Destruction of Tara Temporarily Halted by Protest

Con­struc­tion was held up on Fri 18th on the con­tro­ver­sial M3 in the Tara Val­ley by a peace­ful demon­stra­tion. A small group of con­cerned active cit­i­zens con­gre­gat­ed at Rath Lugh at 5:30am. Rath Lugh is one of the sev­en out­er defence forts of Tara which is only approx­i­mate­ly 150m from the new­ly dis­cov­ered Nation­al Mon­u­ment at Lis­mullen. When work­ers arrived at 6:10am, they were unable to get their vehi­cles on site and gath­ered on the N3. The work­ers seemed unaware that the carpark they were using is the new­ly closed arche­o­log­i­cal site at Roestown.

Accord­ing to the maps, the pro­posed route of the mon­strous motor­way was sup­posed to avoid the beau­ti­ful iron-age Hill Fort and Coillte For­est. How­ev­er, since this sec­tion of the route was fenced off in Decem­ber, the removal of ancient trees on the side of the rath has cre­at­ed a cliff face of the hill. The NRA plan on rais­ing the lev­el of the motor­way to the top of the rise. This would result in it no longer being vis­i­ble from the hill of Tara and iso­lat­ing it from the Tara com­plex. Rath Lugh is a list­ed Nation­al Mon­u­ment, but was con­ve­nient­ly not marked on the last Ord­nance Sur­vey map.

The demon­stra­tors stood at two gates, one at Roestown on the East of the N3 and the oth­er at Treret at the entrance to the Berril­stown archae­o­log­i­cal com­plex. When work­ers arrived at 6:10am, they were unable to get their vehi­cles on site and gath­ered on the N3. The Assis­tant Project Man­ag­er for the M3 made him­self known to the peace­ful demon­stra­tors. He seemed shocked as most peo­ple are to learn of the extent of the unre­solved archae­ol­o­gy still sit­ting in the path of the 6‑lane motor­way. The work­ers seemed unaware that the carpark they were using is the new­ly closed arche­o­log­i­cal site at Roestown.

This was a mag­nif­i­cent sub­ter­ranean­com­plex with cir­cu­lar stone cham­bers joined by archi­tec­tural­ly per­fect tun­nels from the 6th Cen­tu­ry AD. Quartz cap­stones from this site were found in a ditch two weeks ago by a local per­son. This is an exam­ple of the prac­tice of NRA archae­ol­o­gy.

Con­struc­tion can­not be allowed to con­tin­ue in the val­ley until a full inde­pen­dent archae­o­log­i­cal assess­ment of the route through the val­ley is under­tak­en. NRA archae­ol­o­gists have proven them­selves inad­e­quate in their pro­fes­sions through allow­ing them­selves be pres­sured into pre­ma­ture con­clu­sion of their stud­ies. The pace at which they closed up the sites in April was ridicu­lous and the amount of archae­ol­o­gy still vis­i­ble in the ground is insult­ing and unac­cept­able. This is dis­ap­point­ing yet not sur­pris­ing con­sid­er­ing the NRA have no hard ethics pol­i­cy. The con­trac­tor who has com­menced con­struc­tion in the val­ley is How­ley Con­struc­tion. Their con­tract is worth 650 mil­lion euro. Can a price be put on the his­to­ry and knowl­edge that is being denied and lost with­in this 6–9km stretch of the motor­way alone.

When guards were called to the scene they informed the work­ers that as it was a peace­ful demon­stra­tion they had a right to protest. After sev­er­al hours of these envi­ron­men­tal and cul­tur­al activists hold­ing the space the con­struc­tion work­ers ripped down a fence adja­cent to the entrance but were unable to gain vehic­u­lar access. There was also a piti­ful dis­play of pigeon-chest­ed­ness by a lone work­er in a mini-dig­ger dig­ging ran­dom holes. After the demon­stra­tors moved to allow a local farmer access to cross the route to his cat­tle the posse of idle con­struc­tion work­ers realised that the didle-idle demon­stra­tors were not restrict­ing them from walk­ing on site. At 11:00am approx­i­mate­ly they start­ed a few heavy machin­ery on site but appeared to have run out of diesel after a cou­ple of hours. The space was held at the two gates by the deter­mined joy­ful group ’til mid-day today, over 30 hours lat­er. No destruc­tion or con­struc­tion was done in the val­ley today.

Large cement pipes which were unable to be unloaded at Roestown were then dropped on the archae­o­log­i­cal site at Col­lier­stown. As the con­struc­tion work­ers are using the access points for the archae­o­log­i­cal sites, these are the first areas to be demol­ished. This strate­gic destruc­tion of the sites gives urgency to the need for con­struc­tion to be halt­ed imme­di­ate­ly in the val­ley while their des­tiny is being decid­ed. The cement pipes at Col­lier­stown are only feet away from the piles of dis­card­ed grave­stones at the edge of the site. All fenc­ing and site signs have been removed apart from a lone archae­o­log­i­cal sign in Pol­ish strewn in the stream that pass­es through the dis­man­tled grave­yard. Bones and teeth are still vis­i­ble in the top­soil.

This mon­u­men­tal dis­as­ter must be avert­ed. The ter­ri­fy­ing mag­ni­tude of the sit­u­a­tion where the destruc­tion and denial of our nation­al land­marks of iden­ti­ty for the per­son­al eco­nom­ic gain of a few already very rich peo­ple is beyond com­pre­hen­sion.

Two local farm­ers stopped at the demon­stra­tion yes­ter­day. One said that, since he received his let­ter of CPO in the post from Meath Coun­ty Coun­cil four years ago, he has nev­er signed his name to any con­tract or piece of paper. Last Mon­day, machin­ery moved onto his land. The oth­er farmer explained how 15 acres of his land has now been iso­lat­ed from his farm on the oth­er side of the route and no access point has been pro­vid­ed.

The fact that it is gov­ern­men­tal manip­u­la­tion of com­mu­ni­ty needs, vague and watery plan­ning process­es, the poten­tial fal­si­fi­ca­tion of Envi­ron­men­tal Impact State­ments and the dnial of the integri­ty of count­less nation­al and world lead­ing inde­pen­dent archae­ol­o­gists and his­to­ri­ans is beyond pathet­ic. The fact that the motor­way won’t even solve the traf­fic con­ges­tion and could only get the com­muters to the tail­back going into Dublin 10 min­utes quick­er and that it is all being built by the Pub­lic Pri­vate Part­ner­ship and would have two tolls of €2.80+ on it is beyond a joke.

Who the féck do they think they are?
http://www.savetara.com/Roestown/

—————————————————-

A small num­ber of envi­ron­men­tal activists are hold­ing con­struc­tion work­ers at bay on the pro­posed M3.
They need help as quick­ly and as soon as pos­si­ble.
On the Navan side of Dun­shaugh­lin take a left turn, they are main­ly sit­u­at­ed on the Dunshaughlin/Dunsany road.
Ring the activist phone: 0861758557 for spe­cif­ic direc­tions.
Work must be stopped until the elec­tion is over at least — and then there may be a chance for Tara.

5pm Mon­day May 21st — activists being fenced in:
News just com­ing in that at least one group of activists block­ing an entrance have
had a fence built around them this after­noon.
More details as they arrive.

————

Gate­keep­ers still hold­ing

At 6pm today there were 4 gates occu­pied.

————

PRESS RELEASE — TARA — Work Halt­ed along Con­tro­ver­sial Stretch of Motor­way

Today in the Tara Skryne Val­ley a num­ber of envi­ron­men­tal activists pre­vent­ed machin­ery from exit­ing con­struc­tion depots along a con­tro­ver­sial stretch of the pro­posed M3 motor­way. The pro­test­ers main­tain that no work should be ongo­ing along the route until direc­tions are issued by Min­is­ter Roche regard­ing the new nation­al mon­u­ment at Lis­mullen. Two weeks ago a mas­sive henge, 80mts in diam­e­ter, was dis­cov­ered along the route through the Val­ley. Indi­ca­tions are that the henge was a cer­e­mo­ni­al site con­nect­ed to the Hill of Tara. No work took place along the con­test­ed stretch before lunchtime today.

The pro­test­ers, mem­bers of the ‘Tara Sol­i­dar­i­ty Vig­il’ along with a num­ber of locals block­ad­ed gates along the exist­ing N3 pre­vent­ing heavy machin­ery from enter­ing the site. Accord­ing to Don­agh Maguire, one of the pro­test­ers ‘A nation­al mon­u­ment has been dis­cov­ered along this stretch of the road and all con­struc­tion should be halt­ed pend­ing the Minister’s direc­tions. We will not allow this mon­u­ment to be destroyed in the same way that a num­ber of oth­er impor­tant sites have been destroyed over the last few months. While the coun­try is obsessed with the elec­tion the NRA are attempt­ing to qui­et­ly bull­doze through the Val­ley. We will not allow this to hap­pen.’

The Cam­paign to Save Tara, an umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing the major­i­ty of groups opposed to the M3 said it under­stood and sup­port­ed the actions of the pro­test­ers. Michael Can­ney of the cam­paign said ‘We ful­ly under­stand and sup­port the actions of the pro­test­ers today, many sites have already been destroyed and it is very impor­tant that the pub­lic are made aware that we could be sleep­walk­ing into a cat­a­stro­phe for the coun­ty and the coun­try if the NRA are not close­ly mon­i­tored.’

ENDS

Don­agh Maguire 0861758557 (in the Tara/Skryne Val­ley)

—————————————————-

TARA SOS — Pro­tes­tors being assault­ed by M3 motor­way work­ers. Ambu­lance called.
Tue May 22, 2007

Please come to Roestown as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.
Pro­test­ers at Tara being man­han­dled by the work­ers, includ­ing the
assis­tant project man­ag­er of SIAC. An ambu­lance has been called for one
of the young women who has been injured by the work­ers. The Gar­dai are
stand­ing by and have allowed the work­ers to take the law into their own
hands.
A young pro­test­er said:“The work­ers have ille­gal­ly ploughed through 2
hedges to make a new entrance, they have assault­ed the pro­test­ers,
because of the non reac­tion of the gar­dai and a young female pro­test­er
has been thrown and dragged around the place and now needs med­ical
atten­tion”.
Why are try­ing to begin work in the Val­ley before the elec­tion? Why not
at Clonee? What is the rush with work in the Val­ley?

————

Wed:
It is dif­fi­cult to know how to describe what hap­pened today. We have hun­dreds of pho­tos and also video footage. To give a resume -
activists manned gates around the Roestown com­pound indi­vid­u­al­ly. They slept there last night. They were joined by mem­ber of the pub­lic dur­ing the day.
Some points need to be empha­sised:
one young man was bad­ly assault­ed in front of gar­daí as the SIAC man­ag­er urged on the How­ley work­ers (the con­trac­tors on this sec­tion) to get him out of the way.
anoth­er young woman was thrown out of the way and hurt in the head etc.
anoth­er young man was thrown aside by the How­ley work­ers
These by and large are ordi­nary work­ing men — try­ing to earn a liv­ing. They have been told that they will be fired if they join a union. They did not get this job or take it on the under­stand­ing that they would have to behave as bul­ly boys for the NRA.
Pro­test­ers were bul­lied, injured, pushed, intim­i­dat­ed, dis­missed by the pow­ers that be. The guards stood back as they were assault­ed.
But when they realised that ordi­nary mem­bers of the pub­lic and uni­ver­si­ty lec­tur­ers were present the atti­tude changed — so there is a great need for “ordi­nary peo­ple” to be present at this protest.
The elec­tion hap­pens on Thurs­day — they want to destroy the Val­ley before there is a pos­si­ble change of Gov­ern­ment. The small­er par­ties have promised to move the road or to review the route or the whole motor­way project. They are deter­mined to bull­doze the Val­ley before then. We have to stop them. Now is the time to act for Tara.
The con­trac­tors are deter­mined to attack the Val­ley — that means Col­lier­stown, Baron­stown, Lis­mullin -
The activists need your help.
It is quite amaz­ing how one per­son, two peo­ple at a gate can stop them.
This is the pow­er of one, two, three … but we need you all now. If you care about Tara — now is the time to act.
Watch­ing three peo­ple being threat­ened by a revers­ing lowlow­der into a small space, revers­ing into them was the most fright­en­ing expe­ri­ence of my life.
We need the aca­d­e­mics there — the work­ers, the chiefs, the guards act dif­fer­ent­ly when they are there.
Pho­tos to fol­low tomor­row …
Please pass this mes­sage on. This is the place where all is hap­pen­ing. You have seen the aeri­als … you know what they want to destroy … stop them now!
Roestown/ Collierstown/ Baronstown/ Lismullin/ .….….….….….…..

for infor­ma­tion ring:
086 1758557
087–9249510
087 3171572