Apologies for the ongoing cross-posting, but I think the occasion warrants
it. This will be the last such cross-posting from me today on this topic.

More support provided to the Heritage Alliance.

Stiof

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr. Muireann Ni Bhrolchain [mailto:muireann@...]
> Sent: 16 May 2007 22:41
> To: aoife@...
> Subject: Press Release - Save Tara Campaign
>
>
>
> Find below a press release from the Campaign to Save Tara. Here is a
> link to a Photobucket that contains the aerial photographs taken by
> Paula Geraghty for the Campaign to Save Tara. Also included are two
> aerial shots taken of a new site near Collierstown - these were taken
by
> the Sunday World and have been given free of charge to the Campaign to
> use. If using Paula's photographs please credit her.
> http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u167/muireanntemair/April%20
> aerial%20shots/
> Also found at the end is a detailed release from the Heritage
> Protection
> Alliance of Ireland
>
> Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin 087-9249510
> http://www.savetara.com
>
> Campaign to Save Tara supports the Heritage Protection
> Alliance of Ireland
>
> The Campaign to Save Tara welcomes and supports the
> announcement of the
> Heritage Protection Alliance of Ireland and their call to repeal the
> National Monument Act of 2004. Ireland had the best protection of
> heritage in Europe until Minister Cullen amended this act and
> effectively gave ministers the power to destroy National Monuments in
> order to facilitate the agenda of unbridled and unsustainable
> development in the name of progress.
>
> Archaeology must be taken back into the care of the state and
> away from
> the NRA and the private archaeological contracting companies that it
> employs. Dúchas, or a body of its kind, must be put in place with an
> independent voice for archaeology.
>
> The practice of “preservation by record” is the order of the day and
> this is what faces the new National Monument at Lismullin. Why declare
> the appearance of a National Monument one week only to order its
> destruction the next? The Campaign to Save Tara asks that this site be
> fully investigated and then covered over and left in peace.
> The Campaign
> also asks that the whole area between it and Rath Lugh and its
> environs,
> including what used to be Lismullin Wood, be fully investigated by
> independent archaeologists and not those associated with the NRA. The
> Campaign also demands that the full extent of the associated finds at
> Lismullin be given and published immediately by the NRA.
>
> M. Ní Bhrolcháin said: “Tara is the line in the sand. If the
> Government
> are allowed to destroy Tara’s landscape then nowhere in
> Ireland is safe.
> The aerial shots taken by the Campaign clearly show that the whole
> Gabhra Valley is a monument and the road cannot be moved within it
> without destroying another possible National Monument. Sites such as
> Collierstown, Rowestown and Baronstown should also have been
> declared as
> National Monuments.”
>
> Michael Canney said: "This new heritage protection alliance is
> absolutely necessary if we are to stop the increasing trend of seeing
> our heritage as a obstacle to progress; as some kind of
> inconvenience to
> a glorious concrete-covered future. The time has come, and the public
> are way ahead of the political classes in this regard, where we must
> recognize environmental protection and economic development as
> a shared
> goal, because it is only through thoughtful management of our
> environmental and heritage resources, that future prosperity
> is guaranteed."
>
> For verification:
> Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin 087-9249510
> Michael Canney 086 8528200