Yesterday's announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, that he intends to make a preservation order for the Woodstown Viking site in Waterford will be welcomed by everyone with an interest in safeguarding our heritage.
For Woodstown is truly a site of international significance as the only Viking longphort (ship fortress) to be unearthed in Western Europe, pre-dating the foundation of Waterford itself. It was from here, in the 9th century, that raiding parties travelled up the Suir, Barrow and Nore. To have rolled over it for the city's €300 million by-pass would have been, in this instance, an act of monumental folly and would have deprived future generations of a valuable part of their heritage.
The mystery is why it has taken so long to make a decision. After all, the site was discovered 18 months ago, during the course of preliminary archaeological investigations along the route of the bypass. Surely it should have been self-evident to all, including Mr Roche's predecessor, Mr Martin Cullen, who represents Waterford in the Dáil, that Woodstown was immensely more important than sites such as Carrickmines Castle in Co Dublin? Yet it took a determined campaign by the Save Viking Waterford action group to convince the National Roads Authority and its political overlords that an alternative route would have to be found to protect the site - or, more likely, to avoid the expense of having to deal with it.
There is still some doubt about whether Woodstown will be excavated archaeologically. That should be dispelled by Mr Roche and funds should be made available to the National Museum to carry out a proper "dig". One of the intriguing questions this might answer is why Woodstown did not become Waterford. As the museum's director, Dr Patrick Wallace, has said, excavation of the site, rather than mere preservation, would "throw light on the probable different nature of the two settlements . . . and on why this settlement at Woodstown was established in the first place".
The Minister is still considering what to do about the M3 motorway and, in particular, its impact on the Tara-Skryne valley. Although there are archaeological sites in its path, none of them are as significant as Woodstown. What is of crucial importance, however, is the landscape surrounding the Hill of Tara.
It should also be evident to Mr Roche that any decision by him in favour of the chosen route for the M3 will face protracted and costly legal actions. Even in the heated atmosphere of a by-election campaign, with calls on him not to stand in the way of "progress", the sensible option would be to avoid the most sensitive archaeological zone - as has now been done, belatedly, at Woodstown.