Crossing a Rubicon at
Tara
Madam, - There is a current planning application
submitted to Meath County Council for a construction and
demolition waste recycling plant at the base of the Hill
of Tara. The location of the proposed plant is at
Philpotstown cross roads, commonly known as Garlow
Cross.
The applicant refers to the small River Gabhra which is
in near proximity to the proposed development, not by its
name, but as a "drain".
Surely the applicant must know that, in Irish mythology,
the area of the proposed development was the scene of the
Battle of Gabhra in the third century AD. In that battle,
caused by the resentment of the High King of Tara towards
Finn and the Fianna, the Fianna outnumbered by 20 to one,
were defeated and their power broken. The legend
concludes: ".. and it is many of the Fianna were left
dead in Gabhra, and graves were made for them and the
whole length of the Rath of Gabhra, from end to end, it
is that was the grave of Oscar, son of Oisin, son of
Finn".
In my reaction to reading this unworthy reference to the
River Gabhra I made a connection with a small river in
northern Italy, the Rubicon. As is well known, Julius
Caesar crossed that river in the first century BC in
defiance of Pompey and the Roman Senate and so gave us
the phrase "crossing the Rubicon". It is said that as
Caesar crossed the river he uttered the phrase "The die
is cast" and so began a civil war .
Have we crossed the Rubicon in permitting the planned M3
motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley and across the
Gabhra battlefield site? Will the die be cast for the
internationally important Hill of Tara and its setting if
this development is permitted? Will this be the first of
many developments around the nearby preposterous
Blundelstown interchange?
Will Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, who
promised protection against development in this area,
take decisive action to prevent this first assault and so
preserve the integrity of the area, or what little is
left of it, if and when the motorway is constructed? Does
anybody in authority care?
I will conclude by quoting from W.B. Yeats in his preface
to Lady Gregory's Irish Mythology: "This land where your
fathers lived proudly and finely should be dear and dear
and again dear".
- Yours, etc,
TOMMY HAMILL,
Ballinter,
Navan,
Co. Meath.
© The Irish Times, 15th. August 2006.
