Tara Harpers / Tara Update - Trinity College Dublin - 12.00-2.00pm

by Community Tue Sep 18, 2007 18:16

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84211

The harpists event and the John Quigley event the following day and the Poetry in galway
are all inter-related community events which are all advertising under joint banners.
This is what 'Community' is about. The other groups have included Tarawatch
in their advertising but the same civility is not extended to the other groups.

http://www.tarapixie.net
http://www.savetara.com
http://www.tarawatch.org

The Harpists have also put the vent on the http://www.savetara.com site
so that it will comprise a weekend of events for Tara, it should be noted
that hiving off specific events with a single campaign name tends
to abstract the connectedness of the issues-

by Fred Johnston - Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlin Maud Wed Sep 19, 2007 17:19 westernwriters at eircom dot net 34 Nuns Island Galway 091.533594

Dear Sir -
I am interested in this as some of us will be travelling for the Harp Event in Dublin - but I have never heard of any Poetry Event to coincide with it or follow it, to be held in Galway, as stated in a post above. And we would surely have heard of it.

by C Murray Wed Sep 19, 2007 17:56

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84216

would have though ye knew how to use the newswire by now- dear...

There are a series of community and related events under many banners going on:-

http://www.tarapixie.ie
http://www.savetara.com
http://www.tarawatch.org

tis all in http://www.savetara.ie

everyone is terrible busy.

by Pat - none Thu Sep 20, 2007 13:40 none none

Elizabeth the 1st of England issued a proclamation to Lord Barrymore in Ireland to
' Hang Harpers wherever found and destroy their instuments'

Cromwell orderded the destruction of all Harps....500 Harps where confiscated in Dublin and burned.
Harpers where forbidden to congregrate.

I hope we can congregrate in Kildare St on Saturday without fear of intimidation form the gang in Leinster House and their heavies, who want to confiscate OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE.

My message.................PLUCK THEM.

by NIFC - NATIONAL IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE Thu Sep 20, 2007 19:22 nifcmem at optonline dot net

SAVE TARA !

This segments primary focus was on the ongoing effort to save Tara valley from destruction and the upcoming protests planned for Dublin,New York, California and Illinois.

Free-form Video Discussion Series No 9 -- Save Tara

In this segment the primary focus was on the ongoing effort to save Tara valley from destruction.

Pat Williams began by briefly commending the organizing committee of the Republican Hunger Strike Commemoration held in Bundoran, County Donegal for a job well done.

He then spoke on why Tara is such an integral part of the Irish nation and of great importance to the Irish people. He expressed his disgust at the Leinster House politicians, of every political hue, who have no regard for Ireland's archaeological treasures.

Pat then asked viewers to attend the planned rallies in Dublin, New York, California and Illinois which, will take place on Saturday September 22. Additional details are available on the 'TaraWatch' website.

Video:

http://www.irishfreedom.net/Videos/FFV%209%20b.wmv

by W. Finnerty. Thu Sep 20, 2007 22:00

Though not nearly as well known about at the present time as it might be, there is an amazing Bronze Age "Equinox Detector" in County Meath (Republic of Ireland): which still works accurately to this day, and which is also thought to have important connections with the Hill of Tara.

The Equinox Detector is located in "Cairn T", which is one of several cairns (ancient burial places) in the Loughcrew area.

Loughcrew is approximately 25 miles to the north-west of the Hill of Tara, and a few miles to the south of Oldcastle. 

An excellent animated display, which shows how this detector works can be viewed at http://homepages.iol.ie/~tobrien/general.htm .

As indicated in the display at the above address, there are normally 14 days each year when this ancient and very finely-tuned device can be seen working: on the Equinox days themselves, i.e. March 21 and September 21, and on three days either side of both these dates. 

To watch the sun light up the "Backstone" at Cairn T, it is necessary to be there just after daybreak; and, it takes about 20 minutes for the beam of light to pass across the stone. Unfortunately, the sky needs to be free of clouds at the critical time. Usually there are a few people from the Office of Public Works present to explain things, and they also help people to get in and out of the cairn (which has several chambers) in an orderly way. Normally the entrance to Cairn T is locked, though it is possible to always get a fairly good view of the inside by peering through the bars of the iron gate now in use.

In some respects, including the strange, almost Aboriginal-like symbols it contains, Cairn T seems even more important than the nearby "Winter Solstice Detector" at Newgrange - which, as many know, is world famous at the present time. (Both of these very sophisticated sunlight-based detectors are believed to be in excess of 5,000 years old.)

Writing in 1873, Eugene Conwell (who discovered the Loughcrew set of cairns) was certain that "some successful student in archaic sculptures would discover the key to unlock the mysteries contained in the 'curious', and at present mystic, characters inscribed upon the stones in Cairn T".

Eugene Conwell also believed that Cairn T was the burial place of King Ollamh Fodhla, who is closely connected with Brehon Law (thought to be the oldest and most compassionate system of law in Europe) and the once regularly held "Great Feast of Tara".

According to some historical reports, this "Triennial Convention", held in "The Great Banqueting Hall", "met about the time called 'Samhain' (November 1st) for making laws, reforming general abuses, revising antiquities, genealogies, and chronicles, and purging them from all corruption and falsehood that might have been foisted into them since the last meeting." (Clear traces of The Great Banqueting Hall, which really was huge, are still easy to view from on top of the Hill of Tara.)

The equinox days themselves are of course the days when there is perfect balance between the hours of daylight and darkness throughout the entire world. It is this natural presentation of perfect balance (closely and symbolically connected to the idea of perfect justice) which is possibly responsible for the fact that Cairn T is claimed by some to be the burial place of King Ollamh Fodhla, who, according to the "Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters", ruled Ireland for the 40 year period between 1317 - 1277 BC.

As far as I know, there is NOTHING remotely like the Cairn T set of stone arrangements anywhere else in the world - at least nothing that still detects the equinoxes in the very obvious and accurate way that the one inside of Cairn T does.

by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain - Campaign to Save Tara Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:06

PRESS RELEASE – Save Tara NY Demonstration 9/22
'The Tudors' Star Jonathan Rhys Meyers joins campaign in Ireland

Irish poets, musicians, historians and archaeologists will gather outside The Consulate General of Ireland in New York City on Saturday to protest the building of a motorway through a historic Irish valley teeming with archaeological treasures. The demonstration, which will take place 345 Park Avenue at 51st on Saturday 22 September at 11:00AM, will coincide with similar events taking place on the same day in Dublin, Chicago and Los Angeles.

On Sunday, Hollywood actors JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS (The Tudors) and STUART TOWNSEND (Queen of the Damned), who are both Irish, will fly over Tara with aerial artist JOHN QUIGLEY and photograph 1000 people spelling out the words SAVE TARA on the historic hill.

Tara is now on the World Monuments Fund list of the world's 100 most endangered sites (www.wmf.org). "Tara Hill, which is the centerpiece of a large archaeological landscape with hundreds of significant sites, is the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland," says the president of the World Monuments Fund, Bonnie Burnham. "It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara's surrounding landscape, about which we have much to learn, is destroyed for a highway development that will only encourage more rapid and inappropriate development. We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision."

The Archaeological Institute of America has for some time supported efforts to reroute the motorway (http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10245).

An EU Petitions Committee Report of September 15 states that in the light or recent discoveries the Irish Government is not doing enough to safeguard historical sites and neglected to investigate environment-friendly alternatives.

Speakers at the New York demonstration will include Pulitzer prize-winning poet PAUL MULDOON (Howard G. B. Clark '21 Professor at Princeton University and Chair of the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts), Professor of History J. JOSEPH LEE, (Director, Glucksman Ireland House; Glucksman Professor of Irish Studies, New York University) and PAM CRABTREE (Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University).
'STRINGS OF TARA', a group of young women harpers, will open the gathering, and the event will conclude with traditional Irish music and song.

"It could be said that the Campaign to Save Tara is putting its case ‘in the name of the dead generations’: for the past two millennia those generations regarded Tara as a place invested with sacred as opposed to secular value. Protest against the loss of this value remains an imperative."
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, August 2007

“The Irish community both here in America and at home wants our heritage preserved for future generations”, says the New York event's organizer, Irish vocalist Susan McKeown. “The findings of the EU Petitions Committee should be seen as an opportunity for the Irish Government to consider an alternative plan that preserves this landscape intact and takes into account sustainable transport systems.”

“Tara is, because of its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its destruction will leave many bitter memories behind it.”
Letter from W.B. Yeats, Douglas Hyde and George Moore to the Times of London, June 27th 1902

For verification, contact:
Susan McKeown
212-260-2302
917-443-9374
www.myspace.com.taraharpersNY

RELATED EVENTS & LINKS:

www.savetara.com
www.tarapixie.net
www.tarawatch.org

Saturday 22 September
TARA HARPERS DUBLIN 3:00PM (Irish Time)
Dáil Éireann, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
www.myspace.com.taraharpers

SAVE TARA LOS ANGELES EVENT 2:30
www.cmh2.com/savetara-la

SAVE TARA CHICAGO EVENT 12 noon
http://www.myspace.com/32fields

TARA EQUINOX AERIAL EVENT Sunday 23rd September
Hollywood actors and Irishmen Stuart Townsend and Jonathan Rhys Meyers will fly over Tara with internationally renowned aerial artist John Quigley,
who will create a piece of human aerial art on the Hill of Tara.
http://www.spectralq.com/

On the Significance of Lismullin - by Dr. Ronald Hicks, Indiana State University
Full Text of Report - http://tarawatch.org/?p=470#more-470

SPAIN FACES CHARGES OVER DEADLY LYNX ROAD
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/14/1189276985....html

by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain - Campaign to Save Tara Fri Sep 21, 2007 13:45

These harpers will be appearing at the New York Harp event.

Strings of Tara