility of UNESCO well to inscribe a site which at present is witnessing an erosion of the very qualities for which it is proposed it should be listed.
I can only hope that bringing UNESCO’s attention to the matter will encourage the rerouting of the motorway to a more suitable site, of which there are many, and bring with it future inscription to the World Heritage list, which it deserves.
I can also only wish that Mr Gormley will emerge from behind the distraction World Heritage status offers and make a decision in the best interests of our nation and our heritage.
IAN LACEY
GOREY, CO WEXFORD & UCD