No Alternative But Legal Action By Vincent Salafia ''The M3 will pass within 1,200 metres of the top of the Hill of Tara. A 52 acre interchange will be clearly visible from the Hill, and over 40 individual archaeological sites within the valley between Tara and sister hill Skryne will be systematically demolished by archaeologists using mechanical diggers. Then the bulldozers will finish the job. Campaigners are now left with no alternative but to support a legal action that will seek a High Court injunction and judicial review of the Minister's decision.''

The Road to Hell
by Dr. Muireann Ni Bhrolchain
Spokesperson for
The Save Tara/Skryne Valley Campaign

The decision of the Minister of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to give consent to "a programme of archeological works" to proceed "at sites along a section of the proposed M3 motorway" will ensure that for this government the M3 will be the road to hell. This is the worst planning decision that has ever been taken by an Irish government. We will be the laughing stock of Europe and the World. The Minister had the power to protect the monuments in the path of the motorway - instead he has chosen to destroy. To destroy the heart of our premiere sacred, ancient capital. The Minister and the Taoiseach will become the 'Terminators of Tara' if this road goes ahead.

A statement on behalf of Edel Bhreathnach, Joe Fenwick and Conor Newman who have worked on the archaeology, history and literature of Tara since 1991 says: "Today is not only a dark day for Tara, but a dark day for Irish culture". It goes on to say: "This is a shameful decision that will have repercussions far and wide."

Despite warnings from all the experts, the advice given by the Halcrow Barry Route Selection Report and by archaeological companies employed to give the NRA advice the Minister has chosen to plough ahead with this horrific desecration of Ireland's premier sacred site. The Taoiseach and Minister Roche met with myself on April 27th and again I emphasised to them how unadvisable this route was. The new CEO for the NRA met with Edel Bhreathnach and Conor Newman over the past week but again all our arguments fell on deaf ears.

This is but one battle in the war to protect our heritage. The excavations alone could take years and will be an unnecessary expense. But the next step is to take the case to the European Parliament, to go court in Ireland and to the European Court if necessary. The protests will now be escalated far beyond the polite noises that have been made heretofore. We cannot continue to allow this Government to ride roughshod over our cultural heritage.

Moore Street in Dublin is one of the oldest surviving street trading districts in the city. Recently the City Council announced that it was raising the yearly cost of a trading license by roughly 450%, depending on the size of the trader's stall. Some traders pay around 150 euros a year (rising to 750 euros a year) for a smaller stall, such as the fish traders; whereas the flower sellers at the Henry Street junction, because of their location and the area of space they take up, could see their trading license fees rise to over 1500 euros.

All of the traders I spoke to were adamant they would not pay the increase, and a couple said that this measure was just the latest in a long line of attempts to rid the street of the traders by the authorities, short of ordering them off the street which would be far too politically sensitive. Other proposals have been made in the past that would ultimately mean the removal of the traders, such as the idea to have Moore St and Henry St covered with a glass roof (discarded eventually), or the construction of a new hotel and conference centre on the Carlton Cinema site, which would include the demolition of many existing small shops on the east side of the street, and the eventual removal of trading space from the street.

Indymedia's coverage of gentrifaction and Moore Street:
The Corp's Market Study | Save 16 Moore Street. | Photos Of The Site Of The 1916 Insurgents Last Stand | Sale Of The Century? | Save 16 Moore Street. | Photos Of The Site Of The 1916 Insurgents Last Stand | Communication is the Key | Is this the Death of Moore Street

Moore Street and Street Trading On Other Sites:
Lar Boland’s photos of ‘The Hill’ Dublin’s grubbiest flea market, evoke echoes of the grim twilight world of Monto’s slum tenements, deprivation, shebeens, and prostitution for Alan Murdoch from the Irish Arts Review. | Street Trading In Belfast | Dublin Street Traders need not become victims of Rip Off Ireland (Sinn Fein Press Release) | The Legal Side of Street Trading: STREET TRADING ACT, 1926 | CASUAL TRADING ACT, 1980

Article 40 of the Irish Constitution:

3.1° The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen.
"6.1. The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality:
i. The right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions.

From the Newswire:

On one of the calmest and fairest days of the year so far in the West of Ireland, with hardly a breeze blowing, a huge security operation involving the army and police was stood down when Air Force 1 was reported to have chosen not to land at the American Military Base at Shannon, due to dangerous headwinds!!?

In the meantime a small group of peace activists arrived outside the Airport today asking for the arrest of the war criminal George Bush, who was due to make a pit-stop there this afternoon. It appears that Mr Bush decided he’d prefer not to be arrested and moved on without stopping at Shannon leaving the police with nothing better to do than to get busy harassing and intimidating those very same citizens who work for the implementation of Irish and International Law with regard to war crimes, which is being ignored and abused by all those who claim to work in the service of those laws and our State.

I arrived at the industrial estate beside the airport to see former Irish Army Commandant Ed Horgan’s car stopped in a public place outside the perimeter of the airport and surrounded by a police car, 2 police vans and an unmarked special branch car. After Ed tried unsuccessfully to hand a written request for the arrest of American President George Bush to a Garda Detective, I watched as the detective and a guard opened and searched the boot of Ed’s car and his personal belongings without Ed’s permission, as more guards stood by watching.

This is an account of the conversation that took place between Detective Andrew Hayes, Ed Horgan, myself and Garda 266 who refused to give his name:

Chamber Court and Weaver Court is a small development of flats owned by Dublin City Council, just off Cork Street in the Coombe area of Dublin's south inner city. There are three blocks altogether, with approximately 60 units occupied at present. The two blocks lying perpendicular and fronting out onto Cork Street are known as Chamber Court, and the single block to the south of Chamber Street is Weaver Court. At present the Dublin 8 area is undergoing large regeneration, similar to that which is happening in Smithfield in Dublin 7, with the construction of large blocks of private apartments, with large price tags to match. The area had been neglected for many years and was considered an undesirable part of town, but is now being capitalised on by private developers for its proximity to the city centre.

Dublin City Council appears to be pursuing a policy with Chamber Court that mirrors that of the redevelopment of St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore. In St. Michael's Estate, the Council deliberately left many decent housing units vacant in an attempt to run down the estate, so the remaining familiies would leave and hence the land could be redeveloped under a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) scheme. Rita Fagan, a community activist in St Michael's said "they run the flats down on purpose. The necessary maintenance isn’t done. People find it very hard to live and want to move out." This is part of a wider strategy across the city where the Council is selling off its housing stock, and where possible taking existing public housing and redeveloping it, but with as much private housing squeezed into the space as possible.

** UPADTE 9TH MAY: Joe Higgins T.D. calls on Commission for Energy Regulation to cancel electricity generation licence to Tynagh Energy unless GAMA agrees to resolve outstanding pay issues immediately **

At a meeting of the Committee of GAMA employees currently on work stoppage, it was decided to call on GAMA management to come forward with a realistic proposal to resolve the outstanding issues, which include major unpaid overtime and the plight of a category of GAMA employees known as fixed rate workers.

The fixed rate employees include such workers as surveyors and drivers. The typical wage would be in the region of €800 per month, but that involved working the same 80-hour plus week as other workers.

GAMA today (Friday May 7th) made a concession and paid a back amount of money to the fixed rate workers equivalent to 42% of their previous wage. This is totally inadequate however as it would mean only an extra €332 for a worker on the €800 a month rate. This would mean that a fixed rate worker here for say, three years would get around €10,000, but a construction operative here for the same time would have had up to €30,000 in Finansbank, Holland.

The GAMA workers on strike today said they would be prepared to call a mass meeting of all workers in dispute, if the company made a realistic offer to the fixed rate workers and also a substantial offer in regard to the outstanding overtime for all workers.

The Committee consider it a major achievement that virtually all their wages that were hidden in Finansbank, Holland have now been transferred to their personal accounts. It is also a major achievement that GAMA is now committing itself to paying trade union rates of pay to all its workers.

The Committee realise that these concessions were won in the wake of the workers hard fight and are determined to continue the fight for justice until GAMA come forward with just and realistic proposals.

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