Tara protesters bring campaign to US

Campaigners battling the development of the M3 motorway near the historic Hill of Tara take their protest to the US today.

Campaigners battling the development of the M3 motorway near the historic Hill of Tara take their protest to the US today.

Poets, musicians, historians and archaeologists joined the Save Tara group outside the Consulate General of Ireland in New York this morning. At the same time protests are being held in Chicago, Los Angeles and Dublin.

Tara in Co Meath, was earlier this year placed on the World Monuments Fund list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.

In a statement today, the WMF called for the development to stop.

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"Tara Hill, which is the centerpiece of a large archaeological landscape with hundreds of significant sites, is the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland," said Bonnie Burnham, president of theWMF.

"It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara's surrounding landscape, about which we have much to learn, is destroyed for a highway development that will only encourage more rapid and inappropriate development.

"We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision."

A conference is being held on Tara at Trinity College in Dublin.

The US events are the latest in a string of high profile moves to pressure the Government into rerouting the M3. Campaigners have enlisted the support of Hollywood actors Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Stuart Townsend and the pair will fly over Tara tomorrow as protesters gather below.