'State Vandalism!?'

dublin | environment | event notice Sunday June 20, 2004 19:09 by Save Tara Skryne Valley Group savetaraskreen at yahoo dot com PO BOx 30 Tara County Meath 087-132-3365

Finest Irish, Viking and Norman Monuments Under Threat

Is the National Monuments (Amendment) Bill 2004 a recipie for 'legal vandalism' of national monuments by the Irish Government's development-led agenda?

Jim Fitzpatrick Joins in Opposition

SAVE TARA SKRYNE VALLEY GROUP

PRESS RELEASE

20 June 2004

"'State Vandalism?'; Finest Irish, Viking and Norman Monuments Under Threat" -

A National Monuments Forum is being held on Monday 21st June in the Lecture Hall of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, from 12.00-2.00 PM, to discuss the contents and implications of the Bill. The lunchtime lecture, 12.00 - 2.00 pm is open and free to the public.

The National Monunents Bill was presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas by Martin Cullen, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, on Thursday 17th June, It was met with heated debate, which will resume on Tuesday 22nd June.

Since national monuments are the subject of the legislation, it is critical that there be a national debate on the issue.

- FRANK CALLANAN, Senior Council, will speak on 'Carrickmines I'. Mr. Callanan won the Supreme Court injunction, under the National Monuments Act, against Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, preventing demolition of the Carrickmines Castle site, February 2003.

- DR. SEAN DUFFY, Chairman of Friends of Medieval Dublin, at the History Department of Trinity College Dublin, will discuss the Carrickmines Castle / M50 affair. The Bill will facilitate the destruction of Carrickmines Castle, a Norman Castle built in te 12th century.

- DR. MUIREANN NI BHROLCHAIN, of the Celtic Studies Department at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, will discuss the proposeed M3 motorway and the Hill of Tara. The Bill will allow the M3 motorway to plough through the archaeological complex at Tara, destroying 28 newly 'discovered' sites.

- PROFESSOR DONNCHADH O CORRAIN, of the History Department at Univerity College Cork, will discuss the recent Viking find in Waterford. The Bill will allow the Waterford Bypass to destroy the earliest Viking site in Ireland, and one of Europe's most important.

The Bill will also threaten sites such as Trim Castle, Dunboyne Castle, and the Round Tower in Clondalkin. It has been strongly criticised by all Opposition parties and figures such as Mary Lou McDonald, MEP; (Sinn Fein) Eamon Gilmore, TD (Labour); Bernard Durkin, TD (Fine Gael); and Trevor Sargent, TD (Greens).

All members of the Oireachtas are also being invited to hear some Ireland's leading historians and legal experts present their opinions on the matter.

Protests will resume outside the Dail on Tuesday, when the Bill is due to be debated again.