THE SUMMER solstice has been celebrated on the Hill of Tara for millenniums, but rarely has the sun presented such a benign aspect as it did yesterday.
At 4.57am it rose as a huge ball of orange fire shimmering above the eastern horizon. The rising sun warmed the chilly dawn air for the 200 or so people who had gathered on Rath Gráinne, one of the highest parts of the hill, to watch the sunrise.
Many had stayed up all through the shortest night after what was described as a “heavenly sunset”. Bodhráns beat out a slow rhythm and tin whistles provided the accompaniment.
Invariably, the capricious nature of the Irish weather means the summer solstice is shrouded in clouds or rained off as it has been for the last several years, but not this year.
“Sometimes we only know the sun has risen because of the time, but this was beautiful,” said local druid Annette Peard who comes nearly every year.
She led visitors in the Awen, the druidic chant of joy. “We are celebrating walking in the path of our ancestors, remembering what it was like for them,” she said.
Amy Brunton, who witnessed the sunrise at Tara for the first time, described it as an “amazing really powerful experience.
“There was nothing really planned, but we all decided to come and share time and space with others,” she said.
In recent years, the summer solstice at Tara has been politicised because of the building of the hugely contentious M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley.
Among those who attended yesterday were two members of the Wangkumarra Aboriginal people in Australia who have sought the help of Tara campaigners in their struggle to preserve their lands.
Activist and author Hope Ebsworth, who wrote Bury me at Tartulla Hill about a hill sacred to the Aborigines, said many of the ancient rituals invoked at Tara were the same as those practised by his people.
The motorway, which was opened last month, cannot be easily seen from the top of the Hill of Tara and traffic is barely audible, but its presence was invoked several times.
“Tara is wounded,” said local campaigner JP Fay who wore a long gabardine cloak bearing an image of Morrigu, the Celtic goddess of war. “We need everybody’s prayers and help because the evil people [the Government] are working against us. They don’t care. The battle has been lost but there is such a thing as the curse of Tara. I wouldn’t wish it on any person,” he said.
The battle of the motorway may be lost, but campaigners say they are going to fight to have Tara preserved from further development. They also want bones, which were disturbed during excavation work, to be reinterred there.