Historical site has long history of controversy

WHAT have Maud Gonne, WB Yeats and the M3 motorway got in common? The answer lies deep within the hill of Tara, Ireland’s most revered archaeological site and the subject of a campaign to preserve this sacred place from the juggernaut of progress.

Considering it is little more than a grassy knoll, the hill of Tara, an unimposing mound of topsoil and rye grass on the plains of Meath, has an amazing knack of evoking controversy.

A little over 100 years ago it became the focus of a bizarre attempt by religious zealots to locate the Ark of the Covenant, the gold and oak box which, according to the Old Testament, contains the stone tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.