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TARATARATARA - NEWS and LINKS  
  4th week -DEC-2007

 

 

weekly paste-up of some news and links arising from the campaign to Save the Tara Valley NOT com,prehensive -please see other sites on the Links page - but hope it may be useful ~
  xxx marcella   please refresh page when revisiting because      it  MAY HAVE CHANGED !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Day of Action - 8th January - details to follow .....

 

 

_\|/_

   Sunrise at Newgrange - too popular for the technology  

Friday, 21 December 2007 16:13

An attempt to use modern technology to share an ancient Irish tradition with the world failed this morning in Newgrange, Co Meath.

While the stream for this morning's Winter Solstice illumination of the passage and chamber at Newgrange was working, Heritage Ireland's web servers was unable to handle the heavy traffic during the 8am hour.

If conditions remain good, tomorrow's sun rise will also be available to view online. The star will illuminate the passage and chamber between 8.58am and 9.15am GMT.

Just 20 people are able to be in the chamber for the event. A lottery is held annually to choose the lucky few.

To watch tomorrow's webcast, just go to rte.ie/news.

 

 

SUNRISE at Newgrange

The live broadcast from Newgrange failed as servers jammed as huge numbers of people from Ireland and the whole world tuned in at 8am to see the sunrise

Our beloved Carmel was there with others

read - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/85603

  see film of the sunrise at  http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/Solstice2007/

 

Project: M3 Clonee-North of Kells Motorway Scheme
 

Findings Report Summary

M3 Motorway Scheme

 

Archaeological investigations carried out in advance of the construction of the M3 motorway has led to the excavation of 164 previously unknown sites

official report on the various site -  pictures

Metalworking at Roestown 2

" The sites discovered on the M3 provide a wealth of information about the prehistoric and medieval inhabitants of Meath and how they interacted with the landscape. The relationship of the sites with the Hill of Tara remains to be analysed but at this stage it would appear that an almost similar wealth and range of artefacts have been recovered from some of the M3 sites (e.g. the pottery at Ardsallagh 1 and the exotic Phocaean Form 3 sherds from Collierstown 1) suggesting a potential link with the hill site. The Hill of Tara’s importance and influence would have been considerable in both the prehistoric and historic periods, as it has been throughout these excavations, and it will provide a focus for much of the further study."

 

 

> Hi all,

> Got a link to this new site/magazine through the website.

> They are interested in doing something on Tara at some stage.

> http://www.wiseupjournal.com/

Muireann

The Rape of Tara, Hill of Kings

Irish Origins of Civilization
Michael TsarionTara
The Hill of Tara
Dated to approximately 2,000 years BC, it was the capital of the Celtic kings of Ireland, but was probably a site of importance in pre-Celtic times. It was named after the Arya and their Earth Goddess Eri or Ari. In Hebrew and Egyptian the word Tara means gateway or portal. It was also known as Drumcain (or “Hill of the Serpents”).
 
                    more from       http://www.wiseupjournal.com/?p=18

 

 

Letter to EU to be signed by MEPs        

      

Hi all,

This came with a covering letter dated 19 Dec from Derek Clark MEP.
Mr Clark says please use it to further our campaign.
Its apparently an initiative by Kathy Sinnott to have all MEPs sign a
joint letter or a separate one.

I shall copy it with a covering letter to all relevant Irish
Government Depts.

Had great difficulty scanning it !!
Pat

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

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The Tara landscape is one of Ireland's and Europe's most precious historical archaeological sites which is currently in the process of being destroyed to facilitate the construction of a motorway.

The European Commission has warned the Irish government that its plans to build the M3 four-lane motorway through the archaeologically rich Tara-Skryne valley are illegal within European law. The Commission is taking proceedings against the Irish government.

The landscape of Tara was this year placed on the World Monuments Fund of most endangered sites.

We are also aware of a joint-letter signed internationally by over three hundred academics stating that the royal estate of Tara is not just a central part of Irish heritage, but is of significant importance on a world heritage scale.

We, the undersigned Members of The European Parliament, are alarmed at the Irish government's destruction in July 2007 of the large early medieval settlement site at 'Baronstown in the Tara-Skryne valley.

Most shockingly, this important archaeological site was demolished by motorway constructionworkers in the middle of the night.

We also wish to express our deep concern about the future of the Celtic temple at Lismullen, a site with national monument status which is also planned to be demolished by the Irish government.

Urgent action is needed to urge the Irish government to prevent the destruction of more of our common European heritage. As was the case at Baronstown, and as is planned for Lismullen,thousands of years of our shared European culture can be wiped out in a few hours, and once gone, can never be replaced.

Given that the path of the planned M3 motorway is so rich in important archaeological monuments, we strongly urge the Irish government to alter the current motorway route, and to choose from the other available routes and viable options for the M3 motorway Instead, thereby balancing progress with conservation.

It is of the utmost importance that steps be taken to prevent,the destruction of any further ancient monuments, monuments which are part of our shared European heritage.

We believe that the Tara landscape should be preserved fully intact as the European cultural and heritage treasure that it so clearly is.

Signature of MEP

D. R. Clark

 

L ismullin woodhenge 

 

features
Lismullin Henge, Tara, Ireland Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008
by Jarrett A. Lobell

Lismullin Henge • Gabhra Valley, Ireland

Early last year, archaeologists working on the route of a controversial highway near the village of Lismullin, Ireland, stumbled across a vast Iron Age ceremonial enclosure, or henge, surrounded by two concentric walls. The 2,000-year-old site is just over a mile from the Hill of Tara, traditional seat of the ancient Irish kings and site of St. Patrick's conversion of the Irish to Christianity in the fifth century A.D. The discovery of the massive henge, measuring more than 260 feet in diameter, confirms the long-held belief that the area around the hill contains a rich complex of monuments.

[image]


(Courtesy Paula Geraghty/Save Tara Campaign)

The extraordinary amount of archaeological remains on the Hill of Tara--burial mounds, religious enclosures, stone structures, and rock art dating from the third millennium b.c. to the twelfth century A.D.--makes it Ireland's most spiritually and archaeologically significant site. Construction of the new M3 highway, meant to ease traffic congestion around Dublin, threatens not only the Hill of Tara's timeless quality, but also newly discovered archaeological sites in the surrounding valley.

Lismullin, seen at right in an aerial shot taken during excavations, and other sites that stand in the way of the new road are now approved for destruction. Although archaeologists and concerned Irish politicians are rallying support worldwide for the protection of the Hill of Tara (see www.savetara.com to learn more about the effort), the iconic site remains in great peril. At press time, the European Commission had initiated legal action against the Irish government over the M3, charging Ireland with failing to protect its own heritage.

More Top Discoveries of 2007

  • What would you have picked as the year's most important find?
  •  
http://www.archaeology.org/0801/topten/tara.html

 


Village Magazine, January 2008

The M3 heritage trail
By - Joe Fenwick.

The M3 motorway continues to reveal new archaeological wonders as its broad corridor progresses relentlessly through Tara's Gabhra Valley.

In the townland of Lismullin alone, in an attempt to steer a course to avoid a known Barrow, Souterrain, monastic site and the strategically placed fortification of Rath Lugh (recently subject to a Preservation Order), the motorway route has inadvertently impacted on several other previously unrecorded and equally significant archaeological remains.

Souterrain complex at Lismullin

These include a Ring-Barrow, a complex of Souterrains and, of course, an Iron Age Temple.

The Temple was declared a National Monument earlier this year, has since been "preserved by record" and awaits the Bulldozers Bucket.

Attention has now shifted to the nearby Souterrains, a subterranean complex of artificial passages and chambers dating to the Early Historic period (2nd. half of the 1st. millennium AD), which are currently being systematically dismantled.

During the course of recent work, a capstone bearing megalithic art has come to light.

Megalithic art, like that at Newgrange, dates to the Neolithic Period (the fourth millennium BC) and so this stone is clearly not in it's original context.

It must therefore have been acquired from a conveniently close at hand Passage Tomb.

Though this example, consisting of concentric circles, nested arcs and zig zags, bears similarity in style to the decorated stone in the Mound of the Hostages (on the summit of the Hill of Tara), it is unlikely to have come from this particular Monument.

Perhaps one of the (as yet) unclassified Mounds to be found in the Gabhra Valley is the original source of this stone.

Sadly, but as forewarned, the course of the M3 motorway through the heart of Tara's royal demesne has struck an exceptionally rich archaeological seam.

© Village Magazine, January 2008.

http://www.village.ie

 

An Idea from the SaveTara Yahoo list

It is very unfortunate that the hard work done by all those involved in the larger campaign to Save Tara has yet to prevent the road from going ahead, and by extension the desecration of many of our national monuments.

Lismullen still is a valueable site even if it has been almost totally destroyed - as its presence, its links to bronze age and megalithic Ireland, and its unknown spiritual importance are something that are everlasting in the same way legends are to the storyteller.

One question I must ask is how is the NRA is handing over the Lismullen National Monument to a Private Construction firm, when it only owns two thirds of the National Monument. As far as I am aware the farmer whose land the Monument is on, still owns part of the structure, and by extension, no Monument can be sold without all the owners agreeing to its sale etc.

As such the original compulsory purchase of land by the NRA covered specific areas, with monument falling under those areas falling into the ownership of the NRA. There is no law to my knowledge that covered disputed monuments where half is owned by the farmer/half by the NRA.

If someone knows this farmer, I suggest that we'd ask him as a group to sell us the small piece of land the remaining part of the Henge is on, and that as a group we lodge an objected to the courts about the defferal of ownership of the Monument over to the Private Construction firm, as firstly a National Monument cannot be spilt in half and sold off in lots.

Any ideas or suggestions?

tomas maccormaic                             on saveTara yahoo group

 

 

 

Video Details

 

The struggle to save over 150 ancient sites surrounding the complex of Tara in Ireland continues as activists unite to share skills and experiences to build defences in an attempt to save one of the most important places on Earth from the destruction of another massive motorway development.

click on picture to play video

http://www.livevideo.com/video/1D78F7A1974C4180AC7C538E44A46D27/tara-tara-tara.aspx


> fantastic video, well edited, there's exaggeration,
> cringeworthyness, but its passionate and true.
>
> sw
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savetara/message/2767

 

 

 

 

I WALK THE LINE
Dublin / Navan

or the other direction

but meeting somewhere in the middle -

railway walk    - planned for New Years Day  

details from  -http://www.meathmasterplan.com/ 

Cmon now ! 
- you KNOW you want to walk for miles and miles on New Years Day : ) 

               it WILL be great craic -        

                  click here for  Sponsorship form   - 

 

 

 

In an interview for the Irish Times Magazine, Sat. 22nd Dec.:

" 'Less for More' should be the Irish motto these days. [We are] like pigs at the trough, with everyone so obsessed with the price of houses and cars and what they are worth. It's like everyone has to show off how rich they are because it's almost like they can f**king believe it... it's like we are taking the piss out of each other at the moment.

We are building a road through the Hill of Tara and if we can do that and treat each other this way there is something very wrong with our psyche".

Glen Hansard of the group The Frames

__._,_.___

 
 

 

 SUNDAY WORLD , Ireland 

Council eyes bill of Tara
By - Paddy Murray.

This is hard to credit. According to the Drogheda Leader newspaper, Louth and Meath County Councils are coming together to promote an area including Newgrange, Mellifont Abbey and the Hill of Tara as "The Boyne Valley of the Kings".

This is Meath County Council that has permitted, no, encouraged the destruction of the Tara/Skryne Valley and all the historic treasures it contains. It is the Council that has permitted a massive interchange within sight of the Hill.

It is the Council that still refuses to admit the M3 does not have to follow its current route.

So why propose this move now? Well, apparently, councillors have become aware that there is €137 million available under the National Development Plan to stimulate investment in tourism.

Money. That's what is motivating them. Not culture. Money. According to the newspaper - and I am quoting this exactly - the announcement "means that tourism will sore(sic) in the area".

I suppose they meant tourists will have to put up with looking at an eyesore in the area.

© Sunday World, 16th. December 2007.

 

 

 

 

UK and NI

for UK and Northern Ireland - to find out who your councillor- MP -   MEP is and write to them ....

WriteToThem (home)  

 

  

At Avebury, when obliquity equaled precisely 24 degrees,
the level summer solstice sunset pointed precisely to Newgrange.
 
2006.03.09 - The Hill of Tara and Thornborough Henges have become new foci in the ancient sites preservation struggle. The ancient geodetic significance of Neolithic monuments is not considered in decision making related to development and ensuing site destruction. These massive ancient monuments have been part of human heritage for 5,000 years, and a focus of my archaeogeodesy studies for some time. I've given them renewed attention because they are threatened.  Also, I obtained GPS readings for several Tara features. Herein, I present some findings related to the Neolithic complexes at Tara, Newgrange, and Avebury.    

                                            ArchaeoBlog © 2006 by James Q. Jacobs Neolithic Monuments in Northeastern Europe Threatened

                  Metalworking at Roestown 2

    •  

    by Tradition  - the Stones of Stonehenge came from Ireland

    As Legend Has It
    The legend of King Arthur provides another story of the construction of Stonehenge. It is told by the twelfth century writer, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his History of the Kings of Britain that Merlin brought the stones to the Salisbury Plain from Ireland. Sometime in the fifth century, there had been a massacre of 300 British noblemen by the treacherous Saxon leader, Hengest. Geoffrey tells us that the high king, Aurelius Ambrosius, wanted to create a fitting memorial to the slain men. Merlin suggested an expedition to Ireland for the purpose of transplanting the Giant's Ring stone circle to Britain. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the stones of the Giant's Ring were originally brought from Africa to Ireland by giants (who else but giants could handle the job?). The stones were located on "Mount Killaraus" and were used as a site for performing rituals and for healing. Led by King Uther and Merlin, the expedition arrived at the spot in Ireland. The Britons, none of whom were giants, apparently, were unsuccessful in their attempts to move the great stones. At this point, Merlin realized that only his magic arts would turn the trick. So, they were dismantled and shipped back to Britain where they were set up (see illus. at right) as they had been before, in a great circle, around the mass grave of the murdered noblemen.

    http://britannia.com/history/h7.html

     

     

     

    photos of Tara supporters in Japan  - on the way .....    
     
     

     

    Encouraging story -

    Hi Joanne, all,
    The story came from J. Quigley, I posted it in Sept. Here is that post
    again.
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    Hi all,

    Here is a story about activists who kept fighting even after construction of a development had begun where roads were paved,streetlights installed, and model houses built. Due to the courage of America's Irish President John E. Kennedy and that group of dedicated activists the Pt Reyes National Seashore in California was created. The roads, streetlights, and model homes were all removed and made way for the wildness which the National Park Service oversees today.

    "For years activists worked to prevent a massive resort from being built at what is now Pt. Reyes National Seashore in California. The
    bulldozers began to roll, and much of the area was graded - there are some amazing film photos in Sheila Laffey's film, "The Last Stand" - she got them from some Sierra Club archives. Everyone, of course, thought the struggle was over - but the activists continued on with efforts to preserve this special place. John F. Kennedy signed the legislation, creating Pt. Reyes National Seashore and Lady Bird Johnson actually came out to dedicate the area, as I believe Pres. Kennedy was assassinated not long after he signed the legislation that included a unique solution of buying out all landowners who wanted, and allowing some existing farms/dairies to stay on the Seashore lands. There were
    roads paved, streetlights installed and model houses built. These structures were all removed and made way for the wildness which the
    National Park Service oversees today. A former City Councilman in Huntington Beach, Ralph Bauer, told me this story. He and his wife, Charlene, had bought one of the homes that were to be constructed, and they gladly sold the house back to the National Park Service when the Pt. Reyes National Seashore was created."

    --from Marcia Hanscom one of America's leading wetlands activists

     

    http://trocaire.org/pdfs/policy/towards2012anewoverseasdevelopmentagendaforireland.pdf

      

     

    I found this on line about this weekend's celestial alignment... and apparently Dec 23 is another big event.

    Winter Solstice has arrived with an awesome once-in-a-lifetime alignment. This year the Sun has arrived at it's southern solstice at the same time as Pluto is aligned with the Galactic Center and Jupiter. This event is rare because Jupiter only visits this part of the sky once in every 12 years. However, Pluto only appears in this area for a brief period every 250 years. The importance of this event is great-perhaps the most significant celestial alignment of our new century.

    Much love
    Katie