First excavate, then build the road
To begin with the most minor: the Viking site at Woodstown was discovered not in August 2004 but in April 2003 and it hit the national headlines for the first time in early May 2004.
More importantly, the lobby group of Waterford citizens formed last September seeks merely that the site should be properly excavated and published before the road goes through.
The group - known as Save Viking Waterford Action Group, or SVWAG for short - have never sought to move the road as examination of their letters and press releases in the Waterford papers since last September makes clear.
Instead they endorse the position of the National Museum and the Heritage Council that the site should be excavated and the road put through.
Indeed, if the road does not go through, it will be much harder to raise the money to excavate the site. Without excavation, the tourist attraction based on Woodstown finds would be impossible to develop.
Thirdly, the Viking site at Woodstown does not lie in the way of the main Waterford bypass which is planned to run from a bridge at Gracedieu to the Butlerstown roundabout on the N25.
Instead the site lies on a subsidiary spur to that bypass, which will provide a second outlet onto the N25.
There is no delay at all in the construction of the Waterford bypass itself while the delay on the subsidiary spur is the responsibility of ministers Cullen and Roche who have failed to make a decision on whether or not they should order the excavation of the Viking site.
Perhaps the most serious error, however, lies in Mr Hickey’s implication that the conflict between major road developments and heritage is solely about “striking a balance between the need to ensure traffic can move freely and the conservation of our heritage”.
I would recommend that he peruse an article in the Sunday Business Post of November 21 last in which the significant potential of the new road network for retail and industrial developers is discussed in detail.
In the case of Woodstown, it may be that the most important point is not that the subsidiary spur to the bypass cuts through a portion of the Viking site. Rather it may be the fact that the Viking site extends considerably beyond the area of the planned road and its existence means it is unlikely that industrial or retail development would be allowed to take place in proximity to the road. Paradoxically, therefore, the motivation for moving the road may be found amongst those who promote new development rather than those who seek to protect Ireland’s diminishing heritage.
Dr Catherine Swift
Chairman
Save Viking Waterford Action Group
11 Briot Drive
Waterford
