"Tara is, because of its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its destruction will leave many bitter memories behind it." These words were penned by Douglas Hyde, George Moore and W.B. Yeats and published in the Times of London on June 27th 1902.
One hundred and two years later, the fate of the Tara complex in Co Meath once again hangs in the balance. This time, the threat is posed by the National Roads Authority, rather than the British Israelites. While the Israelites wanted to dig up the hill of Tara in search of the Ark of the Covenant, the NRA wishes to carve up the Tara Skyrne valley to make way for a new tolled motorway.
In her book Tara and the Ark of the Covenant, the archaeologist Mairead Carew notes that the exploration of Tara by the British Israelites, and the publicity campaign engineered by Irish cultural nationalists in response, were a watershed in Irish archaeology. It was the first time the Irish media had been involved in a campaign to protect a national monument.
The campaigners used a combination of direct action and publicity to put a halt to the explorations on the hill. It was a long battle, but Tara survived the depredations of the British-Israelites. Needless to remark, the ark was not found during their limited digging period but the scars of their work remain.
Today, the Save Tara Skyrne Valley group is working to raise awareness of the threat posed by the proposed M3. Lawyers retained by Vincent Salafia, PRO of the group, have been instructed to seek an injunction when the Minister for the Environment issues his final directions on the proposed excavations of some 38 archaeological sites identified along the motorway route.
Meanwhile, archaeologists who have been intimately involved in exploring the Tara complex over the past 13 years, under the auspices of the Government-funded Discovery programme, are also campaigning to have the motorway rerouted. Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick, lecturers at NUI Galway and experts on the Tara complex, flew over the Tara Skyrne valley in a four-seater Cessna plane and identified a further 10 new monuments.
The latest discoveries are concentrated to the north-east and north-west of the Hill of Tara, namely around Lismullen (to the north of Skryne) and on either side of the River Skane near Bellinter. They comprise a series of settlement enclosures and burial sites such as barrows. In some cases, the sites are so close to each other that they must be contemporaneous and represent the remains of distinct neighbourhoods or family clusters. Some, such as the new site at Bellinter, are probably ring forts from the early medieval era when the O'Neill ruled this region and claimed the kingship of Tara.
Conor Newman says: "It has long been recognised that the sites on the Hill of Tara itself are mainly monuments to the dead, comprising tombs and temples. The people who worshipped and buried their dead on the hilltop lived in the surrounding landscape. The honour of burial on the Hill of Tara may have been reserved for the highest ranks of society as there are, in fact, quite a few burial monuments in the fields around the Hill of Tara which probably served more immediate, domestic needs. Burial monuments, by their very nature, are more durable, and therefore easier to find, than settlements."
The settlement sites revealed in the new photographs therefore mark a significant advance in our knowledge of settlement patterns in this area, showing just how populated the landscape around Tara was throughout the past.
Flying with Conor Newman in the Cessna, a week later, the unique landscape that is Tara and Skyrne unfolded before my eyes. It is an area that should, by rights, be designated as a world heritage site rather than a potential motorway with the inevitable commercial, industrial and residential development it will bring.
Archaeological and historical remains abound. They are evident in the form of visible mounds, ditches and monuments as well as less obvious manifestations such as crop marks. Conor Newman pointed out the traces of a group of figure-of-eight Iron Age enclosures at Belpere, on the south-east slope of the Hill of Tara, which have been noticed again this year for the first time since 1969, when they were photographed by J.K.S. St Joseph of Cambridge University.
Tara is not just the top of the hill. The wider hinterland, roughly equivalent to the modern barony of Skyrne, was defined, in late prehistory, by those who created it, and is still marked by a ring of earthwork fortifications.
What is also evident from the air is the huge linear scar that looks as if the landscape was cut open and then pulled together with a crude blanket stitch. This test trenching marks the proposed route of the M3. The scar demonstrates the true scale of the proposed development and the devastation it will visit upon this sacred landscape, its monuments and its tranquillity. The major interchange just to the east of Rathmiles is a mere 1500 metres away from the Banqueting Hall on the Hill of Tara. In the words of Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick: "It will be a monumental eyesore and permanent scar on this intact archaeological environment"
Having grown up in the Tara Skyrne valley, I found it a privilege to have an overview of the landscape and horrifying to envisage the damage contemplated by the NRA. As a commuter living in Co Meath, I accept the need for a decent motorway, but why drive it through the most sacred landscape in Ireland? Why not reroute the 14.5-kilometre section from Dunshaughlin to Cannistown?
If we lose this landscape, we will lose the key to so much of our own past.