'Trinity College Centre to Host UNESCO Round Table on Hill of tara / M3 motorway'

international | history and heritage | press release

Monday July 21, 2008 14:28

by TaraWatch

info at tarawatch dot org

The first event of its kind in Ireland

Mr Francesco Bandarin, Director of the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO) proposed yesterday that a workshop on the Hill of tara cultural landscape would take place. He made the proposal in discussions with TaraWatch at the closing of the 32nd Session of the World Heritage Committee, in Quebec, last week

PRESS RELEASE

TARAWATCH.org

21 July 2008

'Trinity College Centre to Host UNESCO Round Table on Hill of tara / M3 motorway'

The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, at Trinity College Dublin, will host a prestigeous UNESCO workshop, concerning the Hill of tara and the M3 motorway.

The round table type workshop was proposed by Mr Francesco Bandarin, Director of the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), during the recent World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec.

The proposal was made in response to a request by TaraWatch that UNESCO address the proposal by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, to make tara a World Heritage Site.

The workshop format will involve a series of presentations from various local, national and international bodies, over a number of days. Invited bodies include:

- The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government
- The Department of Transport
- The National Roads Authority
- The National Museum
- The Heritage Council
- The International Council on Monunments and Sites
- World Monuments Fund
- Sacred Sites International
- Archaeological Institute of America
- World Archaeological Congress
- Meath Archaeological and Historical Society

The impact on the integrity of tara cultural landscape by the proposed M3 motorway will form a part of the workshop. The date and time will be announced shortly.

The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies was formally founded in the spring of 1999 with two major aims: to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars working in the early fields both within and outside Trinity; to promote Medieval and Renaissance studies at a national and an international level.

Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey of the TCD Centre said:

"We have campaigned vigorously for the presevation of tara for the past number of years, and are delighted that UNESCO will finally address this issue.

"This will be the first such worshop to take place in Ireland, and we hope that all of the stakeholders, including the Minister for the Environment, will participate.

Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said:

"We are putting all of our hopes in the hands of UNESCO now.

"The M3 is still two years away from completion, and we still hope that a compromise can be reached, which will preserve the complex, and deliver the road.

ENDS

http://www.tcd.ie/Medieval_Renaissance/

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Comments (7 of 7)

Well Done

by Mary Casey

Mon Jul 21, 2008 15:53

Well Done TaraWatch. Keep up the good work!

TaraWatch - the TRUE advocate for saving Tara

by MickeJ

Mon Jul 21, 2008 17:06

This is wonderful news and a great positive step to bring UNESCO to Ireland! Keep up the good work, TaraWatch! You are appreciated...

Unesco

by Hanna Zdunska

Wed Jul 23, 2008 02:00

Before everybody gets carried away here I suggest you all email Mr Bandarin at; f.bandarin@unesco.org and ask for his comments on these claims.

You will be very surprised.

I was certainly astounded to read what he had to say on the matter!

Hanna , Marcin & Co.

Media Hype

by No Surprises

Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:11

Thank you Hanna , Marcin & Co. for the heads up.
Perhaps you'd share with us your reply from UNESCO although surely it will be no surprise to many.

Please Do!

by Siobhan - TaraWatch

Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:16

Yes Hannah, please do.

Whilst your at it: could you also explain to us why as you claim to have quit working for the NRA on MORAL grounds, have you kept quiet about the desecration of Tara until now.

If you had inside information about falsifying evidence, wouldn't it follow, that you would divulge this information whilst something could have been done about it.

Not several months after all of the sites have been destroyed. Perhaps you need to rethink your MORALS.

Dear Hannah,

by George O'Brien

Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:25

For the last week or so you have been spamming every single Indymedia thread started by people affiliated to TaraWatch.. It appears that you are not interested in a factual discussion about archaeology and the Tara landscape, but rather in some sort of personal vendetta against TaraWatch.. Please deal with your personal problems off list.

Than you.

Recent comments on this thread, indymedia and mailing lists by Tarawatch and others

by Maggie Ronayne - Global Women's Strike

Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:55

Ireland at globalwomenstrike dot net

Tarawatch has posted a number of hostile comments recently. Others who write under pseudonyms have also posted hostile comments (some so sexist they have been removed by indymedia). I have also been forwarded hostile comments about myself and others written by Vincent Salafia on mailing lists of which I am not a member. This also relates to earlier comments on this thread above.

The work of other Tara campaigners, my work and that of my colleagues in the Global Women's Strike working with me has more than once been credited by Tarawatch to themselves and even to WAC for whom Vincent Salafia seems to be doing PR. Most others of us including Tara campaigners bar Tarawatch, are targeted as the enemy, and the privatising and US military-hosting element within WAC are not.

Why, I’m asked, if an interview in 2006 revealed problems with the M3 test-trenching, did I coming forward now, and where are all the archaeologists I mentioned who believe there are problems with standards in the private sector of the profession especially on the road-building projects? Most recently I see that Tarawatch asks a similar question on this thread above of another archaeologist who worked on the M3 and who has now come forward, targeting her for only now speaking out.

Similar hostile targeting has in recent weeks come from the government's archaeologists (Dept of the Environment), the NRA, archaeology company bosses and sections of the State media and its corporate counterpart. So Tarawatch & Co seem to be agreeing with the State and are now defending privatisation on the one hand and accusing me of not attacking privatisation enough on the other. No wonder people are suspicious of Tarawatch.

If people publicise this information now, is what I say in my article in Public Archaeology, the Irish Times and elsewhere not true? In this recent press release about a UNESCO roundtable, Vincent Salafia states: 'we still hope that a compromise can be reached, which will preserve the complex, and deliver the road'.

All such statements let the privatisers, developers and corrupt politicians off the hook and attack the Tara campaigns, grassroots organising (mainly women) and of course the objective of stopping the M3 and other similar destructive developments that communities worldwide are struggling against.

That's really helpful and clarifying: it tells us which side Vincent Salafia is on, the job he has set himself to do and for whom. A lot of money rides on a dirty compromise about the M3 and all market-led development. Vincent Salafia is doing a grand job for it.

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'Trinity College Centre to Host UNESCO Round Table on Hill of tara / M3 motorway'

Comments (7 of 7)