Tara - Meath Sinn Féin County Colr. Joe Reilly on the M3 interchange

meath | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Tuesday July 19, 2005 21:15 by Meath Sinn Féin - Sinn Féin Meath County Council, Navan, Co. Meath.

Meath needs infrastructure, but Meath also needs its heritage.

Recent media reports show that Hill of Tara is clearly visible from the site of the M3 Tara Interchange. It also appears that heavy mechanical diggers are being used in the excavation of the Tara valley.

Many in Meath are concerned that the visual impact of this M3 Interchange at Tara may have a detrimental effect on the appeal of Tara, both as a heritage site and a tourist venue.

Time and time again, the crucial question of whether the M3 and the Blundelstown Tara Interchange would be visible from the hill of Tara has been raised. And as many times, both the government and the NRA have stated categorically that the M3 would not be visible from the hill. However, it is now entirely evident that this massive interchange at the foot of the Hill will indeed be visible from Tara, and this now poses grave questions.

Colr. Joe surveys the scene of the M3 archaeological digs

Recent media reports show that Hill of Tara is clearly visible from the site of the M3 Tara Interchange. It also appears that heavy mechanical diggers are being used in the excavation of the Tara valley.

Many in Meath are concerned that the visual impact of this M3 Interchange at Tara may have a detrimental effect on the appeal of Tara, both as a heritage site and a tourist venue.

Time and time again, the crucial question of whether the M3 and the Blundelstown Tara Interchange would be visible from the hill of Tara has been raised. And as many times, both the government and the NRA have stated categorically that the M3 would not be visible from the hill. However, it is now entirely evident that this massive interchange at the foot of the Hill will indeed be visible from Tara, and this now poses grave questions.

Given Tara's importance to the areas of heritage and tourism in Co Meath, why was the foot of Tara chosen for a 28 acre interchange? Why have government ministers including our own local minister, Noel Dempsey, repeatedly stated that the Tara Interchange would not be visible from Tara when there is now clear photographic evidence to the contrary? How will this huge interchange effect Meath's image as a heritage conscious county, and will there be an impact on tourism? And finally, is the purpose of 22 ton Mechanical diggers excavating presently, to carefully record the past of our most significant national heritage site or is purely to clear the site for the
M3 Tara Intersection as soon as possible.

It is essential that the Ministers Dempsey, Roche, and Cullen respond to these concerns, and explain why assertions that the M3 would not be visible from the hill have now been proved so spectacularly incorrect, and so factually inaccurate. It is time that this government realises that tearing up the ground with 22 ton Mechanical diggers in the Tara valley shows a blatant contempt for heritage, and that a sledgehammer-like approach to archaeology in the Tara area is entirely unacceptable to everyone, not least to the people of Meath.

Meath needs infrastructure, but Meath also needs its heritage.

One of many photos showing the site of the M3 works in relation to the Hill of Tara