Time to stand and be
counted
I disagree with descriptions of Lisa Feeney's tunnel
protest as "extremist" and "irresponsible". In my view,
it is the politically ordained desecration of an area
dotted with precious ancient ruins and historic sites
that those words more aptly describe.
Lisa's brave stand against the bulldozing of part of
Ireland's treasured and irreplaceable heritage reminds me
of another woman whose protest was condemned by all the
"proper authorities" and who endured the full force of
the law for her efforts: Rosa Parks.
She sat in the "whites only" section of a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, and refused to stand when
supremacist bullies demanded she did. This gesture
sparked a national civil rights campaign for
Afro-Americans in the USA.
Sometimes it does take non-violent direct action to bring
a vital issue of principle to a head. The M3-Tara
situation is certainly such an issue.
The might of powerful property developers, the cowardice
of nod-and-wink politicians and the insatiable greed of
wealth-obsessed business folk have combined to threaten a
part of our Celtic heritage that ought to be safeguarded
against the remotest prospect of such endangerment.
Rosa Parks took a stand by sitting down.
Lisa Feeney seized the high moral ground on the Tara
question for a few tense and fearful days with a similar
action.
John Fitzgerald,
Callan,
Co. Kilkenny.
© The Irish Independent, 19th. March 2008.
