Roche signs off on our heritage

LIKE most people who have a cultural affinity to the Irish landscape, I was sickened by Dick Roche’s unscrupulous act in signing an 11th hour order for work to resume on the M3 near the Hill of Tara.

In a final act as Environment Minister, Mr Roche decided that the new national monument found at Lismullen should be preserved only ‘by record’ — in other words studied and then destroyed.

Why the urgency — especially as the signing of the contract took place prior to the full archaeological dig being completed? The order not only affects the 2,500-year-old Lismullen henge, but by default it also means the destruction of a graveyard in Ardsallagh a short distance away.

The graveyard is possibly one of the first Christian burial grounds in Ireland consisting of 23 graves within a ring ditch, with the bodies placed east-west facing the Hill of Tara. It also has a number of cremation pits which are possibly part of a greater burial ground that extends beyond the excavated area.

There is a second graveyard, also in Ardsallagh, which is facing destruction. It has at least eight burial pits, along with a 20-metre ring ditch in which two bodies were found.

In light of the NRA’s destruction of the Collierstown graveyard, also in the vicinity of the Lismullen henge, surely as a nation we must say enough is enough, get the ministerial order revoked and the M3 motorway rerouted.

Tomás Mac Cormaic

Dál Cormaic Luisc

Clochrua

Co Chorcaí