Prehistoric site must be preserved

LET us talk creatively about Tara and the M3: pause the motorway work and reroute the Gabhra Valley section of the M3.

The other sections may not need amendment. Fast-track the restoration or provision of rail services to the northeast — review the spatial strategy for the region.

Last Sunday, when I was in the area, the day was meteorologically ‘soft’ and overcast, but that was a subliminal reminder of certain aspects of the site, where people have been living since before the time when the building blocks for the pyramids still lay undisturbed in their quarries.

The “new” discoveries (which were predicted from the start) are in a location which is intrinsically beautiful!. Swaddled among mature woods and luxuriant fields, they beg for appropriate presentation. Indeed, you wonder why Tara and the Gabhra Valley have been treated in such a casual and unexciting, even dreary, manner.

If the alleged ‘henge’ is a ‘henge’, it will demonstrate the sophisticated astronomical (not astrological) expertise of our ancestors. It should be excavated and researched meticulously, reconstructed and be available for our young people to observe, study and respect.

Paradoxically, this is very topical in 2007. The astronomy of the time, though surrounded by mystique, was not an esoteric pursuit but a matter of life and death. It provided the calendar which determined the crucial details of the fundamental relationship between our ancestors and the environment: when to plant and when to harvest.

In 2007, we live with the consequences of the broader breach in that relationship of respect for our planet — and will have to reeducate our children and our grandchildren! if we are to survive.

Debate on Tara has tended to be negative. Can we not see this event as an opportunity for a new understanding of ourselves, our past, our future — and how we can cherish all three symbolically at Tara?

Maurice O’Connell

19 Forge Park

Oakpark

Tralee

Co Kerry