The National Roads Authority (NRA) is giving academics at home and abroad a "virtual tour" of the M3 to back up its claim that the controversial motorway will have a minimal impact on the Hill of Tara.
The "tour" is on a DVD sent out recently as part of an elaborate information pack targeted at "the many people, in Ireland and abroad, with an academic and professional interest in the NRA's archaeological work".
It was prepared under the direction of Dáire O'Rourke, the NRA's senior archaeologist, against the background of growing criticism of the M3 from academics both here and overseas, more than 300 of whom signed a protest letter.
Dismissed as "propaganda" by archaeologist Dr Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, spokeswoman for Save the Tara Skryne Valley campaign, the pack was compiled with the advice of Dr Michael Ryan, former president of the Royal Irish Academy.
Dr Ryan, director of the Chester Beatty Library and former keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum, confirmed to The Irish Times that he had read most of the documentation prepared for the pack and "made some comments on it".
Though he said alternative routes for the motorway should have been explored, Dr Ryan believes that the NRA's archaeologists "want to do things right and they should be encouraged to do that". He denied that the information pack was "propaganda".
The pack says that a more westerly route was not selected because it would "lie in full view" of the panorama from Tara encompassing the central plain of Ireland and pass very close to several large archaeological sites, such as Ringlestown Rath.
A route east of the Hill of Skryne was also seen as a "less viable option" because of its impact on local communities and remoteness relative to the existing N3. For that reason, it had been ruled out by Meath County Council's road engineers.
It points out that the 60-kilometre route of the M3 was "walked by archaeologists" when the environmental impact statement on the scheme was being prepared. Geophysical surveys had also been carried out to identify archaeological sites.
Aided by test-trenching, a total of 156 sites were identified along the route, of which 132 (approximately 85 per cent) are prehistoric, dating from 7000 BC to AD 400, five sites are early medieval (400 to AD1169), nine medieval and 11 post-medieval. According to the pack, "the most spectacular results to date are three large enclosure complexes revealed in plan by geophysical survey on the Dunshaughlin-Navan section", which is the most contentious stretch of the motorway.
The authors admit that the archaeological work carried out so far is "preliminary" and that "many details remain unclear at this stage". It has been estimated that the full cost of excavating sites along this section could be as high as €40 million.
"Clearly, the M3 . . . road scheme is not an archaeological research project", the information pack says. "The sites being investigated are not being chosen to answer particular research questions, nor are they a completely random sample".
But it adds that road schemes "have a tendency to highlight previously unidentified monument types, which are changing the face of Irish archaeology. The next phase of work on the M3 has enormous potential to contribute to archaeological research".
Altogether, including its slip roads, the €600 million motorway will consume 1,680 acres of land. It is intended to be built as a public-private project, and tolls will be charged for the privilege of using it.
