Campaigners hold protest against motorway plan

Hundreds of campaigners today created a giant human harp in Co Meath to mark Tara Heritage Day.

The protest is the latest in a string of high profile moves to pressure the Government into re-routing the M3 motorway away from the historic site.

Protesters also formed the words ’Save Tara Valley’ as part of the stunt.

Hollywood actors Stuart Townsend and Jonathan Rhys Myers took part in today’s event as well as musicians, historians and many of Ireland’s harpists.

Renowned aerial artist John Quigley, who has created similar art images in the Arctic and the Amazon, directed the event.

“Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem,” said a spokesman for campaigners Tarawatch.

“This indicates the primacy of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.”

Protests were also held this weekend in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dublin.

On Saturday, harpists played outside Leinster House, in a symbolic gesture of Irish heritage, and delivered a petition to Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

Earlier this year, Tara was placed on the World Monuments Fund list of the world’s 100 most endangered sites.