tara Day August 15th 2005

national | environment | press release Monday August 15, 2005 00:41 by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain - Save the TaraSkryne Valley Group muireann at taraskryne dot org www.taraskryne.org

Visit tara on tara Day. See the excavations.
Bring family, camera, picnic and county flags or organisational flags.

The people of Ireland are invited to tara on Monday 15th August from 3pm onwards for TaraDay to express their opposition to the proposed twice-tolled Motorway through the Gabhra (TaraSkryne) Valley.

Senator David Norris and Tony Gregory TD will be present as will the historian Dr Edel Bhreathnach who has researched tara for 14 years and the archaeologist Joe Fenwick who also worked on tara with Edel for the Discovery Programme during the same period. Other groups that will attend include the Rossport group and those opposed to the moving of Mountjoy Prison to Co Dublin.

People are invited to bring family, friends, flags of their county, banners for their organisations and political parties, a camera and a picnic. Information will be available on the 38 sites along the proposed route, including those being excavated at present and others that may be investigated in the future. Maps will be available and everyone is invited to visit these sites that lie so close to the bottom of the Hill.

This date has been chosen as it was the occasion of a Monster Meeting held by Daniel O’Connell in 1843. It was attended by an historic 750,000 thousand people and the British Government were so shocked that they banned the next planned meeting at Clontarf on October 1843.

The three experts on tara, Conor Newman, Joe Fenwick and Edel Bhreathnach have said:
“The construction of the M3 through the tara ceremonial complex is a local, national and international issue: if a landscape is particularly significant, should it be subject to any large-scale development or should it be declared a World Heritage Site and maintained for future generations?”

Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, PRO for the Save TaraSkryne Valley Group said: “The place names and the related stories, the history and literature show the importance of tara, the Gabhra Valley and Achall (Skryne). This landscape is alive with tales of the Fianna, the god Lug, Cú Chulainn and the kings such as Cormac mac Airt.”

Some of these stories and place names will be related and discussed at the gathering.
The NRA has concentrated on the archaeology. The importance of tara, Skryne and the Gabhra Valley lies also in the history and the literature where tara is undoubtedly the centre of all sources from the beginning of writing in Ireland.