Building Works near Tara Threaten Irish National Monument — protest tunneling

These are two state­ments released by the Save Tara Cam­paign on behalf of the Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp out­lin­ing the emer­gency sit­u­a­tion at the Rath Lugh Nation­al Mon­u­ment near the Hill of Tara:

State­ment on behalf of the Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp: 7th March 2008
(For direct con­tacts see phone num­bers below)

Rath Lugh Mon­u­ment near the Hill of Tara under direct threat from M3 Motor­way build­ing works.

“The Pro­tec­tors at Rath Lugh have planned a Direct Action method used for the first time on protest sites in Ire­land. They have dug a tun­nel under the route of the M3 direct­ly in front of the Rath Lugh promon­to­ry fort in the Gabhra Val­ley, Co Meath in Ire­land.

The Pro­tec­tors intend to occu­py this tun­nel and seal them­selves inside indef­i­nite­ly to pre­vent con­struc­tion traf­fic from pass­ing over­head.

They are lay­ing their very lives on the line to pro­tect and pre­serve Tara’s land­scape from the destruc­tion wrought by their own Gov­ern­ment.

The Pro­tec­tors said: “We want to draw atten­tion to the con­tin­ued ero­sion of the esker by pass­ing con­struc­tion traf­fic, hence dam­ag­ing the base and foun­da­tion of the Rath.”

This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of their non-vio­lent direct action. The tun­nel acts like a souter­rain giv­ing the occu­pant pro­tec­tion and mak­ing it very dif­fi­cult for the ene­my to enter.”

Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp
For fur­ther infor­ma­tion ring Derek on +353 86–845 9279 or Lou on 086-
3600478

http://www.tarapixie.net

Link to the video of events 5–6 March at Rath Lugh, Lis­mullin, Co
Meath

http://www.livevideo.com/video/4819A5371FDA46BAB4A42CA1D60B2A1F/rathlugh-down-under. aspx?m_tkc=11224420

Update: Press Release — Save Tara cam­paign: 09 Mar 2008

M3 Pro­test­ers warn Gar­dai tun­nel ‘Will Col­lapse’

“A young woman has vowed to seal her­self into the tun­nel under the pro­posed route of the M3 near the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath.

Pro­test­ers were today fran­ti­cal­ly try­ing to com­mu­ni­cate to the Gar­dai, the frag­ile nature of the soil in the Rath Lugh area, and that any move­ment of heavy machin­ery in the vicin­i­ty of the Rath will col­lapse the tun­nel, with pos­si­ble fatal con­se­quences.

Min­is­ter Gorm­ley issued a per­ma­nent pro­tec­tion order on the Mon­u­ment last week. How­ev­er, nei­ther the Depart­ment of the Envi­ron­ment nor the Land Reg­istry have been able to sup­ply detailed maps of the pro­tect­ed zone. Pro­test­ers claim that the ongo­ing site works asso­ci­at­ed with con­struc­tion of the M3 Motor­way are endan­ger­ing the sta­bil­i­ty of the esker upon which Rath Lugh is built.

The Gar­dai were today asked by senior fig­ures in the Save Tara cam­paign, to do all they could to pro­tect the wel­fare of the young female pro­test­er, and in no cir­cum­stances allow the NRA or any of their con­trac­tors move heavy machin­ery in the vicin­i­ty.

‘Any evic­tion attempt by unqual­i­fied and inex­pe­ri­enced per­son­nel is like­ly to end in fail­ure, with pos­si­ble cat­a­stroph­ic con­se­quences. There are spe­cial­ist tun­nel res­cue crews that need to be con­sult­ed before any attempt is made to end this protest.’ Claimed Michael Can­ney today.”

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please con­tact; Dr. Muire­ann Ni Bhrol­chain of the Save Tara Cam­paign: +353 87–9249510

From the Rath Lugh Camp Web­site: http://www.tarapixie.net/

“The Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp is sit­u­at­ed two and a half kilo­me­tres from the Hill of Tara, on the Front Line of the pro­posed M3 between Lis­mullen and Baron­stown. We are a diverse and inter­na­tion­al group of activists work­ing togeth­er in a non-hier­ar­chal way with the aim of putting a stop to the pro­posed M3. Cur­rent­ly we are hop­ing to obtain Gaeltacht Sta­tus, as Irish is spo­ken and taught in the camp on a dai­ly basis.…..

…We par­tic­i­pate in Non Vio­lent Direct Action tac­tics in order to halt the ongo­ing destruc­tion of the Tara com­plex. The camp works with an empha­sis on the preser­va­tion of our her­itage and our cul­ture pre­dat­ing Chris­tian­i­ty for future gen­er­a­tions to appre­ci­ate and learn from. This involves blockad­ing the key routes, hence stop­ping as much machin­ery and con­struc­tion as pos­si­ble on the sites…

…Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp wel­comes all friends of Tara. We need peo­ple urgent­ly to halt the Val­ley’s destruc­tion. Every­one has a skill or tal­ent they can lend to this protest. Bring wellies, raingear, sleep­ing bags, torch, lighter, plen­ty of warm cloth­ing, and good spir­its. The protest is only going to get stronger, we will con­tin­ue to oppose the motor­way until it is moved, so come to Rath Lugh as quick­ly as you can. WE NEED YOU ALL NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Tara is call­ing, don’t ignore the call.”

On March 1st, Dr Jonathan Foyle, British chief exec­u­tive of the World Mon­u­ments Fund, which placed Tara on its endan­gered sites list last year, likened the M3 motor­way near the Hill of Tara to the destruc­tion by Afghanistan’s Tal­iban regime in 2001 of the Bamiyan Bud­dhas.

Sources: Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp Web­site:
http://www.tarapixie.net/

Save Tara: http://www.savetara.com/
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0301/1204240357176.html

With Thanks to the Rath Lugh Direct Action Camp and the Save Tara Cam­paign.

The Tara Foun­da­tion:
http://www.tara-foundation.org
mail@tara-foundation.org