Worldwide Alert: Call for an International Solidarity Camp at the Hill of Tara, Ireland

The National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004 gives the Minister for the Environment the right to order the destruction of any national monument in Ireland if in his opinion it is in the “public interest”. In deciding the fate of a monument, the Minister may take into account matters of heritage, but he need not regard that as a primary consideration: it is stated quite clearly that the Minister’s opinion of the “public good” overrides all other considerations. So far the Minister’s opinion of the “public good” has led him to order the destruction of Carrickmines Castle so that the M50 Motorway can be completed, the first infrastructure project ever to be explicitly protected by an Act of the Irish State. Even now, archaeological sites are being destroyed along the route of the proposed M3 Motorway. In both these cases, the agreed route of the road was changed to benefit property speculators. In both cases, the route was changed so that it lay directly through national monuments. A group of protestors has set up camp on the Hill of Tara. Now, the Office of Public Works (OPW) is attempting to have them removed. The OPW claims that it owns the Hill of Tara, that Tara is the private property of a State body, to be used as it wishes. If a permanent international presence is established at Tara, if the ongoing archaeological destruction is subjected to monitoring for a worldwide audience, it will be made more difficult for the M3 to proceed. We are calling for an International Solidarity Camp at Tara; as many people as possible, from as many countries as possible, to send one message to the Irish State and the property speculators and financiers who will benefit from it: that the M3 will not be permitted to go through the Tara-Skryne Valley.