The Campaign to Save Tara would like to officially announce that John Quigley, an internationally renowned aerial artist, as well as Stuart Townsend will be creating a piece of human aerial art on the Hill of Tara on Sunday 23rd September.
People wanted to help create an aerial art event at Tara on that day - meeting at 3pm in the car park.
Wear white Bring rain gear to sit on.
Join us in creating a striking human aerial image to tell the world about the destruction of the Gabhra Valley.
Photo will be created by internationally renowned aerial artist John Quigley.

We need between 500-1000 people to spell out the words SAVE TARA VALLEY and the outline of a harp on the hill.
To see John Quigley's work visit his website: http://www.spectralq.com/

To give you some background - the first suggestion of this event arose in March of this year when Stuart approached me. Then John Quigley and himself came back with a firmer suggestion in August.
The original date was to be the 22nd Sept but that clashed with the Harpists event that is taking shape at present and spreading to America.
We tried to change the date to 29th Sept but there were flight
complications for those involved.
A number of phone conversations took place between the co-ordinator of CST and John Quigley over the past week. Then we had a phone conferencing call last night with Stuart John and myself and filled the co-ordinator in on the result.
We had a meeting tonight to iron out the details.
We will need about 30 volunteers to help shape the people into letters as well.
A press release will go out in the next few days.
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The Campaign to Save Tara is pleased to help the organisers by issuing a press release on the following events. Contacts are within the email.
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin
087-9249510
http://www.savetara.com

On Saturday 22nd September 2007 at 3 p.m. the harpers of Ireland will gather at Dáil Éireann to demonstrate publicly the strength of their opposition to the destruction of historic cultural sites at the Tara/Skryne Valley as a result of the current route of the M3 motorway. The harpers will assemble with their harps along Kildare Street, and will submit a petition to Minister John Gormley insisting he implement alternatives to the continued destruction which is taking place.
Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem. This indicates the primacy of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.
Tara was the gathering place for thousands of harpers to 142 kings, and the harp was an integral part of the ancient Irish parliament at Tara. The harp has been used in the coat of arms of Ireland since 1270 and is the symbol of the Irish State today. It is found in the seals of the President, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Government Ministers, on State currency and is the insignia of the Irish Law Courts.
It is an outrage that the Irish people should be forced to choose between infrastructure and heritage. As a country we are embarrassed internationally by profit-driven, shortsighted planning as exemplified by the fact that World Monument Fund has placed Tara on its list of 100 most endangered sites worldwide.
Many can rightly point out that it would be an archaeological loss, and a historical one. It is also a spiritual loss, since even before the conversion by St Patrick of Ireland’s High Kings it was a place where the Irish sought to express their spirituality. And significantly for us as a nation, it was the place of birth of Christianity in Ireland. The gathering of harpers says that it is also a musical and cultural loss and asserts that the sound of Tara’s harp will not be drowned by traffic jams and the cash registers of toll plazas.
Further information from www.myspace.com/TaraHarpers
Laoise Kelly Tel. 086 2603405 or laoise.kelly@face.ie
Anne-Marie O’Farrell 01

The latest news on Tara - National Monument at Lismullin
So much has happened over the past two weeks that I have not had a chance to keep you beboers up to date. Please visit the website http://www.savetara.com for all updated info. We have issued a number of press releases on what's going on at Lismullin and I'll post up a series of the most important photographs here as well.
For newspaper coverage for May alone see: http://www.savetara.com/articles.html

Court Case
An Taisce took a court case to the high court that failed but they have appealed to the Supreme Court and that case is still ongoing - details unknown.
Of course the big news is the henge at Lismullin - a National Monument! no less. Mind you, if the campaign had not found out ourselves about the henge I doubt that it would ever have come to light!


Here's the press release we issued when it was announced:

Pro-Tara Campaigners very pleased
- at National Monument declaration.
The Campaign to Save Tara is very pleased at today’s announcement that construction is to be stopped on the proposed route of the M3 through the Tara/Skreen Valley.
Under the National Monuments Act the archaeologists contracted by the NRA were forced to declare a likely National Monument has been discovered.
Lismullin National MonumentIt had been the Save Tara Campaign that first alerted the National Museum to the potential significance of the Lismullin site, a wood henge which is within 100mts of the Rath Lugh monument, and directly within the path of the proposed motorway. It is known that the Museum immediately contacted the NRA seeking information on the find.
Henges are generally used for ceremonial activity and this directly links the Valley with the top of the Hill of Tara where a similar henge was found by the Discovery Programme archaeologists Conor Newman and Joe Fenwick.
This Government does not exactly have a stellar record in dealing with heritage or archaeology and the amended National Monument Act of 2004 gives the Minister permission to destroy this precious area.
The Campaign again ask that any construction by held off until the election is over and a new Government is put in place.
The Lismullin site had not been accurately identified during the initial archaeological survey of the route and the discovery of a henge almost 80mtrs in diameter and comprising of two concentric circles caused surprise to the archaeological contractors and near-apoplexy at the National Roads Authority.
It would appear that there are underground passages associated with the henge.
Michael Canney from the campaign said: "Everybody knew that this route was destined to destroy the landscape of Tara if it went ahead. The advice of national and international experts was ignored. This route was chosen because it was favored by local politicians and businessmen. That this monument has been discovered is more by accident than by design and many other sites that were of significance have been hastily and inadequately surveyed. We now call on the Government and the NRA to abandon this route – admit they have made a serious mistake and act properly and positively to protect our heritage".
"Minister Cullen and the NRA must now admit that this road is wholly inappropriate for the landscape of Tara and initiate a review of the whole project. The people of Meath deserve to have a decent rail transport system and the line to Navan should be re-opened immediately. This road would have done nothing to create local jobs, and in fact would have exacerbated the multitude of problems faced by the people of Meath regarding planning and transport", he added.
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin,
Campaign to Save Tara.
Credit Photo to: Paula Geraghty, Campaign supporter.
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And a further press release

Campaign to Save Tara
Press Release
15:30hrs, 4th. May 2007.
Arrogance and Ineptitude led to M3 Debacle.
After the recent announcement of the discovery of a

Find below a press release from Campaign to Save Tara. Further photograph links are found at the end.
For verification contact Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin Campaign to Save Tara. 087-9249510
Please feel free to use the photographs - copyleft and noone needs to be credited.
Visit the website http://www.savetara.com - fund raising is also in progress for a political campaign.

Press release – Campaign to Save Tara - for immediate release

Site at Lismullin excavated with indecent haste

The Campaign to Save Tara wishes to commiserate with An Taisce after the High Court refused its case on the M3. As this case unfolded, the Campaign has received reports coming in about the archaeological site at Lismullin on the proposed route of the M3. There is grave concern that it is being excavated with indecent haste. The report of the NRA originally described this site as “eleven pit features and linear features”, now it is a huge site that is expanding daily, stretching as it does from the Rath Lugh complex to the bridge over the legendary Gabhra river at the back of Lismullin House.

The Campaign has heard that the number of archaeologists will soon reach 100 and that the time limit for excavation is one month. It is not possible to complete serious archaeological work on such a massive area with complicated features in that space of time. The work methods include mechanical diggers taking feet of topsoil and depositing this in spoil heaps that contain archaeology (pottery for example). These heaps are not examined, they are traversed by these huge machines that crush any possible deposits.

The NRA has constantly down-graded the sites on the chosen route. This was of such concern to the Director of the National Museum that he said the NRA’s description of Roestown: “amounts to the re-definition of a monument type in non-monument terms” (16 March 2005). Roestown was shown to contain spectacular souterrains and a high-class habitation site with rich finds.

Even a casual observer of the digs on the route will now see that they can be described as a mosaic of sites radiating from Tara, a complex of contiguous areas, some only 100 yards apart. This bears out what C. Newman, J. Fenwick and E. Bhreathnach said in a statement (March 2004): “the central ceremonial complex on the hill was surrounded by settlements, religious monuments, ceremonial entrances and route-ways and strategically-placed fortifications”. The Director of the National Museum stated: “Taken together, this group of monuments constitute an archaeological and cultural landscape”

But Brian Duffy, Chief State Archaeologist, denies the existence of a landscape: “These monuments cannot be considered to be part of some greater Tara monument”. However, this is the same person who stated in the same document: “It could be argued that the M3 will be a monument of major significance in the future…” (December 2004).

The Campaign to Save Tara maintains that these sites are all part of the Tara landscape and that the entire Gabhra Valley is a National Monument. These sites should not be considered individually but as one continuous complex.

M. Ní Bhrolcháin said on behalf of the Campaign: “This is salvage archaeology. Why does Lismullin have to be excavated in a month? The road will take years to build. The methods used as akin to “smash and grab” and sites such as this will be seriously compromised by this type of open cast archaeology”.

Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin
Campaign to Save Tara
http://www.savetara.com <http://www.savetara.com/>
For a series of photographs see http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81823
Also see the many photographs at http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u...
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And againhttp://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u...