Madam, - Frank McDonald's report in your edition of July 14th is a depressing vindication of those 320-plus academics and scholars worldwide who signed a statement expressing their concern for the fate of Tara with the construction of the M3 tolled motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley.
If the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is so willing to abdicate its responsibility for Ireland's heritage to a road-building quango, then surely the use of digging machinery and dumper trucks to clear "topsoil" from the national monuments in the royal estate of Tara should come as no surprise.
On foot of Minister for the Environment Dick Roche's directives, and in deference to this most culturally sensitive of landscapes, where is the detailed research agenda, the independent supervision and the standards of best archaeological practice that we were led to believe would be implemented? - Yours, etc,
JOE FENWICK, Department of Archaeology, NUI, Galway.