Madam, - I find it most bemusing to read Minister for the Environment Dick Roche's positively gushing comments about the Viking Site in Woodstown, Waterford and its 1,000 year history (The Irish Times, July 6th).
While I am in no doubt that the find is of great archaeological and cultural significance, it is a mere adolescent compared with the more ancient and certainly more significant Tara-Skryne complex. And with all due respect to our Viking brothers and the fine heritage they bequeathed us, Tara of the Kings was Tara of the Irish Kings.
If Mr Roche can go out of his way to declare Woodstown a national monument, so that part of a ring road had to be re-routed around the site, surely he can do the same for the Tara-Skryne valley and avoid an international, disgrace.
There is no denying that the hard-pressed people of Meath and beyond are in desperate need of a road (among other transport options) that alleviates their double dose of daily suffering when commuting to and from Dublin, but there are better options than the route the Minister and the NRA so stubbornly favour. - Is mise,
COLIN O'BYRNE, Donnycarney, Dublin 5.