Cry "Save Tara" on St. Patrick's
Day
Ireland's poet laureate and Nobel Prize winner Seamus
Heaney has branded the plan to build a freeway through
the Hill of Tara as "ruthless desecration". Professor
Heaney added that, under British rule in Ireland, Tara
appears to have enjoyed more protection than in today's
Irish Republic.
Heaney often refers to his "country of the mind". The
Hill of Tara belongs to all people of Irish heritage.
This is why Irish people cannot rest while Tara is being
desecrated by speculators hell-bent on expanding
Ireland's "industrial estate" with no regard for the
people. They have forgotten the policy of cultural
tourism, which launched the Celtic Tiger in the late
1980s - a policy directed toward promoting business
through showcasing cultural heritage and supporting the
arts.
March is the month when Irish governments send out
diplomats to all corners of the world in honour of St.
Patrick's Day. This year, a large number of
representatives from Meath, Trim and Navan councils,
surrounding the Hill of Tara, will travel abroad to
promote flagging tourism, and, no doubt, to ease tensions
caused by the international outcry over their continuing
illegal desecration of Irish heritage at Tara (the
chairman and manager of Meath council will be in Sydney
and Melbourne).
This is a call to Irish people to go out of their way to
greet these diplomats with the cry "Save Tara!". Let the
words "Save Tara!" resound.
Performing artists can call the words "Save Tara" from
the stage. Traditional Irish dancers can emblazon "Save
Tara" on their sashes. It is our cultural duty and our
privilege to raise our voices to save Tara!
Mairead Sullivan,Anam Cara for
Tara Arts Action Campaign.
© The Irish Independent, 4th. March 2008.
Related Articles:
Motorway
near Hill of Tara.
Heaney claims motorway near Tara desecrates sacred
landscape.
Yeats/Moore/Hyde Letter to The Times - 1902.
Tara
and the M3 motorway (22) - RSAI Letter.
EU to take action over handling of Tara route for
M3.
Australia added to council's St. Paddy's itinerary.
