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TARATARATARA - NEWS and LINKS
  2nd week -NOV-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 !

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Press Association

10/11/07

UN watchdog to oversee island work

World heritage watchdog, Unesco is to view conservation work on Skellig Michael off the Co Kerry coast, it was confirmed.

The Department of the Environment and Heritage invited Unesco official Tom Hassell to visit and speak to groups who expressed concerns about the works on Skellig.

A world heritage site since 1996, Skellig Michael, meaning Michael's rock, is a steep rocky island about 15km off the Co Kerry coast. A Celtic monastery on the summit of the 230-metre-high rock was built in the 6th century.

 source - PRESS ASSOCIATION  

 

example of a World Heritage site ...included to show that many of the listed sites cover large areas -

is the Mound of the Hostages at  Tara not part of the Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne  ....?

Brief Description

The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathian constitute a transnational serial property of ten separate components along a 185 km axis from the Rakhiv Mountains and the Chornohirskyi Range in Ukraine, west along the Polonynian Ridge, to the Bukovské Vrchy and Vihorlat Mountains in Slovakia.

The ten sites represent an outstanding example of undisturbed, complex temperate forests and exhibit the most complete and comprehensive ecological patterns and processes of pure stands of European beech across a variety of environmental conditions. They contain an invaluable genetic reservoir of beech and many species associated with, and dependent on, these forest habitats. They also represent an outstanding example of the re-colonization and development of terrestrial ecosystems and communities after the last ice age, a process which is still ongoing.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1133


-
UNESCO to visit Skellig Michael to make sure it is being looked after
properly
"
UNESCO and ICOMOS International have accepted an invitation from the
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to visit
Skellig Michael World Heritage Site. The invitation was extended in
order that UNESCO could view the conservation works on the island in
light of some recent adverse comments and in the context of the
drafting of a Management Plan. Mr Tom Hassell has been nominated by
UNESCO to visit the island and he will also take the opportunity to
speak to parties, who expressed concerns regarding works on the
island, on the 26/27/28 November. "

 

     

World Heritage List

The World Heritage List includes 851 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

These include 660 cultural , 166 natural and 25 mixed properties in 141 States Parties. As of October 2006, 184 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention.

 

Ireland

complete list of World Heritage sites on

     

 

 

re/ Petition to EU

letter to SaveTara Yahoo group from Kathy Sinott MEP                     


Irish Times - Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The European Commission is expected to begin legal action against the Government today over the manner in which it has proceeded to build the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

The decision will provide a boost to campaigners who are trying to force Minister for the Environment John Gormley to consider re-routing the motorway.

The legal move is not expected to halt the construction of the road, but it will force the Government to defend its position at Europe's highest court, a process that could eventually lead to the imposition of fines if it loses the case.

Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas will tell his commissioner colleagues at a meeting in Brussels today that the National Monuments Act in the Republic does not offer enough protection for important archaeological sites.

He will also highlight alleged weaknesses in Irish law that split decision-making between Irish planning authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for industrial projects.

He cites the Government's action at the Hill of Tara as a prime example of how it fails to conform to EU law. In a draft decision, which requires the approval of commissioners before taking effect, Mr Dimas refers Ireland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over these shortcomings.

"The commission considers Ireland's approach to decisions involving the destruction or removal of historic structures and archaeological monuments to be in contravention of the directive," says an explanatory note on the decision seen by The Irish Times.

The relevant EU directive says there must be a proper assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment.

The commission believes a decision not to order a second environmental impact assessment when a potentially significant archaeological site was discovered at Lismullen, close to Tara, was "in contravention of the directive"....

 

 

click picture for speech to

Brussels -   

 

 

letter from Kathy Sinnott to SaveTara

    14/11/2007

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

I spoke with Commissioner Dimas today in relation to the ongoing destruction of Tara. He seemed surprised when I told him that the buldozers are active everyday. He said that to continue to destroy Tara would be "stupid" and that "the minister had told me...." He didn't finish that question but looked distressed.
 

I asked the Commissioner for an injunction to stop the destruction and that it would be too late if the case is pursued in the normal way.  He told me that only yesterday he and the Commission had been discussing Tara and that he was dealing with the issue because he was embarrassed to think they would destroy an important heritage site. He promised that he will discuss Tara tomorrow.

 

He looked so genuinely upset that I kissed his hand.

 

Kathy

 

Kathy Sinnott, MEP for Ireland South

Vice President Petitions Committee

 

Ps. Attached is a speech I made in the Parliament yesterday, speaking about Tara. Also, if anybody has time, then please write to Commissioner Dimas again.

 

 

 

  pictures from the Samhain celebrations

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shadowsandstone/sets/72157602823633228/   

 

 

Ronan O Snodaigh for Tara  The song Sruth an Ath was written and performed by Rónán Ó Snodaigh, singer and bodhrán(drum) player with Kíla, one of Ireland’s top traditional bands.   You can listen to it on his MySpace site
   

see also  Laoise Kelly's MySpace downloads of Tara's Eye -  Planxty Wilkinson etc 

 

 

 

Archaeogeodesy, a Key to Prehistory  

  

  page of  links to New World connections

 

 

the 2,300 year old solar observatory at Chankillo in Peru                       

http://www.physorg.com/news91988735.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6408231.stm

 

 

http://www.jqjacobs.net/blog/neolithic.html

 

http://www.jqjacobs.net/astro/aegeo.html

 

Archaeogeodesy, a Key to Prehistory

Archaeogeodesy can be defined as that area of study encompassing prehistoric and ancient place determination, navigation (on land or water), point positioning, measure and representation of the earth, geodynamic phenomena, and the applied astronomy. Archaeogeodesy, by combining fundamental astronomy, geodetic knowledge, applied mathematics, accurate positional data and archaeology, presents a methodology for investigating the architecture, placements, spatial properties, relationships and arrangements of prehistoric sites and monuments. As a new area of inquiry, archaeogeodesy presents unique avenues of assessing ancient understandings of geography, of place, and of the earth and the cosmos as evidenced by archaeological remains.

Miamisburg Mound, Ohio, 84.280888W 39.607611N GPS

We generally regard temporally, spatially and culturally diverse ancient monuments as unrelated. The many pyramids of Egypt, whether stepped, bent, or true, have interrelationships, however understudied. What of the other pyramids and similar mounds dispersed the world over? Few would argue no relationship between neighboring earthworks in North America, for example, yet their similarities to Neolithic mounds and circular embankments of the British Isles go relatively unnoticed. Visitors to Stonehenge and other stone circles who notice surrounding earthworks are unlikely to postulate connections, spatial or functional, to similar earthen monuments in distant Ohio because of an intervening ocean.

Given monument similarities and the great number of monuments around the world, questions arise. "Did a broadly-defined mound-pyramid-monument complex originate and diffuse from a single cultural source or arise in several cultural traditions?" "Which monuments are shared traditions?" "When did the earliest monument forms arise, why and where?" With modern cartography, geodetic science, and mathematics, in other words, with archaeogeodesy, questions regarding ancient geographic knowledge can be addressed.

more from    http://www.jqjacobs.net/astro/aegeo.html  

  

 

 

there is now a Wish List on the TaraPixie site  

NEW       

TaraPixie's 

Activists Blog

TaraPixie's 

Wish List 

 

 

 

 


Lismullin wood henge

picture of the dog burial found at Lismullin henge

source  

plan of Lismullin henge

source  

     

 
 

official report

text

dowload pdf 

 

more maps -

click for larger versions

 

 

NRA  grid referrences wrong re/ Rath Lugh  ...

story to follow ....

  

                               

 

 

The Tara Skryne (Gabhra) Valley in Early Irish Literature
 by - Dr. Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin

The Gabhra RiverThe area known as the Gowra (Gabhra) Valley lies between the Hills of Tara and Skryne, the precise area threatened by the proposed tolled M3 motorway. The valley is criss-crossed by little brooks fed by the springs around Tara and the Gabhra is one of these streams.

Conor Newman describes it thus:

"A small stream, known today as Gabhra, feeds into the River Skane at Dowdstown Bridge to the north-west of the Hill of Tara. The Gabhra owes its origin in part to two notable springs on the eastern flank of the Hill of Tara, which served as wells from antiquity into modern times. The first of these, known locally as St. Patrick's Well (possibly Liaig), is still in use today and can be found to the east of Ráith na Ríg, protected by a small masonry vault (Pl. 16). The second spring, possibly Nemnach (by reputation the site of the first mill in Ireland; Petrie 1839, 163), is located at the south end of the field containing Ráith Lóegaire. Both of these sources eventually feed into a small lake, which is part of the formal garden of Tara Hall (now demolished), and thence flow as a stream down a deep, narrow gorge (which was landscaped into a cascading watercourse during the last century) due east of Tara. The stream issues from the gorge into the valley between Tara and Skreen and turns northwards on its journey towards the Skane at Dowdstown Bridge. In 1993, the ornamental lake and watercourses beside Tara Hall were extensively bulldozed and filled. Another pond (32:55; Pl.2), drawn as a square on the first-edition OS map sheet 32, lying further to the east of Tara Hall, adjacent to a field boundary, was also being partially filled with rubble at this time. Finally, the River Hurley, a tributary of the River Nanny, drains an extensive area of land south and west of Skreen".²

source and the rest of the article  http://www.savetara.com/gabhraval.html