M3 possible without destruction of
Tara
THE new M3 intersects the old N3 just north of
Dunshaughlin, then it heads off into the Tara Skryne
valley before returning to dissect the N3 again at
Blundelstown. The reason given for this destructive
swerve into the heart of our history is that to stay and
widen the old N3 would mean destroying too many
houses.
However, between these two intersections there are just
30 houses on one side of the N3 and 24 on the other. Only
one side would have to be sacrificed, some are far enough
from the road to be unaffected, some are old cottage
types and some are in disrepair. If these home owners had
been offered five times the market value of their
properties many of them might have sold and moved into
new ones. Putting CPOs on the rest would be no different
than putting CPOs on a farmer's fields.
This would have been considerably cheaper than the green
field land take that did happen, it would have
safeguarded sites of immense historical, spiritual and
mythological importance and avoided their destruction. It
would also have provided a straight road.
Some day Irish journalism may do its duty and investigate
why this did not happen.
John T. Farrelly,
29 Ballybough Road,
Dublin 3.
© The Sunday Tribune, 18th. November 2007.
