Ahern cannot be trusted on
Tara
"IN other countries they just get on with things. If you
take a pencil and account for things like snails and
archaeology you will never do anything". (An Taoiseach,
Bertie Ahern) This is the latest quotation from An
Taoiseach on planning issues. It is the latest in a
series of such ludicrous remarks made, in particular, on
the proposed M3.
Other countries do not insist on knowingly ploughing
motorways through their irreplaceable history and even if
they did, this does not mean that we should blindly
follow suit. In Spain, if they find something, they move
the road. Even in Gran Canaria, possibly the tourist
capital of the world, when a native Guanche graveyard was
found in the path of a major road development, they moved
the road to avoid it. In Ireland, however, graveyards,
unless of a very recent provenance, are no longer
considered sacred.
If one had taken a pencil and drawn the straightest, most
logical route for the proposed M3, it certainly would not
have taken the present meandering ramble around Tara and
through the Gabhra (Tara-Skryne) Valley. Archaeology is
not the only consideration in this area. Tara is the
ancient historic capital and all our saga cycles
intersect in the valley. How ironic that it is Fianna
Fáil which is encouraging the destruction of the
presumed final resting place of the Fianna and of the
king of Tara, Cairpre Lifechair, son of Cormac Mac Airt,
in the shadow of the Lia Fail.
An Taoiseach has previously declared that if he knew the
high kings were there he would go around them. Any school
child could have told him stories of the high kings and
Tara. With this level of knowledge of our past, how can
we trust this man with our future? With this level of
destruction, we will have no past to hand over to future
generations.
Dr. Muireann Ní
Bhrolcháin,
Laurence Avenue,
Maynooth,
Co. Kildare.
© The Sunday Tribune, 8th. October 2005.
