TARATARATARA - NEWS and LINKS  

Ist week -Mar 2008

by Michael Martin - TaraWatch Aoine Feabh 29, 2008 17:57

Engineers working on the controversial M3 section near RAth Lugh recently claimed that they are entitled to extent the construction site across the location of the historical well.
The well dates back to at least the 18th century, and has been used well into the 19th century for religious ceremonies. It is considered to be one of Ireland's sacred wells, but unfortunately does not enjoys any legal protection at the moment. We are calling on John Gormleyl, Minister for the Environment, to include the well in the Temporary Protection Order he has issued for a small section of the esker known as Rath Lugh.

Historical Well at Rath Lugh

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86406

Lia Fail, Tara via Scenes of Ireland (and more) October 31st, 2007 at 02:09

View from the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny at Tara, across the countryside (south-west facing); hard to believe that this wonderful place is under threat from a motorway, the peace there on sunday morning was indescribable. In a few months there will be noise and light pollution and the landscape will be dissected by a monstrosity of a road. Shame on...

In Ireland, irish, Meath, celtic, Tara, Rural, lia fail, Heritage

http://www.irishblogs.ie/categories/heritage/

Tara

Tamhair , Teamar

what does the name mean ...?

The Folklore Socitey

http://www.folklore-society.com/aboutus/howtojoin.asp

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1117  

http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/marcellavee/Tides/?start=40

Heaney claims motorway near Tara - desecrates sacred landscape By - Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.

POET AND Nobel laureate Séamus Heaney has described the M3 motorway as a ruthless desecration of the sacred landscape around the Hill of Tara, in a BBC documentary to be broadcast today at 11.30am on Radio Ulster, writes Frank McDonald , Environment Editor.

In the same programme, Dr. Jonathan Foyle, British chief executive of the World Monuments Fund, which placed Tara on its endangered sites list last year, likened the motorway to the destruction by Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001 of the Bamiyan Buddhas.

In his interview with BBC reporter Diarmaid Fleming, Prof. Heaney said the motorway "literally desecrates an area - I mean the word means to desacralise' and, for centuries, the Tara landscape and the Tara sites have been regarded as part of the sacred ground".

Referring to the 1916 Proclamation having summoned the Irish people "in the name of the dead generations", he said: "If ever there was a place that deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations from pre-historic times . . . it was Tara".

Prof. Heaney added: "I suppose Tara means something equivalent to me to what Delphi means to the Greeks or maybe Stonehenge to an English person or Nara in Japan . . .It conjures up what they call in Irish dúchas, a sense of belonging a sense of patrimony, a sense of an ideal.

"The traces on Tara are in the grass, in the earth. They aren't spectacular like temple ruins in Greece but they are about origin, they're about beginning, they're about the mythological, spiritual source - something that gives the country its distinctive spirit".

He recalled that WB Yeats, George Moore and Arthur Griffith had written a letter to The Irish Times complaining that the British Israelites, who thought the Ark of the Covenant was buried at Tara, were desecrating a "consecrated landscape" by digging there.

"So, I thought to myself, if a few holes in the ground made by amateur archaeologists was a desecration, what's happening to that whole countryside being ripped up [for the M3] is certainly a much more ruthless piece of work", Prof. Heaney said.

According to Dr. Foyle, the entire Tara complex "is the equivalent of Stonehenge, Westminster Abbey for its royal associations and Canterbury for its Christian associations all rolled into one" yet it was being destroyed "to shave 20 minutes off a journey time".

© The Irish Times, 1st. March 2008.

http://www.sinnfein.ie/realaudio/GerryAdamsPresidentialAddress.mp3

Save the Hill of Tara from the M3 Motorway!
http://www.tarawatch.org

The Hill of Tara

From: The Times June 27 1902
To: The Editor of The Times (London)

Sir- We have just returned from a visit to the Hill of Tara, where we found that the work of destruction, abandoned a year or two ago, has begun again. Labourers are employed to dig through the mounds and ditches that mark the siteof the ancient Royal duns and houses. We saw them digging and shovelling without any supervision, hopelessly mixing the different layers of earth and altering the contour of the hill.

This is not being done through any antiquarian zeal; but; appartently, that the sect which believes the English to be descended from the Ten Tribes may find the Ark of the Covenant

We are assured that the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland can do nothing in this case, for by the Ancients Monuments Protection Act of 1882 they can only interfere when the “owner” has himself “constituted” them “the guardians of the monument.”

All we can do under the circumstances is to draw the attention of the public to this desecration. Tara is, because of its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its destruction will leave many bitter memories behind

the missing Folklore Report -

this was one of the conditions of the original Planning Approval  - but it does not appear to exist
www.m3motorway.ie/Publications/file,1751,en.pdf   

Documents

• Inspectors report 1 (MS2/RMS2004-PART2.pdf, PDF Format 809kB)              TEXT
• Inspectors report 2 (MS2/RMS2004-PART3A.pdf, PDF Format 858kB)           TEXT
• Inspectors report 3 (MS2/RMS2004-PART3B.pdf, PDF Format 939kB)          TEXT
• Inspectors report 4 (MS2/RMS2004-PART4.pdf, PDF Format 1296kB)           TEXT
• Inspectors report 5 (MS2/RMS2004-PART5.pdf, PDF Format 924kB)            TEXT
• Inspectors report 6 (MS2/RMS2004.pdf, PDF Format 818kB)                         TEXT

http://www.tarataratara.net/resources/Reports/Pleanala/index.htm

Tara Belfast Update 07

This SHOULD have gone  out as soon as we got back from the Causeway on Sunday
but the excitement the weather and a bug were too much and I went under so it never got written -

It turns out we were on UTV on Saturday - sat outside the Green Party Conference

 and for anyone - most people - who missed it , I hope it was making the point that although it may not have been John Gormleys idea - he IS currently the Minister  in whose care Heritage and Environment are supposed to be

and so he should be taking care of Heritage and Environment

That the argument that in Goverment the Greens are working on legistlation so this can not happen  "  Again " is somewhat meaningless when something unique and irreplaceable is being destroyed

That it is Important ..it is Happening Now

That there are many precedents of a Government rethinking the decisions of their predessors

That he should be ordering a new Environmental Impact Assessment in the light of New Circumstances

That the issues around Tara are entirely relevant to every single Green issue

That asking for Tara to be declared a World Heritage Site - and the Gabhra valley into a National Park dedicated to Sustainable Development would be a good thing to do  Environmentally - Culturaly -  Spritually - and in the long run - Economically

...I dont expect all of that was on the 30 second  TV clip though  ; )

~\|/~

Carmel Hanna ( SDLP MLA fo South Belfast ) has tabled a motion to Stormont to protest the destruction to the Gabhra Valley  and ask for support for Tara - there is NO reason that any party should not give this - to say that it is a Cross-Community campaign is just silly - of COURSe it is !

 it is about preserving a history from before any idea of  " two communities " was ever thought of

It is both All-Ireland

All - These - Islands

Cross-Border and Cross-Water

Tara does NOT belong to Meath County Council

any more than the statues of the Buddha at Bamiyan belonged to the Taliban
and the Irish Government is already being taken to court by the EU for failing to protect her own Heritage

It doesnt OWN it ! - it belongs also to all these Islands - Europe and to the World and is irreplaceable

 We Do Not Inherit Earth From our Ancestors - we Borrow it from Our Children

but we do need to write to MLAs to put this case ....  to newspapers etc as well

~\|/~

The Sunday 17th Day of Solidarity went wonderfuly well ; ) ---- although small in numbers - and not of course to plan

Ive written up something about it on
http://www.tarataratara.net/Tara_Blfst._OisinsGrave.htm
and hopefully it will be part of a film - but whether it will or not - it was a fabulous day  ; )

A few of us met at the cafe at the Black Box on Wednesday  - and we have decided to do this again
that is to go out to various places around the North with Historical connections of various kinds to Tara
Partly as a kind of Spiritual Journey
but we hope to document it in some way and use it in some way to give support to the Campaign to protect Tara
by researching and highlighting connections to the North

... we do have ideas but all Input very welcome ....

In practical terms what we will do is gather outside St Annes Cathedral at 11 am on Sundays  - and get as many people as possible into as many cars as we have - and - just go

This Sunday it will be to Downpatrick - next ...? who knows ...?
as usual - NO idea  what we will do there - but we are busy researching .....

Oh - all are welcome to join us ..especially if you have a car ! - if not we will do what we can to sqeeze you in to someone else's though of course we cant promise

~\|/~

 re/  we would like to do more - a concert  - something Theatrical and/or a ceremony at Dunseverick ( Dun Sohairce ) - or perhaps at the Causeway

We can probably gather musicians poets actors  etc - some are offering -  but realistically we would need someone capable of co-ordinating this

...anyone any ideas ..?

~\|/~

Oh - I have resigned from the role of Organiser of the TaraBelfast Solidarity Group  - or would have - if there was any Organised group to resign TO

...this is unlikely to make much difference  
..we still exist - and we are still going toDownpatrick on Sunday  8-)

~\|/~

possibly a protest in Dublin on Monday - if so details will be on the www.tarawatch.org  site

and go up onto the front page of http://www.tarataratara.net

~\|/~

there is a heap of things happening at and to Tara at the moment - if I try to explain it all then this update will never go out and it is overdue already as there will be a Belfast Tara meeting - of some kind

tommorow  ( Saturday )at St Georges market
meeting at Mullans Organic Farm stall at 2pm

.... and then finding a quietish table at the side of the market

but more info re / what is going on at Tara  from the usual sources

http://www.savetara.com
http://www.tarawatch.org
http://www.indymedia.ie   and search for " Tara "
specifically http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86349
http://www.tarapixie.net ( activists site )

  and http://www.tarataratara.net  which is my site and where anything specific to the North will most likely go

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and the usual - this list is a mixture of people who asked to be on it and some people I just knew anyway   - please do let me know if you dont want to be on it and Ill take you straight off

or if you know anyone who might be interested - please send it to them

...or if someone sends you this and you DO want to be on the list - just let me know

hope everyone enjoyed the eclipse ; ) and hope to see some of you either tommorow or on Sunday

xxx
Anita

anitagreg@gmail.com