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.