Bypass ‘travesty’ at the fairytale castle

AS part of the N22 bypass of Macroom in Co Cork, the NRA proposes to erect a flyover at the site of a monument to six people killed during the civil war and a roundabout in front of Carrigaphooca Castle.

All of the works involved in this travesty will be visible at a glance. Does this sum up the Government’s pathetic approach to our heritage?

At the current display of the proposed road route, Carrigaphooca Castle and Stone Circle, both national monuments and one a prime example of a Gaelic tower house, were not even pictured on the map. Neither was the monument to six young men who died in the civil war in 1922.

Instead we were treated to a mélange of images of cows’ udders and furze bushes. This is a serious example of misinformation by a government body in what is supposed to be a public consultation process. This proposed destruction of the environment of an important part of our national heritage merits serious scrutiny.

When a road was proposed through the Woodstown Viking site in Martin Cullen’s constituency, it was moved. Why is that heritage more important than our Gaelic heritage which, at Carrigaphooca, encompasses the entire history of Ireland?

WB Yeats included a story from Carrigaphooca Castle in his collection of Irish Fairie Tales. With this Government and the NRA, Yeats’ famous remark has proven true — ‘Romantic Ireland is dead and gone’. There will be no horseman to pass by and our environment is being shaped by those who cast a cold eye on 1,000 years of Irish history.

Eileen Shanahan

Carrigaphooca

Macroom

Co Cork