[Stones] Showdown at Tara

[Tim P]

Forwarded to me by a druid friend / client. As this is a forward, and I 
am not personally involved, I can not verify the veracity of the details 
below.

Tim



Posted by: "Dr. Muireann Ni Bhrolchain" muireann at indigo.ie muireanntemair
   Date: Tue May 22, 2007 5:11 pm ((PDT))

Action today
Wed May 23, 2007


Before I begin, action tomorrow at 6am. Lasts all day. The Irish Times
and Irish Independent photographers were there today. They witnessed the
intimidation.
It is difficult to know how to describe what happened today. We have
hundreds of photos and also video footage. To give a resume -
activists manned gates around the Roestown compound individually. They
slept there last night. They were joined by member of the public during
the day.
Some points need to be emphasised:
one young man was badly assaulted in front of gardaí as the SIAC manager
urged on the Howley workers (the contractors on this section) to get him
out of the way.
another young woman was thrown out of the way and hurt in the head etc.
another young man was thrown aside by the Howley workers
These by and large are ordinary working men - trying to earn a living.
They have been told that they will be fired if they join a union. They
did not get this job or take it on the understanding that they would
have to behave as bully boys for the NRA.
Protesters were bullied, injured, pushed, intimidated, dismissed by the
powers that be. The guards stood back as they were assaulted.
But when they realised that ordinary members of the public and
university lecturers were present the attitude changed - so there is a
great need for "ordinary people" to be present at this protest.
The election happens on Thursday - they want to destroy the Valley
before there is a possible change of Government. The smaller parties
have promised to move the road or to review the route or the whole
motorway project. They are determined to bulldoze the Valley before
then. We have to stop them. Now is the time to act for Tara.
The contractors are determined to attack the Valley - that means
Collierstown, Baronstown, Lismullin -
The activists need your help.
It is quite amazing how one person, two people at a gate can stop them.
This is the power of one, two, three ... but we need you all now. If you
care about Tara - now is the time to act.
Watching three people being threatened by a reversing lowlowder into a
small space, reversing into them was the most frightening experience of
my life.
We need the academics there - the workers, the chiefs, the guards act
differently when they are there.
Photos to follow tomorrow ...
Please pass this message on. This is the place where all is happening.
You have seen the aerials ... you know what they want to destroy ...
stop them now!
Roestown/ Collierstown/ Baronstown/ Lismullin/ ..........................

for information ring:
086 1758557
087-9249510
087 3171572
Newspapers will be full of it tomorrow
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 

Wed May 23, 2007 1:00 am ((PDT))

Clashes as M3 route protest is dispersed
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0523/1179498646355.html
Tim O'Brien
Campaign to Save Tara members attempt to stop construction vehicles
leaving the M3 site near Dunshaughlin, Co Meath
Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Conservationists opposed to the route of the M3 in Co Meath are expected
to make complaints to the Garda this morning about the way they were
treated during clashes at the motorway construction site yesterday.
Five conservationists attempted for the third consecutive day to block
access to and from a compound where plant and machinery are stored by
contractor Siac Ferrovial.
They were aided by a small group who attempted to block entrances to the
construction site about 1km north of Dunshaughlin.
Shortly before 9am yesterday, they allege they were "manhandled" out of
the way by workers at the site.
They immediately sent out telephone text messages headed "SOS", claiming
that "after 72 hours of peaceful protest" workers were "bullying 
activists".
One protester who asked not to be identified said he had been kicked
while another female member of the group had been thrown into a ditch.
The protesters had refused to move to allow the lorries and plant to
leave the compound.
The spokesman said, however, that "huge bulldozers" were used to create
new entrances, a move he insisted was in defiance of planning permission.
Gardaí were present but no arrests were made.
By mid-afternoon, the protesters were still attempting to block the
movement of lorries.
When The Irish Times spoke by phone to Dr Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin of the
department of medieval Irish studies at Maynooth, she said she was on
the protest sitting in front of a lorry.
Dr Ní Bhrolcháin said she was with a group of conservationists whose
names were being taken by a team of eight gardaí who said they were
trespassing on private property.
"We don't know if we are or not, we are in the gateway," she said. As Dr
Ní Bhrolcháin spoke a car approached the compound and was allowed in.
She said the protesters would make no attempt to prevent individual
workers from entering the site or going home and individual cars would
be allowed to leave.
A spokesman for the National Roads Authority referred all questions to
the contractor. A public relations spokeswoman for Siac Ferrovial said
the company had "essentially nothing to add on or off the record" to a
statement which was issued yesterday.
That statement said a number of people "blocked a few of the site
entrances to prevent plant and machinery entering and exiting a small
section of the site". It added that gardaí were called "as it is the
responsibility of the company to protect the health and safety of its
workers and the public on its site".
The spokeswoman later added that "protesters were removed peacefully
from the site for their own safety, as they were in danger of being
injured by construction machinery working nearby."
A spokeswoman for the Garda Press Office said: "Gardaí were called out
shortly after 8am to the site of the M3 motorway where a number of
protesters had been seen." She said they did not make any arrests and
the protest later dispersed.
Opponents of the M3 claim it passes too close to the Hill of Tara and
goes through the Tara Skryne valley.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Opinion, Irish Timesw, 23 May 2007
The wrong route
The small band of protesters who blocked the gates of the M3
construction compound to prevent earth-moving machinery exiting the site
to start work on this highly controversial motorway may well be doing
the State some service, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, in holding up
road-making activity until after the general election.
Depending on its result, politicians negotiating to form a new
government may agree to re-examine the advisability of routeing a
motorway through the most sensitive and important archaeological
landscape in Ireland.
Seven years have passed since the National Roads Authority (NRA) was
advised by archaeologist Margaret Gowen that the monuments around Tara
"cannot be viewed in isolation, or as individual sites, but must be seen
in the context of an intact archaeological landscape, which should not
under any circumstances be disturbed, in terms of visual or direct
impact on the monuments themselves".
This was also the view of leading academic experts on Tara - Dr Edel
Bhreathnach, Joe Fenwick and Conor Newman - and a host of scholars
worldwide, including the director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr
Pat Wallace. Despite this, and the inherent dangers involved in
proceeding with the route as planned, An Bord Pleanála gave its approval
in August 2003.
The recent discovery of a large prehistoric henge at Lismullen, and its
designation as a national monument, has given further weight to the case
made by opponents that the NRA, in pursuing the existing alignment,
would be "tip-toeing through monuments and moving whack into them", as
Conor Newman once put it. That is exactly what has happened in the case
of Lismullen, which was hitherto undetected.
Other archaeological sites along the route - such as the souterrains at
Roestown or the circular enclosure at Barronstown - might equally have
merited national monument status. But thanks to amending legislation
brought in by the present Government in the wake of the Carrickmines
Castle debacle, this was left to the NRA's own archaeologists to decide
without reference to any other body.
In his very fine speech at Westminster a week ago today, Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern referred to the extraordinary pace of change in Ireland,
and said: "We have seized our opportunities and honoured our heritage".
He also quoted Daniel O'Connell: "There is nothing politically right
that is morally wrong". We are not honouring our heritage by running a
motorway through Tara's landscape; the alignment of this stretch of the
M3 is morally wrong and cannot be regarded as politically right. An
alternative route should be found.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
Irish Independent, 23 May 2007
Tara is a symbol of Ireland united under a Christian Gaelic king, Brian
Boru, at Clontarf on Good Friday, 23 April 1014. Brian, still a warrior
and leader in his old age, was killed praying in his tent, reluctant to
fight on so holy a day. This is still a potent image of what it means to
be Irish.
GERALD MORGAN,
TRINITY COLLEGE
////////////////////
Tara protesters block depot to halt road works

By Paul Melia
Wednesday May 23 2007
OPPONENTS of the M3 motorway in Co Meath continued their protest
yesterday with a day-long stand-off at a depot near Dunshaughlin.
Up to 10 protesters stopped construction machinery from leaving a depot
at Cookstown to prevent further works being carried out on the
controversial 60km motorway being built through the Tara/Skryne Valley.
Yesterday, Fine Gael released a statement saying it would re-route the
road away from the Hill of Tara if the National Museum recommended it.
It emerged last month that a prehistoric ritual site, deemed to be a
national monument, had been discovered on the route at Lismullin, but a
decision has yet to be made to destroy it or leave it in place.
Transport spokesperson Olivia Mitchell said that while the party
supported the ?850m motorway, no national monuments should be destroyed
during its construction.
"Fine Gael supports the development of the M3, given that the existing
road is overcapacity, causes significant congestion and affects the
quality of life of those who rely on it each day," she said.
Gardai were called to Dunshaughlin yesterday as protesters spent their
second day trying to stop work on the motorway by preventing machinery
from leaving the depot which is situated a kilometre from Dunshaughlin.
There were some scuffles between demonstrators and construction workers,
but no arrests were made.
"We started a peaceful protest," one protester Debbie Reilly said.
"Gardai told me I wasn't in breach of the peace so I could continue my
protest.
"Gardai told the workers they couldn't do anything because we weren't
breaking the law." Contractors Siac Ferrovial were not available for
comment.
- Paul Melia