Madam, - Your edition of February 21st quotes the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, as saying: "I am not trying to upset the kings [ of Tara]. . .If I had known that they were there I would have gone around them." It is not immediately apparent from this cryptic and arcane soundbite whether the Taoiseach meant that he would have "gone around them" to canvass them, or diverted his own entourage so as not to disturb them.
Possibly it would require some of the army of archaeologists to which he referred to carry out a detailed semantic excavation and penetrate the layers of his meaning.
Be that as it may, now that he knows that the dead generations of kings are there, should he not listen to his own Druidically oracular utterance and ensure that they are not upset, spiritually or physically? There are alternative routes for the M3. Nobody is trying to stop the commuters of Meath travelling up and down to Dublin.
If they respect what Cllr Shane Cassells calls "my area", then they should not do so through the broken bones, sacred sites and home places of our common ancestors. The Tara-Skryne Valley is not just Cllr Cassell's backyard and personal fiefdom. It is in a very real sense the very centre and symbolic heart of our nationhood.- Yours, etc.,
MAURICE O'CONNELL,
Oakpark,
Tralee,
Co Kerry.
Madam, - Who will gain by the construction of the M3 motorway? If you listen to all the pro-motorway groups you would get the impression that the poor, beleaguered commuter was set to benefit to such an extent that the compromising of Tara is overwhelmingly worth it.
I contend that the new motorway will have little effect on commuting times to Dublin and will reduce the volume of cars on the N3 only temporarily. The biggest hold-up for commuters is at Blanchardstown. The proposal to alleviate this bottleneck by increasing the number of cars reaching this point of congestion seems preposterous.
And what will we lose? Apart from destroying the Tara complex, a landscape we should be going out of our way to protect, we will be losing a valuable amenity at Dalgan Park. Local politicians and the chambers of commerce should be looking at using Tara to draw people to the country, not destroying one of the country's few resources.
We will also lose time. The delays in continuing with this route through Tara will be interminable. If the planning of an alternative route was started now the new road would be completed far sooner than the planned one. I suspect that if you surveyed people and told them that they can have a motorway (sooner) and Tara would remain unmolested you might get a favourable response.
One final point: what is the value of the Blundelstown interchange? No one has adequately explained what is to be gained by this anomaly. It will spawn housing estates or factories or warehousing conglomerations, which I suppose, will benefit the developers and further compromise Tara. - Yours, etc.,
NEVILLE WILKINSON,
Baronstown,
Tara,
Co Meath.