The Tara Bypass – what they won’t tell you
- This topic has 263 replies, 42 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 6 months ago by
.
- Posts
Indeed
Conference highlights Hill of Tara
From ireland.com06:57Monday, 21st May, 2007
The historical and cultural significance of the Hill of Tara will be highlighted at a special conference later today.The landmark, which has been at the centre of protests over the construction of the M3 motorway, will take centre stage in Trinity College Dublin.
Hosted by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, key speakers at the conference include Dr Sean Duffy of the Department of Medieval History, Dr Gerald Morgan of the School of English, and activist Vincent Salafia of Trinity’s law School.
The conference will be held in the Swift Theatre from 11am to 2pm.
The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies aims to encourage collaboration between scholars working in the early fields both within and outside Trinity and to promote Medieval and Renaissance studies both at home and abroad.
Taking care in digging deep into our past.
17 May 2007
Irish Times
(c) 2007, The Irish Times.The NRA’s archaeological survey work on the route of the M3 has been diligent and thorough, suggests Fred Barry
The discovery of what the National Roads Authority (NRA) believes to be a national monument at Lismullin on the route of the M3 motorway has generated much comment about the archaeological investigative practices of the NRA and the nature and significance of the site.
The M3 project is the product of a four-year planning process which began in 1999, leading to An Bord Pleanála’s decision to approve the proposed motorway in 2003. This followed a 28-day oral hearing which addressed all issues of concern, including potential impacts on the Hill of Tara and the archaeology of the area.
That process, which included 10 route options, took into consideration engineering, the environment, archaeological sensitivities, safety and cost.
The selected route was regarded by the county council and the NRA as the best because it gave archaeological protection a high priority in balance with other needs such as:
avoiding house demolition where possible;
avoiding placing the motorway too close to houses;
limiting the fracturing of residential communities;
minimising the splitting and disruption of farms;
minimising visual, noise and air quality impacts;
ensuring the route fulfils its transportation purpose.
The authority takes seriously its responsibilities in relation to archaeology and commits significant financial and personnel resources to ensure that archaeology is dealt with at all stages in full compliance with legislation.
We expect to spend in excess of €200 million on archaeological work on national road schemes over the seven-year period of the National Development Plan. For the M3 project, we have spent €23 million to date on archaeology, and more than 400 archaeologists have been employed.
The M3 involved desktop, field and geophysical surveys, following which the scheme was archaeologically tested. Some 160 sites were identified in 2004, including Lismullin, and seven additional sites also came to light. This rate of discovery is consistent with experience on other national road schemes.
The interim results of this archaeological work have been extensively publicised via a dedicated M3 website ( http://www.m3motorway.ie ), NRA Archaeological Discoveries series leaflets, and articles in Archaeology Ireland and the NRA’s new archaeology magazine Seanda.
In relation to Lismullin, a total of 810 objects were recovered during the topsoil assessment and, typically, the majority of these were modern in the form of nails, bolts and other agricultural debris.
Upon completion of the topsoil assessment, careful mechanical topsoil removal commenced. This was carried out slowly, using flat-bladed buckets, and under constant archaeological supervision and control. The site was revealed to be a series of smaller sites of varying dates from Bronze Age to early modern.
The whole area was then trowelled by hand in order to identify all archaeological features. Additional features were identified during this phase of archaeological review. They consisted of a series of arcs of small stakeholes which were not visible prior to excavation, because surface evidence had been removed by centuries of ploughing. The stakeholes are small, shallow (15-25cm, six to 10 inches) and difficult to distinguish from the sub-soil.
No one archaeological assessment technique can identify all archaeological remains hidden below topsoil.
It is widely acknowledged throughout Europe that archaeological test trenching, as used by the NRA, is the most successful methodology for identifying such sites. A combination of extensive testing and geophysical surveys, as carried out on the M3, is acknowledged as archaeological best practice. It was the combination of these phases of careful and deliberate assessment that led to the discovery of the enclosure at Lismullin.
The significance of the site was established by NRA archaeologists, and an on-site meeting was held with both the Department of the Environment’s chief archaeologist and the director of the National Museum. Following this, the authority submitted its findings to the Minister, who will issue his directions in due course and the NRA will fully implement them.
The M3 will comprise a total of 110km (68 miles) of new road and a further 34km of access roads. Work is continuing, with the exception of a zone in the vicinity of the Lismullin site.
After years of delay during the planning period and legal challenges (all of which supported the professionalism of those acting on behalf of the NRA and Meath County Council), we look forward to finally improving the quality of life, and the safety, of today’s residents of Meath and Cavan.
Fred Barry is chief executive of the National Roads Authority
This is the same NRA who were found to have breached the National Roads Authority Act 1993 in fulfilling their obligation to formulate a five year road needs study for the period when the scheme was given the green light.
Hardly an impartial article and nothing about a cost benefit analysis or usage rates.
Utterly polemical but what would you expect from the NRA?
@Sue wrote:
Fred Barry is chief executive of the National Roads Authority
His opinion therefore on how good of a job he and NRA are doing is not objective or relevant.
Balance being a polemical love in by the developer for the developer.
Shame on you
Shame on me for bringing an article in the Irish Times to a wider audience? :confused:
So is it shame on the Irish Times for publishing the piece? Shame on the NRA for defending themselves and putting forward their perspective?
Or, are people you don’t agree with not allowed to express their point of view?
For you to claim that it is balanced; the article was in no way objective and entirely devoid of statistics. I am also confused as to the stated distance between Clonee and Kells of 68 Miles given that the existing route is 40 miles in length.
The NRA are really very stupid people when they don’t even know the length of their own road schemes.
The news paper of record has obviously proof read or edited this article to allow such a glaring error remain
Now I must go Back to work my tube ticket costs money
I didn’t say the article was balanced, I said I was posting it to this site in order to give neutral readers the other side to the story – to “balance” all the anti-M3 stuff being posted by yourself and others.
Fair enough but can you address the fact that the head of the NRA is promoting a scheme that is 28 miles longer than the exiting route.
I think he means KM. I seem to remember the scheme being ~60km long, only slightly more than the N6 Galway – Ballinasloe which weighs in at 57km.
He is the head of a multi billion € spending government body
He must get it right
He didn’t
How many ads does the NRA take out in the Irish Times per annum? Of course they’ll print the press release
Look what the anti-Tara people are resorting to now – using dead dogs as propaganda weapons 😀
PRESS RELEASE
TARAWATCH.org
30 May 2007
‘TaraWatch Condemns Removal of Wolfhound Skeleton from Lismullen Henge,
While Roche Considers M3 Reroute’Archaeological works are taking place today at Lismullen henge, the
newly discovered national monument in the pathway of the M3 motorway,
in the Tara-Skryne Valley. In particular, archaeologists are removing
the remains of a massive dog, which appears to be an Irish Wolfhound,
found fully intact in the vicinity of the enclosure.
Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said:“The dog was amazing. It was in perfect condition and had been very
carefully buried; but it is gone now. Its teeth looked about 6 inches
long. This was an important piece of evidence that indicated that the
site was a royal enclosure”So we should stop building roads because there could be dead dogs buried underneath?? PVC, Rory W et al – I await your views. 😀
Well the Egyptians worshipped cats
The High Kings being superior obviously went for great big dogs!
I couldn’t give a flying fuck about dog skeletons or Vincent Salifa – what I care about is the fact that a pointless motorway is being built that will only increase the sprawl of Dublin. This road is being built to facilitate developers (check who owns landbanks on the route) who will further spoilt the landscape (with it’s historical associations) throw in thousands of houses without facilities in the usual unplanned manner and who’s attendent increase in traffic lead to a further deterioration in the quality of life of those commuters who travel in to Dublin from Navan and Kells and grind to a halt when they reach Blanchardstown anyway.
Sue if you can come up with reasonable answers to the issues highlighted above and not glib postings that cut and paste the ridiculous arguments from either side, please post them.
@Sue wrote:
Look what the anti-Tara people are resorting to now – using dead dogs as propaganda weapons 😀
‘TaraWatch Condemns Removal of Wolfhound Skeleton from Lismullen Henge,
While Roche Considers M3 Reroute’Hahaha!!! They made a funny. Old dog bones!? Next they will be telling us that old stones have archaelogical significance. Bulldoze the lot, that’s what I say.
Sue wrote:“The dog was amazing. It was in perfect condition and had been very
carefully buried]God what a bore that guy is. 6 inches? Clearly it was not a dog. It was even more significant:
The tribe Smilodontini contains the most well-known of the sabre-toothed cats, Smilodon. This genus, which is comprised of three known species, was widespread throughout the Americas, and existed during the late Pleistocene (1.5 mya – 10,000 years ago). Smilodon was a stocky cat, with short, powerful legs, and had a bobtail. Their canine teeth were the longest of all the true sabre-toothed cats, being about 7″ long (exposed length).
As Vincent Browne (a marginally more intelligent Vincent) would say “this is hugely significant”. The site clearly predates the Tara upstarts by maybe a million years.
Work must cease immediately. Incontrovertible evidence of the long lost landbridge between the old and new worlds.:D
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
