Historical site has long history of controversy
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.
Joining Yeats and Gonne in the fray against exploratory digs to locate the Covenant were Arthur Griffith, George Moore and Douglas Hyde, Ireland’s first President.
Today’s battle is somewhat more prosaic but no less frenetic. It concerns plans to build a motorway through the countryside surrounding Tara and this, according to the most vociferous protesters, is nothing short of cultural vandalism.
Permission for the €680m Clonee to Kells motorway, the M3, was granted recently by An Bord Pleanála, but has been compared by archaeologists and conservationists to “putting a motorway through the Pyramids”.
The campaign to save Tara is being spearheaded by the Carrickminders, a group of activists who protested at the building of the M50 motorway through Carrickmines in south Co Dublin. It is also being supported by the Columban Mission, through whose Dalgan Park land the M3 is to pass.
According to Vincent Salafia, one of the co-ordinators of the campaign, the protest over the Meath motorway will be many times stronger than the Carrickmines protest.
Mr Salafia said the public reaction both here and abroad would be “massive.” Legal advice has been sought to determine whether the proposed route violates the National Monuments Act.
“It is destroying at least 141 associated sites,” said Mr Salafia.
“Using our experience at Carrickmines, we hope to facilitate and refocus the efforts of the many diverse groups and individuals who are concerned with the situation at Tara, such as the hundreds who made submissions as part of the Environmental Impact Study for the motorway.”
All that remains today of the seat of the High Kings of Ireland is a mound that rises 500ft, a legend all but lost in the mists of antiquity, and a folk memory of a golden age.
Yet it retains an iconic status, a place revered by archeologists, conservationists, spiritualists, Celtic mystics, born again pagans, and even politicians. Daniel O’Connell held a mammoth meeting on the Hill to reinforce his demand for the repeal of the Act of Union.
Though best known as the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, the Hill of Tara has been an important site since the late Stone Age when a passage-tomb was constructed there. Tara was at the height of its power as a political and religious centre in the early centuries after Christ.
Tara has always been the central seat of the High Kings of Ireland, and figures frequently in the mythological Cycle of Kings. Archaeologists estimate the construction of the Mound of the Hostages (Duma na nGiall) passage tomb to date from between 2500 BC and 3000 BC.
Conservationists maintain Tara should be considered as part of an archaeological complex which takes in Dunsany and the Hill of Skreen.
That desire to preserve for posterity our most famous ancient site was also evident at the turn of the last century. For three years, beginning in 1899, it became the focus of an attempt by a group known as the British-Israelites to locate the Ark of the covenant.
The British-Israelite Association was convinced that the Ark of the Covenant was to be found concealed in one of the mounds at Tara. This led to three decades of dispute involving the society, the Order of Freemasons, the Royal Irish Antiquarian Society and a number of prominent people on both sides of the Irish Sea.
The association members believed that the British people belonged to one of the lost tribes of Israel, and that the discovery of the Ark would confirm that belief and help to justify the continued expansion of the British Empire.
Consequently a battle was waged by society members and Freemasons to acquire the landowners’ permission to carry out the work.
Opposition was formidable and included the combined forces of Arthur Griffith, Maud Gonne, WB. Yeats, George Moore and Douglas Hyde, who believed that an Irish site should be claimed for the Irish people.
Griffith was editor of The United Irishman at the time and used the newspaper to campaign against what he saw as the destruction of Ireland’s first and foremost national monument.
Flamboyant nationalist Maud Gonne even went so far as to light a bonfire on the hill. This act of subversion aroused the wrath of the police but nothing was done initially to stop her.
However, when she began to sing A Nation Once Again from the top of the hill, the landlord, Gustavus Villiers Briscoe, promptly loaded his rifle and threatened to shoot her. She survived and so did Tara.
After much argument and counter-argument from newspapers to the House of Commons, the work was halted, though not before much damage had been done to the site.
Needless to say, the Ark of the Covenant was not found. It remains to be seen whether the Carrickminders will be able to light a bonfire under plans for the M3 motorway.
The group has gained the support of Dr Jim Zion, chief solicitor for the Navajo Nation. Dr Zion will speak at the ‘Hallowe’en at Tara-Skreen’ gathering on Friday next at Skryne Hall, Skryne, Co Meath.
Tara and the Ark of the Covenant by Mairéad Carew is published by Repforce at €30.
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