Expert warns port site is of vast historic importance

THE SITE earmarked for a major new port in north Dublin is of huge archaeological and historic importance and may be where St Patrick first landed in Ireland, according to one of the country's most eminent archaeologists.

Prof George Eogan has expressed concern about plans by the Drogheda Port company to build a new deepwater port, at an estimated cost of €300 million, at Bremore on the north Dublin coast.

He says the area contains a unified prehistoric cemetery of mounds that extends for over a mile, from Gormanston, which is north of the Delvin River, to Bremore, located to the south of the river.

Prof Eogan led the 40-year programme of archaeological work on Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth that led to the Boyne Valley being designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site and is considered a world authority in this area.

"It has the appearance of being a landing place for early people coming to Ireland and passage tombs were the likely burial places for people coming from the Iberian peninsula," he said.

The site at Bremore has not been excavated but was surveyed by Prof Etienne Rynne from NUI Galway in 1960.

"This does not detract from the importance of Bremore and Gormanston. There's enough evidence to say that it's contemporary with the Boyne valley," said Prof Eogan. "I would be concerned about the destruction of irreplaceable monuments."

The Neolithic cemetery of passage tombs at Bremore has been the subject of a preservation order for over 30 years and any development of the site would need to appropriately protect the monuments. It is estimated that the tombs date to 3,000 BC, of similar antiquity to the oldest monuments in the Boyne Valley.

In addition to archaeological significance of Bremore, said Prof Eogan, there was also evidence that it was around the mouth of the Delvin that St Patrick landed in Ireland for the first time, making it a historically important site. He said there were several alternative locations along the east coast for a port of the nature proposed by the company.

Bremore forms the central plank of an ambitious expansion plan by the Drogheda Port company, in conjunction with Treasury Holdings and the major Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa to develop a modern deepwater port, with an initial capacity of 10 million tonnes of freight per annum.

In January this year, the Government announced that, in order to speed up that process, compulsory purchase powers for the acquisition of land by the Drogheda Port company would be transferred to An Bórd Pleanála.

The port company hopes to be in a position to submit a full planning process application within the next 12 months and it is hoped that the new port would open in 2012.

In relation to archaeological issues the company said: "A full assessment of the area will be carried out before any application for planning permission is lodged."

The reason for the move, said the company in a statement, is that Drogheda port has run out of spare capacity. That has led to a considerable volume of traffic moving from Drogheda to Dublin port.

There have been suggestions that Bremore may be mooted by its promoters as a long-term replacement for Dublin port. But Paul Fleming of the Drogheda Port company said its growth reflected general increases in freight volumes.