Minister Gormley Must Save Tara
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Mr John Gormley, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Ireland
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Petition to Minister Gormley, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to Declare the Entire Hill of Tara Archaeological Complex a National Monument and Re-route the M3 Motorway.
Published, 8 July 2007 by TaraWatch.org
The Hill of Tara archaeological complex, Ireland's premier national monument and most sacred landscape, is under dire threat from imminent bisection by construction of the M3 motorway. As Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, you have a constitutional imperative to give the highest level of statutory protection possible to the national monument. That includes all its individual components, many of which lie in the pathway of the M3, and are national monuments in their own right.
You were aware that the Director of the National Museum had stated that the massive enclosure at Baronstown should have been declared a national monument. Yet, it was demolished on your watch, after you ignored calls to place a Temporary Preservation Order on the site.
You have stated that you cannot alter the route of the M3, unless there is a "material change in circumstances", from those considered by Minister Dick Roche, who ordered the demolition of the newly discovered national monument; the Lismullin henge. There have in fact been many material changes, beyond the scope of the Lismullin file, including:
1. The inclusion of the Hill of Tara on the World Monuments Fund's List of 100 Most Endangered Sites is a material change in circumstances that was no considered by Minister Roche.
2. The fact that the EU has stated that the National Development Plan, as well as its M3 project, may be in breach of EU law constitutes a material change in circumstances. A report will issue in September 2007 from the Petitions Committee, and you should use the precautionary principle here, and halt the works in question, to prevent more irreversible damage to the delicate ancient remains.
3. The fact that an underground or 'souterrain' complex in Lismullin has been discovered is a material change in circumstances. It has been described as a "very significant" site by leading expert Professor George Eogan and should be declared a national monument.
4. The fact that you have been put on notice that the legal definition of a national monument is not being applied to these sites, or all monuments in Ireland, is a material change in circumstances. You have been advised by Conor Newman of a systemic flaw in the methodology for classification of national monuments currently being employed by the Chief State Archaeologist.
5. The Stern Report on the Economic Effects of Climate Change is a material change in circumstances that was not considered by Minister Roche, as it should have been. The M3 motorway was planned and approved in 2003, using radically outdated analysis.
Due to the above material changes in circumstances you now have the legal power under the National Monuments Act to protect the Tara complex and to re-route the M3 motorway. We demand that you immediately halt all works within the Tara complex and declare the entire complex, as well as all the monuments within it, to be national monuments. Stop the Tara scandal now
Published, 8 July 2007 by TaraWatch.org
The Hill of Tara archaeological complex, Ireland's premier national monument and most sacred landscape, is under dire threat from imminent bisection by construction of the M3 motorway. As Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, you have a constitutional imperative to give the highest level of statutory protection possible to the national monument. That includes all its individual components, many of which lie in the pathway of the M3, and are national monuments in their own right.
You were aware that the Director of the National Museum had stated that the massive enclosure at Baronstown should have been declared a national monument. Yet, it was demolished on your watch, after you ignored calls to place a Temporary Preservation Order on the site.
You have stated that you cannot alter the route of the M3, unless there is a "material change in circumstances", from those considered by Minister Dick Roche, who ordered the demolition of the newly discovered national monument; the Lismullin henge. There have in fact been many material changes, beyond the scope of the Lismullin file, including:
1. The inclusion of the Hill of Tara on the World Monuments Fund's List of 100 Most Endangered Sites is a material change in circumstances that was no considered by Minister Roche.
2. The fact that the EU has stated that the National Development Plan, as well as its M3 project, may be in breach of EU law constitutes a material change in circumstances. A report will issue in September 2007 from the Petitions Committee, and you should use the precautionary principle here, and halt the works in question, to prevent more irreversible damage to the delicate ancient remains.
3. The fact that an underground or 'souterrain' complex in Lismullin has been discovered is a material change in circumstances. It has been described as a "very significant" site by leading expert Professor George Eogan and should be declared a national monument.
4. The fact that you have been put on notice that the legal definition of a national monument is not being applied to these sites, or all monuments in Ireland, is a material change in circumstances. You have been advised by Conor Newman of a systemic flaw in the methodology for classification of national monuments currently being employed by the Chief State Archaeologist.
5. The Stern Report on the Economic Effects of Climate Change is a material change in circumstances that was not considered by Minister Roche, as it should have been. The M3 motorway was planned and approved in 2003, using radically outdated analysis.
Due to the above material changes in circumstances you now have the legal power under the National Monuments Act to protect the Tara complex and to re-route the M3 motorway. We demand that you immediately halt all works within the Tara complex and declare the entire complex, as well as all the monuments within it, to be national monuments. Stop the Tara scandal now
6816 Signatures
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Dr. James W. Zion
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Ellen Evert Hopman, M.Ed.
- Comments
- Tara is a world heritage site that MUST be protected
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Linda Cresswell
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Christine Davison
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John Fitzgerald
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Brigitta Bell
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Kevin Joseph Devlin
- Comments
- Tara is an Irish National Treasure and should be protected as all the other historical sites across the country
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Walgraeve Walter
- Comments
- Save our mutual heritage!!
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Kevin O' Carroll
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Norman Stiff
- Comments
- tell me there are more than 14 signatures!
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Sig Lonegren
- Comments
- Please work to reverse Ireland's apparent long-time policy of allowing the trashing its sacred sites!
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Melissa McCool
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johan staruss
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DERMOT DAVIS
- Comments
- A disgrace to our ancestors and a cultural loss to our descendants!
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Tracey Anne Rogers
- Comments
- forget more friggin roads, keep our monuments!
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Michael John Peck
- Comments
- you don't need more roads, you can't replace heritage, this is not a hard choice!
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Jen Richey
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Lori Larson
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Karl Murphy
- Comments
- Please stop this desecration of our Ancient Heritage
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Garland Elizabeth C. DeCourcy
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- Tara is very important to the whole World
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Evangeline Lillian Penelope DeCourcy-Fedder
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- Tara is Wonder of the World location
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Thor Wilhelm Talbott Wolfram DeCourcy-Fedder
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- The world NEEDS Tara & all the valley
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Andrew William Fedder
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- Shame on what you have already let be destroyed. Save Tara!
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John Cassidy
- Comments
- Save the Tara Complex environment using better and sustainable transportation routes and means.
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Travis Zachary DeCourcy Corse-Salas
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- extensive Railway expansion is the only proper thing to do
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Elizabeth Rose
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- For Heaven's sake, and all our children's sake, stop this wanton destruction of the most important cultural site in Ireland. There are other, better sites for a motorway. This is an international embarrassment.
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Julia Riell
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- Obviously this is a desecration! But if you can't fathom that, then think in terms of the uselessness of building a road when fossil fuels - and therefore cars- will be obsolete in fifty years. Surely you can come up with another solution!
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Lorna Peel
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Andrea Patterson
- Comments
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Adaline Ellen Wilson Patterson
- Comments
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Domhnall Mac Lochlainn
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- unforgivable destruction of our history and culture
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Leon & Penny Saunders
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Claire Drinkwater
- Comments
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graham Thew
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cary becker
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Ingemar Nordgren
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- As a graduate historian I see the Tara area as truly a heritage belonging to the whole world and specially important for the European pre-history.
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Bodi Mayo
- Comments
- Please save Tara Hill, so that I can bring my daughter over the pond and see part of her heritage, not a motorway.
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Claire Marie Jones
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James Byrne
- Comments
- I voted for the Greens on the basis they would divert the M3. I wouldnt have given them my first preference otherwise. Liars
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Angelique van Huijzen
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Marilou Cassidy McEnerney
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Charles Lyon
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Susan Davis
- Comments
- Please help. I want it preserved & protected for the next time I visit Ireland because I haven't been to that part of the country. I was in the west & it was WONDERFUL.
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James Faulk
- Comments
- Why destroy history for senseless greed? Please save these beautiful and inspiring landmarks for our future, and our future's future.
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Werner A. Hack LL.M. M.A.
- Comments
- Save Our Heritage!!!
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Pat Breen
- Comments
- Mr. Gormley has reneged on the Irish people and our national heritage. We have enough roads, but poor spatial planners.
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michael horton
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Susan Knight
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- As a long-time Green Party member I am dismayed at the degree to which our ministers are bending their principles to fit government policy
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Claudia Nichols
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Richard Keogh
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6816
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