Heritage chicken put back in with the fox
Before casting the first stone at the destroyers of Iraq’s ancient artifacts and sites, one should examine it closer; chances are it is another of our own cultural icons we are tossing away.
While this island may be a fine launch-pad for ‘liberation’, it is certainly no landing-strip for enlightenment. Ireland destroys a minimum of 1,200 important heritage sites a year.
Counties like Wexford and Kerry have lost 50% of their significant sites. This is cultural cleansing by stealth.
The Cabinet decision apparently to break up Dúchas, combined with the current road-building gravy train, promises to accelerate this process.
We only have to look at the recent Supreme Court injunction on Carrickmines to see what prompts it.
“Which is worse, a spontaneous destructive eruption by a long-suppressed people, or a premeditated programme of destruction by the Government of a people long since ‘liberated’?”
The answer is irrelevant. Just remember the destruction of the records in the Four Courts. Ireland is guilty of both.
Vincent Salafia,
Spokesperson,
Carrickminders,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
