Has the NRA by-passed
reality?
Dear Sir - Over the centuries some of Ireland's most
eminent scholars (John O'Donovan, George Petrie, R.A.S.
Macalister, to name but a few) have engaged with the
history and archaeology of Tara, and its myth and legend,
in a common endeavour to learn more about this
extraordinary place and determine fact from fiction. More
recent research, most notably by Conor Newman and Edel
Bhreathnach on behalf of the Discovery Programme, have
advanced this work to the point where we are now closer
to an understanding of Tara than at any stage since the
first detailed description of the visible monuments were
committed to the pages of the "Dindgnai Temrach" (The
landmarks of Tara) around the year AD 1000.
We are none the wiser, however, regarding the National
Roads Authority's choice of "preferred" M3 motorway route
through the Tara-Skryne valley despite the recent rash of
full-page adverts that purport to distinguish the "true
facts" from the "myth". Are we to understand that the NRA
has gone roundabout the truth and by-passed reality?
- Yours etc.
Joe Fenwick,
Department of Archaeology,
NUI.,
Galway.
© The Sunday Independent, 19th. December 2004.
