NRA must learn from historic encounter

ON May 17, Fred Barry, chief executive of the National Roads Authority (NRA), wrote in a national newspaper that he wished to provide a road that would improve the quality of life and safety of residents of counties Meath and Cavan.

This is a wish that must be shared by beleaguered commuters. What is more, one has to sympathise with Mr Barry’s frustration at the hold-ups that have delayed the project. However, given that many alternative routes were available, was it really good use of public money and wise of the NRA to press on with one which incorporates the Tara/Skryne valley when it was obvious that trouble lay ahead? Challenges in the courts were inevitable.

It was inevitable also that the richness of the archaeology of this valley would cause complications. Just how big these complications are has now been revealed.

The Government’s own experts, the archaeologists from the State-funded Discovery Programme who conducted a major study of Tara in the 1990s, said all along that the Tara/Skryne valley was an integral part of this ancient ritual landscape.

In this they were supported by the director of the National Museum and international scholars of the highest calibre. Yet they were ignored by the NRA, the Minister for the Environment and Meath County Council.

The discovery of the great ritual site at Lismullen, to say nothing of the other monuments along the route, now makes it impossible for anyone to say that Tara consists just of the monuments on the hill.

Running a motorway through this valley is equivalent to building a super highway through the Valley of the Kings. If it is built there will pressure for industrial development in this historic valley.

Developers, whose chief interest is short-term profit, may use geophysical surveys and test trenching to show there is no danger to ancient sites.

The fact that Lismullin was missed by such surveys should act as a warning against planning decisions based on evidence of this type.

Mr Barry’s wish to provide a safe route for the commuters of Meath and Cavan would be satisfied by an alternative route for this short section of the M3, preferably one without two tolls.

The next government should heed the call of Prof George Eogan, the great expert in the archaeology of the region, for an independent body to review the implications of recent archaeological work before proceeding.

Dr Niamh Whitfield

47 Faroe Road

London W14 0EL