On site reports from the trenches at Rath Lugh

Mon­day 25th Feb­ru­ary:
There are fences across the pro­posed route each side of the Rath Lugh woods. At around 8am this morn­ing a mem­ber of the Rath Lugh camp heard machin­ery pass­ing by the rath. 6 of us went out and saw 2 dump trucks and 2 dig­gers out­side the fence, com­ing from the Baron­stown direc­tion. Each dig­ger was 40 tonnes, and want­ed to dri­ve though at the same time! A large crowd of SIAC, Fer­rovial and Wills Bros work­ers were present, 2 mem­bers of the Gar­da Siochana were also present, both in incom­plete uni­forms; they did­n’t wear hats, one of them was­n’t dis­play­ing his ID num­ber on his shoul­der. We explained no machin­ery would be pass­ing by Rath Lugh, that the area is pre­served and it is a crim­i­nal offence to inter­fere with or dam­age a nation­al mon­u­ment. The weight and vibra­tions of the machin­ery will affect the mon­u­ment on the esker, and so endan­ger all of Rath Lugh. The work­ers took absolute­ly no heed of any­thing we told them.

Rath Lugh destructionMon­day 25th Feb­ru­ary:
There are fences across the pro­posed route each side of the Rath Lugh woods. At around 8am this morn­ing a mem­ber of the Rath Lugh camp heard machin­ery pass­ing by the rath. 6 of us went out and saw 2 dump trucks and 2 dig­gers out­side the fence, com­ing from the Baron­stown direc­tion. Each dig­ger was 40 tonnes, and want­ed to dri­ve though at the same time! A large crowd of SIAC, Fer­rovial and Wills Bros work­ers were present, 2 mem­bers of the Gar­da Siochana were also present, both in incom­plete uni­forms; they did­n’t wear hats, one of them was­n’t dis­play­ing his ID num­ber on his shoul­der. We explained no machin­ery would be pass­ing by Rath Lugh, that the area is pre­served and it is a crim­i­nal offence to inter­fere with or dam­age a nation­al mon­u­ment. The weight and vibra­tions of the machin­ery will affect the mon­u­ment on the esker, and so endan­ger all of Rath Lugh. The work­ers took absolute­ly no heed of any­thing we told them.

Pro­test­ers climbed onto the machin­ery to peace­ful­ly block­ade their path. The rest of us stood in front of the machines. The Gar­dai took our names and address­es. acThe pro­test­ers on the machin­ery climbed off the machines, because one con­struc­tion work­er tried to for­ca­bly pull a male pro­test­er off the dig­ger. The female pro­test­er was walk­ing towards the Rath, when she was man­han­dled by the Gar­da with no hat, car or ID num­ber on his shoul­der. The Gar­dai did­n’t give her a cau­tion but arrest­ed her straight away. He hand­cuffed her and when we ques­tioned him, he men­tioned OPERATION BEDROCK. He then attempt­ed to drag her to Mark Cleary’s jeep, as there was no squad car to be seen. We imme­di­ate­ly object­ed to this ille­gal arrest, but the Gar­dai kept pulling her, even through she was vis­i­bly upset. There were no female Gar­dai present, we expressed our con­cerns about a young female being tak­en off site by 2 extreme­ly unpro­fes­sion­al Gar­dai and dri­ven off in a vio­lent man’s jeep (Mark Cleary’s. Pho­tos of this man can be seen on this site, or Indymedia.ie, his dri­ves a white jeep and his reg­is­tra­tion plate is 07 D 60531).

The Gar­dai final­ly seemed to under­stand our wor­ries about this ille­gal arrest, and decid­ed to walk her off the site and take her to Navan Gar­da Sta­tion in their squad car, which for some unknown rea­son was parked down the route near Baron­stown. I walked with the female pro­test­er and the 2 Gar­dai towards Baron­stown. She was hand­cuffed behind her back, and when the wind was blow­ing dust in her eyes, they would­n’t free her so she could wipe the dust out. It’s worth not­ing that this site has had its top­soil removed and is com­pact­ed earth with lime to dry out the ground. They joked rather insen­si­tive­ly I should wipe her eyes instead! When I asked the Gar­da with no ID why he men­tioned OPERATION BEDROCK, he refused to com­ment. Final­ly we arrived at their squad car, but a Pad­dy Wag­on was there, and around 8 men in plain clothes wear­ing Gar­da Siochana wind cheater jack­ets. When I asked them why they weren’t in full uni­form they explained they were plain clothes Gar­dai. I again expressed my con­cerns about this dodgy crowd tak­ing one of our young female pro­test­ers away, and request­ed I come with her, for her own health and safe­ty. They refused imme­di­ate­ly, one Bean Gar­da was extreme­ly snap­py, explain­ing the female pro­test­er would be safe with her. I said this was exact­ly what I was wor­ried about and asked would they hand­cuff me so I could accom­pa­ny my col­leage. The same Bean Gar­da said I have often made my own way to Navan in the past when need­ed be. The Gar­da did­n’t uncuff my col­leage in the back of the car, so when they braked sud­den­ly she hurt her back and now needs med­ical atten­tion.

We made our way back to the front line at Rath Lugh and were about to head into the Gar­da Sta­tion in Navan when we got an urgent phone call from the front line. A doz­er was at the left fence, com­ing from Baron­stown direc­tion. A small­er dig­ger was work­ing on a spoil heap a few feet away from the esker. We imme­di­ate­ly block­ad­ed the machin­ery peace­ful­ly to pre­vent them work­ing. All of the SIAC, Fer­rovial and Wills Bros were sit­ting in their jeeps as it was hail­ston­ing and extreme­ly windy. A Gar­da jeep approached from Lis­mullen, with the same 2 Gar­dai who arrest­ed my col­leage an hour ear­li­er. The bald Gar­da with­out his ID num­ber ear­li­er now had his ID dis­played, obvi­ous­ly he realised he made an ille­gal arrest ear­li­er. We hand­ed them the Rath Lugh Preser­va­tion Order, which they accept­ed. The Gar­da who dis­played his ID num­ber explained the doz­er would be pass­ing throught to Lis­mullen, but he was stop­ping the dig­ger from work­ing until the mat­ter of the Preser­va­tion Order is clear­er. We blocked the esker from being harmed as the doz­er passed by s to the Lis­mullen site. When asked about the plain clothes Gar­dai, the Gar­da denied their exis­tence. When I remind­ed hiym I spoke to the plain clothes Gar­dai myself, he cor­rect­ed him­self. He said they were on stand­by. On stand­by for what we asked, explain­ing our own health and safe­ty is of para­mount impor­tance. He refused to com­ment fur­ther.

6 con­struc­tion work­ers approached the front line ben­der, took mea­sure­ments around the perime­ter fence of the ben­der, using sur­vey­ing equip­ment. Con­struc­tion work­ers in jeeps attempt­ed to dri­ve past Rath Lugh again from Baron­stown to Lis­mullen, but the Gar­dai refused them per­mis­sion, until the Preser­va­tion Order mat­ter is clear­er.

I am now on going to bring the female pro­test­er who got released to hos­pi­tal for med­ical atten­tion.

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Update lunchtime:

Sit­u­a­tion Crit­i­cal as more machin­ery is arriv­ing. 4 machines were allowed pass Rath Lugh in sin­gle file ear­li­er en route to Lis­mullin. They have cho­sen this route to enter onto the Henge. Now 3 machines are sta­tioned at Rath Lugh threat­en­ing to begin work in that area. There has been no reply from Gorm­ley’s office despite sev­er­al requests this morn­ing in regard to the Tem­po­rary Preser­va­tion Order and for con­fir­ma­tion of the bound­aries of same ‚which seem now to be unclear.

Please sup­port , BE PRESENT, con­tact all inter­est­ed bod­ies, make com­plaints, spread the word, do what you can but do it Now!

The female Pro­tec­tor has been released. No details of charges yet.

Rath Lugh Camp Phone : 0861537146

Vig­il Camp Phone: 0861758557

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Video of Stand­off at Rath­lugh today and the arrest of a pro­tes­tor.