Campaigners walk on Giant's
Ring
- in protest over Tara
By - Margaret Canning.
THE plaintive melody of Thomas Moore's The Harp That Once
Through Tara's Halls wafted in the bitterly cold air at a
prehistoric site in south Belfast yesterday. Around 15
protestors came to the Giant's Ring during a day of
protest across Ireland at part of the new M3 motorway
between Dublin and Cavan being built over the Hill of
Tara, the seat of ancient kings of Ireland. There were
poetry readings, song and harp recitals at noon as the
protestors gathered round the dolmen in the centre of the
Giant's Ring. The campaigners said the Belfast site was
chosen because of its similarities to Lismullin, a
woodhenge found near the Hill of Tara.
Stephanie Sim, joined by her one year-old son Amharghin,
condemned the widespread building of new roads. "Is an
ugly grey sprawl to replace the forty shades of green? Is
Ireland to become a soulless, oil-dependent suburb?", she
said.
SDLP assembly member Carmel Hanna, who joined the
protest, called the hill of Tara "the heart and soul of
Ireland". "It is one of the most if not the most historic
sites we have", she said. "I sympathise with commuters
who face a long journey to Dublin and back but I believe
the government should invest more in sustainable forms of
transport such as railways by re-opening the Navan to
Dublin railway, or move out the motorway by seven
kilometres".
Laoise Kelly said she came because the Hill of Tara was
"the home of harps". She was joined by mother and
daughter harpists Marie and Ursula Burns. Marie Burns
said she had played at the Giant's Ring at 8am yesterday,
accompanying actress Roma Tomelty as she recited WB
Yeats's September 1913, a condemnation of materialism and
the death of "romantic Ireland".
© Irish News, 9th. January 2008.
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Protests at M3 construction on Lismullin site.
