Motorway near Hill of
Tara
Madam, - This may seem nitpicky, but I just wanted to
correct a couple of small errors in the article "Heaney
claims motorway near Tara desecrates sacred landscape"
(March 1st.).
In it, Frank McDonald writes "He [Heaney] recalled that
WB Yeats, George Moore and Arthur Griffith had written a
letter to The Irish Times complaining that the British
Israelites, who thought the Ark of the Covenant was
buried at Tara, were desecrating a "consecrated
landscape" by digging there."
The now famous letter was actually published in the Times
(London), June 27th, 1902 and was signed by WB Yeats,
George Moore and Douglas Hyde.
Griffith was certainly part of the group that campaigned
against that rape of Tara, but it was actually the man
who was to be the first president of Ireland that signed
the letter.
At the time of signing, Douglas Hyde was the president of
the Gaelic League, a position he held for 22 years.
Another institution that campaigned vigorously for the
preservation of Tara at that time was the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland.
Indeed, their current president, Aideen Ireland, did
write a letter to The Irish Times (Letters, May 5th,
2005) stating: "More than 100 years ago this society
campaigned vigorously to have ill-considered excavations
by the British Israelites on the Hill of Tara
stopped".
"On that occasion the digging ceased and the site was
preserved. It would be a scandal if Tara were now to be
sacrificed in the interests of short-term progress".
Heaney claims in the BBC interview that Tara was safer in
the hands of the British government, who brought the
excavations to a halt in 1903.
Today we can only hope that the EU government, who took
legal action against Ireland over the M3, (The Irish
Times, October 17th, 2007), can halt the desecration in
similar fashion.
As Hyde, Yeats and Moore so aptly wrote in that same
letter to the Times, "Tara is, because of its
associations, probably the most consecrated spot in
Ireland, and its destruction will leave many bitter
memories behind".
- Yours, etc,
Vincent Salafia,
TaraWatch.org,
Effra Road,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
© The Irish Times, 4th. March 2008.
Related Articles:
Cry
"Save Tara" on St. Patrick's Day.
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.
