Irish road to progress jams at ancient hill

Submitted by PaulM on Wednesday, 30 March 2005 Page Views: 3091

Ancient peoples crowned more than 100 kings here. Ireland's patron saint Patrick is believed to have faced down his druid foes on its windswept slopes. But now the Irish government wants to lay a motorway alongside Hill of Tara -- Ireland's spiritual heart.

"You could call it Ireland's national monument. The very name Tara evokes the spirit of the Irish people. You could not pick a more important site," campaigner Vincent Salafia said.

There are few places where the tensions between Irish heritage and its economic acceleration pull harder than at these 6,000 year old remains where ancient Irish royalty once lived.

Tara is thought to be one of Europe's best Stone Age archaeological complexes but to the uninformed eye, the ancient seat is just a strange, undulating land on a sparse hill-top some 30 km (19 miles) northwest of Dublin.

Followers of ancient Celtic myth say a large, phallic-shaped piece of granite that stands on Tara is the "Stone of Destiny", reputed to be Ireland's ancient coronation stone and said to have roared when touched by the rightful king of Tara.

The few remains of the old civilisations hide beneath grassy shapes moulded from the royal buildings and banquet halls that once stood here.

School buses chug up to Tara so children can scramble over the mounds of grass, and parents take toddlers there to touch base with their roots and kick footballs into the wind.

LINE IN THE SAND

The hill itself is not spectacular, but its significance to the Irish is, as a window to the past and as a national symbol. The modern tussle at Tara has also become a symbol for a wider clash -- between preservation and progress.

"Tara is the line in the sand. It is a touchstone for people in a way that other places have not been," Celtic historian Muireann Ni Bhrolchain said.

Many, even those that live there, argue that a motorway beside Tara's slopes and connecting Dublin to the town of Navan and the northwest of Ireland is now vital.

"I respect every inch of this hill but I can live with this road because I know how much it is needed," author Michael Slavin explained from his small bookshop at Hill of Tara's peak.

"It might be that in 80 years people will be floating around in hovering machines but, for the next 80 years, I am not going to inflict misery on 100,000 people by opposing this road."

Developers argue that unless they can change some of its landscape, Ireland will struggle to spread Dublin's wealth, attract investors out of the congested capital and maintain the growth that earned the "Celtic Tiger" tag.

"The country has to do something to counterbalance the growth of Dublin," said development officer Frank Fitzmaurice.

HISTORY, HOLLYWOOD AND THE HILL

Heritage campaigners do not deny the need for safer and bigger roads in one of Europe's fastest growing economies.

"We are not against motorways. It is understood that you are going to be hitting historical sites in Ireland," Salafia said.

But the prospect of a motorway 'hitting' the Tara region is different, even though the hill itself would be spared.

"The Hill of Tara belongs to the people of Ireland and the local people do not have the right to decide its fate," Salafia said.

Nor has the balance between boosting development and preserving monuments always been well-managed.

"There is beginning to be a realisation that we are going too far down the development route rather than thinking about heritage and the environment," Ni Bhrolchain told Reuters.

It is a measure of the importance that the opposing sides attach to Tara that the battle between heritage and development has pitted ministers against Hollywood stars.

"Better roads mean a better future," Minister for Transport Martin Cullen declared at the unveiling of a 1.4 billion euro (970 million pounds) 2005 road plan in February.

The spiritual descendants of Tara's ancient rulers plan to make a pilgrimage there at summer solstice to cast spells to block the construction of the motorway.

Celebrities have also become involved in the effort.

Irish actor Stuart Townsend -- who has appeared in a smattering of Hollywood films -- has joined the opposing ranks, convincing his Oscar-winning actress girlfriend Charlize Theron to have her portrait painted and sold to highlight the issue.

"But you don't see many Hollywood actors waiting for a bus in Navan at a quarter to six in the morning," Fitzmaurice said.

Source: Reuters 30 March 2005

Contributor Bio for PaulM: Based in Macclesfield, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Hordron Edge. Occupation: Something in waste and recycling.

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