Seat of kings included in must-see endangered list

Irish News - 28 February 2009 - By Rebecca Black

http://www.irishnews.com/appnews/540/5860/2009/2/28/611421_373835638242Seatofki.\
html

Campaigners battling to protect Ireland's ancient seat of kings from bulldozers
have received a boost after it was named a must-see international attraction on
a par with the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

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Standing on the remains on the ancient Hill of Tara, it would be hard not to
reflect on the thousands of years of history under your feet. Tara has loomed
over the Co Meath countryside since 4000BC witnessing centuries of births,
deaths, battles and speeches, from prehistoric leaders vying for supremacy to
Daniel O'Connell campaigning for Catholic Emancipation.

The home of the Ard Ri na hEireann, the High King of Ireland, saw more than 100
kings crowned and even Saint Patrick is believed to have stopped there to seek
royal permission before spreading his message of Christianity. In more recent
history the hill was the site of Daniel O'Connell's 1843 "monster meeting" that
rallied together 750,000 people demanding equal rights for Catholics, political
representation and Irish Independence.

Nowadays the hill remains still and contemplative making it an ideal spot to
watch the sun set on a midsummer's eve. However, Tara has also been front page
news since a decision by the Irish Government in 2003 to approve construction of
a new four-lane toll way, the M3, through one of Ireland's most historic sites.

The National Roads Authority says the new motorway will actually be further away
from the hill itself than the existing route. Construction began in 2005 and is
scheduled to be finished in the middle of next year but may be completed before
that.

However, America's influential Smithsonian Institute has now selected Tara for
an exclusive list of must-see endangered sites around the world. The museum and
research centre put it on par with the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem,
thought ti mark the birthplace of Christ, and the well-known Route 66 through
the heart of the US.

"Tara is part of the Irish psyche," George Eogan, a retired Dublin archaeologist
who led excavations near the hill in the 1960s, said.

"Irish people, they know of Tara from their very early days. It's in schoolbooks
and stories, even in primary school."

Vincent Salafia, campaigner with the TaraWatch group, urged the
Government to take the Smithsonian's advice. "This should send a clear message
to both the Irish Government, and UNESCO, that they cannot proceed with
inscribing the Hill of Tara as a World Heritage Site, unless the M3 is
re-routed," he said. "Action must be taken now, to avoid the Stonehenge
scenario, where the UK Government is being told by UNESCO to spend £1bn
(€1.12bn) moving the roads there."

The Department of Environment and Minister John Gormley are drawing
up a short-list of sites to be considered as Unesco world heritage
sites - campaigners have urged officials to put forward Tara. "The Smithsonian
is one of the world's leading cultural institutions and authorities, and their
opinion rubbishes the claims made by Minister Gormley, that the M3 is not an
obstacle to making Tara a World Heritage Site," Mr Salafia said.

The list, published online and included in the March edition of the
Smithsonian Magazine, warns that some of the world's most precious
historic and artistic sites might be gone tomorrow. Also included in the list is
the Fenestrelle Fortress in Italy, better known as the Great Wall of the Alps,
the ancient Chan Chan mud-brick settlement in Peru and the Serbian Orthodox
Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo.

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