Fianna Fail and Dunlop-linked land deal 5km from Hill of Tara under scrutiny

national | environment | news report Wednesday January 19, 2005 13:57 by draoi

The real life and land of Reilly emerges

A land deal concerning a site near the Hill of Tara made between self-admitted county council briber Frank Dunlop and Fianna Fail’s Meath by-election candidate Tommy “pats and pans” Reilly is under investigation.

Senior FF members are believed to be looking into the deal following local media inquires about the site in Edoxtown, east of Tara and Skyrne. Pending the outcome of inquiry, Reilly is likely to be the party’s choice for the vital Meath by-election. Either way, the Dunlop link will not look good for the party of government that is already linked that would destroy a sacred landscape forever.

Although initial Indymedia enquiries could not ascertain the ins an outs of the geographic and monetary aspects of different routes for the M3 and the 10-acre site, this could be found out.

The eastern side of the Tara complex territorial line “is defined by the promontory forts of Rath Lugh and ***Edoxtown***, near Skryne and Rathfeigh respectively, according to *“The Impact of the Proposed M3 Motorway on Tara and its Cultural Landscape”.

"The proposed motorway ignores and transgresses this line and will, therefore, destroy the spatial and visual integrity of the archaeological and historical landscape of Tara, as well as removing from it key component monuments," continues the paper, authored by Irish experts.

“Pots and pans” Reilly is believed to have bought out Frank Dunlop in 2002 for the same price as he bought in to the land. There has been no attempt to rezone or develop most of the land, according to d’paper of record.

“It is not near where you would expect any development to take place,” former lobbyist Frank Dunlop told a D’Olier Street broadsheet Tuesday. Ahem. Except if it’s near the M3. Or perhaps the alternative route favoured by many around the Hill of Skryne could mean less money for Reilly if a compulsory purchase order was made.

Reilly’s daughter is believed to have built a house on a one-acre section of the site following two planning appeals.

Tommy’s “pats and pans” moniker came from comments made by the sitting Meath councillor about what is possibly under land in the Tara landscape that the proposed tolled route will take. No mention by him of the physical remains of our ancestors that have been already dug up in test trences by the National Roads Authority the name of archeology.

Apart from sitting on land and on the county council, Reilly also sits on the Meath Tourism board, which says it “has been the instrument of major change for the improvement of tourism in County Meath.”

Tribunals of inquiry in Dublin Castle so far have focussed on land in Co. Dublin, but the Dunlop link to this site should really trigger invesitigations in gContae na Mi.


* Authored by Edel Bhreathnach, Conor Newman and Joseph Fenwick. The paper is at: www.archaeological.org/pdfs/archaeologywatch/Tara/Tara_statement.pdf