The Dew Of Dear Tara

by Con Connor - Ireland's Druidschool Wed Aug 08, 2007 01:24

Thank you, blessings to you.

With your permission I would add this poem to the page shown below. Please email me if this is OK

Grá
Con

by Susan Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Wed Aug 08, 2007 01:43

Dear Con,
I have sent you an email giving you permission to use this. I apologize, for I fear that I spelled your name incorrectly :--(
Blessings,
Susan Sheehan-Repasky

This Well Is Sacred - The Well Of The White Cow, The Hill Of Tara

by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion Tue Aug 14, 2007 15:19

Susan, we meet again.

What a beautiful poem..one that I have printed out, to hold and cherish of times of old.

The gravestone......the date 1798, the photo gives resonance to a historical time.

I published this yesterday and somehow it has gone amiss.

Tara.....is sacred ground - how else could the history survive?

Let us briefly return to a poem written by Thomas Moore, Tara Hall is a demesne now in ruins when people chose not to buy it, because property was cheap and Indendence was uncertain.

The Harp that Once..... (invokes times of yore, of poetry, of mythology, of history, ...... a time that people like Maud Gonne, George Russell, Arthur Griffith considered the strong possibility of the Ark of the Covenant being concealed in the mounds, land, in the origin of the High Kings of Tara, St. Patrick, the times of pre-Christianity, the pagans, the Five Roads to Tara that still exist.....

'The harp that once thro' Tara's halls,
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
As if the soul were fled:-
So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er;
And hearts, that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more

But my question is: Has the soul fully fled, can it really flee from such a sacred place?'

Kevin intervenes.....
The pecking order of Ireland now - as the rest of Europe slows down in sales in their 4 X 4's (fancy jeeps), the irony is that Ireland has increased its sales by 28% - sadly the money is borrowed and success can turn into such sadness in a very short time!!!!!!

Tara was the Emblem of Ireland - What has gone wrong now?

Well this evening on Radio 1, Drivetime, Willie O'Dea 'Minister of Defence - defence against the rest of the nation against Moyross, his Limerick garrison). This sad little man said, the government were caught off guard in relation to Shannon - all ministers were on holidays outside Ireland. I find this beyond belief - companies are closing down, people are losing their jobs, and now Shannon (Aer Lingus flights no longer going to UK but increasing routes to Belfast). O'Dea went on to say - the Government own a stake of 25% and we have options...this will not happen so now it is the Government v. Chief Executive, Mr. Mannion - now let us wait and see!!!!

Sorry I moved off track, I wanted to speak about Tara, this evening but in such a changing Ireland, where does Tara appear in the social pecking order?

Taoiseach and John Gormley - the ghosts and fairies of Tara will come back to haunt you both - and also your fellow collaborators, who are standing against our Sacred Irish Heritage Culture and History.

Michelle intervenes
Take time to consider the imagination of the Rowland woman who has written this most spectacular series of Harry Potter books. I looked at her books in a bookshop today and then I found myself exploring a theme.....I thought of law, the Brehon law and looked at a few books there, then I moved to ancient Irish history and bought for euros 8 the completed works of Lady Gregory on Irish Mythology, then I purchased History Irleand noting its feature on Hugh deLacy and the Lordship of Meath. Then I noted the ghost stories of Padraic O'Farrell which brought me right back to days and nights spent in Clare with my Grand Aunt and all the ghost stories of earlier times. This is a serious contender in the Ireland of the Soul; the anam chara, the fairies, the druids. Does it deserve Irish style Denial?

I have said it before, the soul of Tara cries out, just like the Cistercian Abbey's in Europe and Ireland struggled from decay and demolition. It is not their perfection that is relevant but it is the soul, the imagination, the history, the present, and for future generations to explore and decide.

The Celtic Dawn; let us not forget the writings of people who saw alternatives to Catholicism and Protestantism, that in fact pre-dated Christianity in Ireland. I moved to the childrens' section and what was so blatantly obvious that children still read the Swans of Lir, the Oscar Wilde tales, Hans Christian Anderson.....so therefore imagination remains with them to be captivated. Like my generation, children will be able to decide what Church they choose to go to, or whether to be agnostic, or to follow the directions of Psychologists like Carl Jung - 'the Collective Unconcsious', the poetry that ensnares nature as distinct from carbon footprints that will destroy the planet.......

Let us not forget people like Patch Adams, the famous American doctor who brought to medicine a sense of humour. He gained that slight smug admiration from the hierarchy of the day but the most important thing Adams did His clinic can be accessed on the web and is enlightening to those who suffer from melancholy, depression and other related addictions.

Adams put a smile on a childs face even in the face of serious illness.....Medicine did not do that. Diversity from within the human being achieved that smile.

I chose this Ghost Story from Padraic O'Farrell's book Irish Ghost Stories. (He has written books about Irish legends, customs, fairy tales, cures, saints and surnames). Mr. O'Farrell was both an army officer and a gentleman. He served with distinction in the Irish Army.

In the ghost room in Maynooth, the clerical student from County Limerick committed suicide in 1841. He slashed his throat with a raser in the Ghost room. It is claimed that before he died he leaped through the window. 19 years later another student did the same thing, of course the verdict was - he was mentally disturbed. An abundance of stories are told about the ghostly figures that roam around the room during the day. One tells the story of a student - he was shaving when he noticed a figure standing behind him, miming the drawing of a rasor across the jugular vein!!!!

Many years ago, Dr. Thomas O'Fiach (later Archbishop of Armagh and also a Cardinal) made a study of the Ghost Room while he was President of the College. In his study, he claimed there were factual events that occurred in the Ghost Room.

Let us not forget the Ghosts of Tara tonight.......and the ghosts of all our dead who fought for Irish Freedom and Equality. That goes for the Ghosts also which are our heritage.

Again I ask has the Church taken a position here; what about Opus Dei, the Columban Fathers, the Church of Ireland........William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Russell and many others went to great lengths to ensure our alternative Irish mythology was documented and restored.....surely this includes the sacred sites like Tara.

'Romantic Ireland is dead and gone, it is with O'Leary in the grave'
William Butler Yeats

Romantic Ireland comprises beauty, climate, nature, environments, wildlife,.........

by anarchaeologist - PRA Tue Aug 14, 2007 23:47

What's going to happen to Tara?

A bit more of an attempt to concentrate on the hearts and minds of the workers who commute through the valley should be a more effective use of your time and talents. Even at this late stage.

Sorry, I just don't get it.

by Susan Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Wed Aug 15, 2007 01:09

Hi Anarchaeologist .

You ask what's going to happen to Tara. This is about the Tara Complex, the Gabhra Valley, and the desecration and destruction of ancient burial sites. Even if noted by the esteemed archaeologists who are at this time working at the Lismullen site, the Sacred site will never be the same.

I understand the need for more efficient methods of commuting for the hard working folks who live in the outlying areas. I have traveled the N-3 many times, especially during commute hours. I know how the traffic binds up, and how long it takes to get from Nobber to Dublin. I also know that there are other options which were considered during the planning stages which would have taken the road away from these sites. For whatever reason, the other options were not chosen.

Some questions I asked a few years back are, would you want your most recently deceased loved one disinterred in order to facilitate the construction of an infrastructure such as the M-3? What and how much would you be willing to sacrifice for the ability to arrive at your destination half an hour earlier? Is the memory of our Ancestors important to you? Would you, like Esau, sell your birthright for a bowl of stew?

I am sorry that you don't get it. I wish I had a better way of communicating to you how I, along with many others, feel. I believe that would make all of the difference in the world.

Blessings,

Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky

“I have always taken a lesson from something that was told me by a sound man, that is, that everyone, Republican or otherwise, has his own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.” Bobby Sands – March 9, 1954 to May 5, 1981.

"It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage." (Article 2, Constitution of the Republic of Ireland.)

Related Link: http://www.google.com/search?q=Bunreacht+na+hEireann&bt...earch

On The Hill Of Tara - Patrick

by madam k Wed Aug 15, 2007 01:19

Don`t get it ?
why comment ?

workers commuting through traffic ? when there could be trains perhaps?

The only workers i have had CONTACT with ARE M3 workers and their paymasters who have no problem with assaulting
lone women who object to their ILLEGAL activities.

maybe you should spend more time consentrating your heart and mind on those who commute their way between blockade and
court .

a pathy.... I JUST DON`T GET IT!!!

by Fred Johnston Wed Aug 15, 2007 02:57 sylfredcar at iolfree dot ie

Eminent poet and lecturer, Paul Muldoon, can manage to write an article in the International Herald Tribune (May 25) in which he outlines the plight of Tara and remarks of Bertie Ahern that he "stood by while one of the chief glories of the country he purports to hold in safekeeping has been attacked." This is also a clear message to our own writers and artists to protest at the way the government is bulldozing their 'development' through this ancient site. Yet will we? My hat is off to Muldoon, who took the story all the way to the International Herald Tribune and gave his views frankly and openly. Now can any of our artists take it even as far as, say, the Irish Independent?

by Major Tom for Tara Wed Aug 15, 2007 08:27

Also wrote a poem for Tara that appeared in the Irish Times last year, look here: http://www.savetara.com/Download/TaraoftheKings.pdf

Along with a number of other writers he signed the academic statement to the Government in 2005, check the names here
http://www.savetara.com/statements/academicstmt.html

Some of those, like Colm Toibin and Colum McCann have written in American newspapers as well:
Mr Tóibín wrote a very strong article on the Tara issue in The NewYork Times in April 2005 and Mr McCann had an extraordinary article in the LA Times at Patrick's Day this year:
http://www.savetara.com/articles/2007/031707_wild.html
This was also published in Village Magazine at the same time.

by Fred Johnston Thu Aug 16, 2007 03:03 sylfredcar at iolfree dot ie

This is very good to learn, as I had not seen the other pieces. Thanks for that. Perhaps a body such as the Irish Writers' Union could issue a statement?

by Sage Flower Thu Aug 16, 2007 03:21

Many artists are voicing passionately held concern for Tara.
E.g. the Anam Cara for Tara arts action campaign, created specifically to facilitate artists' efforts in raising awareness, –founded in Australia by Irish ex-pat singer/filmmaker Maireid Sullivan. The campaign is ongoing, with more and more individual artists and Celtic festivals taking up the effort to raise awareness.

by Susan Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Thu Aug 16, 2007 22:57

These are fine writings Fred, and I am delighted that you have shared them. I loved the poem, and was especially touched by the writing of Colum McCann, historical questions as seen through the eyes of a child. Out of the entire population of the world who can claim Irish descent, the percentage which is responding/protesting is dismal.

I visited the Anam Cara site, which is beautifully put together and timely in content. I would love to donate some of my own art to the site, in hopes that it would help, even if in the smallest way.

The call for support from artists is essential, and anyone who has a means of contacting those who have the ability to capture the attention of the public certainly would be appreciated.

Blessings,

Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky

“I have always taken a lesson from something that was told me by a sound man, that is, that everyone, Republican or otherwise, has his own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.” Bobby Sands – March 9, 1954 to May 5, 1981.

"It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage." (Article 2, Constitution of the Republic of Ireland.)

Related Link: http://www.google.com/search?q=Bunreacht+na+hEireann&bt...earch

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sun Aug 19, 2007 21:56

Susan. The images of sites at Tara are resounding and highly visually captivating.

Decisions are expected this week so in the wake of the Aer Lingus Shannon cuffufle.....let us hope spirituality and Tara takes hold re. the M3.

The Anam Cara site is worth accession.....it gives perspective, vision and hope in the face of Travesty.

Michelle Clarke

Quotation
Born a Slave
'I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood has passed away......I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise
Harriet Jacobs (c1813-1897)
US writer and former Slave...!!!

by Major Tom for Tara Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:21

Paul Muldoon ans his bank, Rackett, will be in Ireland next week but here is a long article on them from the Irish Times.
The band will be in the Solstice in Navan on Thursday 30th August 2007. Paul has been a wonderful supporter of Tara and wrote a
poem that I believe he has put to music. Here is the link to the poem: http://www.savetara.com/Download/TaraoftheKings.pdf
Here is the link to his site where you can hear him read some of hispoetry. http://www.paulmuldoon.net/

Irish Times, Wednesday 22 August 2007

Rackett, rhyme and reason
Paul Muldoon is touring Ireland, but anyone looking for his poetry will
have to wash it down with a stiff measure of rock'n'roll, writes Belinda
McKeon
It's a sunny Saturday afternoon in Princeton, New Jersey, with students
slowly beginning to drift back to the campus of spires and towers for
another year of learning. Paul Muldoon, the Pulitzer prize-winning poet
who has taught at the university for more than 15 years, and who
currently holds two professorships there, is talking about his earliest
influences - and those influences are not what you might expect.
"I was very, very interested in the Dubliners when I was a teenager,"
Muldoon says, one eyebrow already beginning to arch in wry amusement.
"So I got a couple of banjos along the way; I got a G banjo and a tenor
banjo. And for a while I tried to model myself on Luke Kelly. And then
for a while on Barney McKenna. And then I decided that really neither of
these was a role model. And I ended up trying to play T.Rex on a banjo."
Around the table, there is raucous laughter at the very idea. Through
the laughter, though, there's an unmistakable glimmer of interest, as
though Children of the Revolution, as picked out clawhammer-style on a
pre-war Gibson, is just about due a revival - and could slot very nicely
into the repertoire of a self-dubbed three-car garage-rock band. I'm
having lunch with Rackett, the six-member band which Muldoon formed in
2004 with fellow Princeton professor Nigel Smith, and which has enjoyed
a startling ascent to acclaim since then, with sold-out gigs in the most
kudos-conferring of Manhattan venues - Joe's Pub, the Knitting Factory
and the Bitter End among them - and excitable mentions and reviews in
the New Yorker and the New York Times.
With Muldoon as lyricist, that attention is perhaps not surprising; his
stature and popularity are arguably even greater in the US than in
Ireland or the UK. And a great deal of the positive attention bestowed
on Rackett has focused on the clever, quirky, chameleon-like
unpredictability of his lyrics - Charles McGrath, in the New York Times
last year, compared the band in one breath to the accomplishments of Van
Morrison, Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter - but there is genuine
enthusiasm, too, for the voomph and vigour of the Rackett sound, which
flaunts its Stones-via-Cream-via-Hendrix influences with great pride.
Along with Muldoon, who plays "rhythm guitar" (read: who's indulged by
the others and allowed to tote a Telecaster onstage as a sort of
thank-you for his inimitable lyrics) and occasional maracas, and Smith,
who writes the music and plays bass, the band consists of: an
entertainment lawyer, Stephen Allen, who plays keyboards; a choirmaster
and Princeton PhD candidate in musicology, Lee Matthew, who sings and
plays guitar; and an IT expert, Bobby Lewis, who plays drums. They've
just released their second album, Resistance - their first to be
recorded in a professional studio - and on Sunday, Rackett will embark
on their first Irish tour.
On these stages, the bandwill do their tweed-cum-Telecaster thing,
working the gleeful, exuberant and slightly shambolic brand of rock
which they've made their own over the last three years - a sample lyric:
"Like Holden Caulfield in spotting phonies/ or Stephen Sondheim in
winning Tonys/ You're a sort of pioneer". Resistance, the title track of
the new album, combines, as its subject matter, the tragedies of Romeo
and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Antony and Cleopatra, Marian and Robin
Hood, Heloise and Abelard, with the shadows of the Cold War and the
Pentagon, the SS and the Gestapo. Especially if Muldoon breaks out the
maracas, it's safe to say that Rackett's Irish audiences are in for a
couple of interesting nights.
It's clear that the band are looking forward to the idea of a week on
the road, too. "We've got a special bus for our groupies," Allen chimes
in helpfully, which leads to a long and typically Muldoon-esque story
about the band's lyricist approaching a random bus driver in Dublin this
summer to ask about the layout of a splitter bus. "We were offered a
splitter bus," explains Smith, "but we still don't know what it means,
so when Paul was in Ireland he did some on-the-ground research, found
some drivers and asked them."
"Don't you want to hear about our contract riders?" Muldoon says, with a
grin. They're very demanding, it seems. They want sausages, dogfish,
Noble & Cooley drums, and single Irish girls, according to Allen, who
has the look of the band's Casanova about him, though that's quickly
adapted to a request for single Irish malt by Matthew, the youngest of
the Racketteers. And Muldoon? He wants Silvermints. Lots of Silvermints.
"Whatever happened to Silvermints?" he asks. "We used to love going over
to buy them in Donegal."
"This is turning into a rock'n'roll interview," groans Smith, whose
contract rider is looking a little more demure: he hopes every green
room will provide them with a copy of the complete works of WB Yeats.
Meanwhile, Matthews is insistent on the other side of the table:
"Bushmills and Smithwick's and a case of Sierra Nevada." Watch out,
Ireland. This lot could make the Stones gig at Slane look like an
ashtanga yoga convention.SMITH AND MULDOONhave been friends since they
both taught at Oxford in the late 1990s - Muldoon was professor of
poetry there, while Smith taught 17th-century poetry - and, aware of
each other's love for rock music, not to mention each other's impressive
collection of electric guitars, they had long toyed with the idea of
starting a band. But things became serious for Muldoon after a fan
letter to the American musician Warren Zevon turned into a writing
collaboration, which led to the song My Ride's Here, subsequently
recorded (on a tribute album made after Zevon's death in 2003) by Bruce
Springsteen. Before long, he was sending lyrics to Smith and asking him
to set them to music ("I irritated a very grand person at Harvard that
day by writing a song instead of replying to their e-mail," says Smith,
and you get the sense that he doesn't regret it) and before they knew
it, they had a band - and more lyrics than they could get around to
turning into songs. It seems the prolificacy which Muldoon displays as a
poet has extended easily to his work as a lyricist; he's even come up
with a couple of song ideas over lunch today, he confides.
"It's something I love doing," Muldoon says, simply. "I scribble all the
time . . . I find myself prompted by all sorts of little phrases." "He
knows a lot of words," says Lewis, which is certainly one way of putting
it, and gets the others listing some of the idiosyncratic nuggets which
Muldoon has added to their mutual vocabulary. "Like eclept," says
Matthew - it means "called", apparently. "And what do you call the word
for shearing the lubber off a whale?" asks Allen. "To flense," it seems.
"And how do you pronounce that word you made up?" interjects Matthew
("which one?" says Allen, in what sounds like a slightly weary tone).
"The one about the hot brick in the sock?" "Oh, quoof?" answers Muldoon,
referring to the title sonnet of his 1983 collection. It's clear that
his steady flow of lyrics has ensured that there's never a dull moment
in the Rackett rehearsal garage.
"I was fairly sure this was going to be special because of Paul's
lyrics," says Smith, "and that's why I thought it was worth committing
time and creativity and energy to it." Lewis, meanwhile, is the one
member of the band who was unfamiliar with Muldoon as a poet before he
encountered his lyrics and became part of Rackett.
"Steve occasionally would mention this Paul Muldoon guy," he says, "but
I didn't know much about him beforehand. But the first lyric I read
really struck me, and I still get very emotional about the words at
times when we're playing, and the complexity of it too. There are times
when all of a sudden I'll get it, and say, 'oh, that's what he means',
or at least I think I know what he might mean. And he's okay with that,
and I think that's the beauty of poetry, to me anyway."
THE LINE BETWEEN poetry and song lyrics is a fluid one for Muldoon, who
sees the song, in any case, as belonging to the world of poetry; the old
Irish tradition made no distinction between the two, he says, so nor
will he. Which is not to say they draw on the same energy, or even
follow the same rules; surprisingly, he believes that song-writing is an
even more demanding task than the battle to give form to an emerging
sonnet or villanelle. He was staggered, he says, by the things he
learned in the course of his collaboration with Zevon. "I had no idea,
and most people who haven't tried it will have no idea, I think, of how
long a song is, for example. Or of what it looks like on the page.
Basically it's a very, very short medium. And you've got to get a lot
into it. And that's true of course of many poems also, but it's just a
fascinating structure, it's a kind of revelatory structure. It seems
very fixed but in fact one can do so much with it, it's a fascinating
formula. Because it corresponds to some very profound aspect of how we
are in the world, of how we think. And I'm endlessly intrigued by what
can be done with that. It's so much fun."
Smith agrees. "Paul's lyrics are quintessentially Paul," he says. "They
have these complex levels of allusion, but they're also enormous fun.
Very witty. And if you take a bunch of them, they interconnect in a
variety of ways, with little sub-themes in there.
"They're very inspiring, and very easy to write music to, because the
music just comes. I think that's because he invests a lot of attention
in what you might call chiming. He gets the sounds right as well as the
conceptual content and ideas."
"The seam fights shy of the seamstress along the inner thigh," quotes
Matthew, by way of illustration. Muldoon looks bemused. "There's so much
wordsmithing going on in rock'n'roll," says Allen. "And I think the
great asset we have is that our lyrics are well beyond that. It's not
just a matter of finding words that rhyme in some way." By now, though,
Muldoon is looking a little uncomfortable at this stage with all of this
chat about his lyrics.
"At the end of the day, it's only one component," he says. "It'd be nice
to think that it held its place, but it is, after all, a combination of
words and music. And they have to be working together." As for his
guitar playing, which, he maintains, has long been so "basic" that the
others have essentially been allowing him to stay "on sufferance"; well,
that's coming along.
"Nobody's going to pretend I'm a great guitarist," he says, shrugging
with a smile. "But I plug away." "He does his thing," says Allen. "What
happens to that thing I brought you back from my holidays?" says Smith.
"The thing that makes a snake noise?" "I get all the odd jobs in this
band," moans Muldoon.
And another rock'n'roll argument is underway.
Rackett play Triskel Arts Centre, Cork on Sun, and then tour to
Listowel, Galway, Sligo, Navan, Belfast and Dublin. www.rackett.org

by Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Wed Aug 22, 2007 18:13

Thank you for posting this wonderful article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this talented and delightful individual. I do hope that as he tours Ireland, his influence on the public will be impacting as regards the Tara Complex. Best of luck to him and his group.

by Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Thu Aug 23, 2007 23:19

It appears that the decision to move forward with the excavation is a done deal. Notwithstanding, it will be some time before the archaeologists complete their "noting" of the artifacts. Perhaps this time can be utilized effectively by those who are close by. From what I have read, Mr. Salafia stated that there are still some important legal challenges to the construction of the M-3 and that the campaign is not over. We pray that the protests continue.

May all that are near the Tara Complex, and those who can get there, involve themselves in what could be the battle of the century!!

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Aug 24, 2007 18:38

Susan
Thank you for advising on the sad outcome from An Bord Pleanala. What can I say? As you say, it is now up to those close to Mr. Salafia to seek means of challenging the construction of the M3.

I found today a book by Maire and Conor Cruise O'Brien titled 'A concise history of Ireland' published in 1972.

There is a black and white photo that resembles the Tara seen today. It states that 'the Hill of Tara is in Co. Meath, seat of the half legendary kings and a centre superstitious awe, traditionally associated with the High Kingship, it was an important burial site in prehistoric times'

Tara is entrenched in history, both pre Christian and Christianity. Tara is listed in top 100 world heritage sites; it is documented in the libraries of our main universities, churches, and other archives.

Ireland made one shrewd move back in 1973 - we joined the European Union. We have been empowered as a nation by joining this Union of States - the main reason being that we were so disadvantaged as a young flegling state, we received priority funds. The EU have empowered our people with funds since then into education, infrastructure, social programmes and yes there are those who reaped massive benefits and funds......greed, envy, jealousy - those Deadly Sins highlighted by the Catholic Church.......are given the full test in projects like the M3.

Why is it the Celtic Tiger gone Pussy cat is so sacrosanct that it will not, through its planners and councillors, make changes. Surely, they can grasp the historic site of Tara, the High Kings, more importantly the pre-Christian culture; the superstitions, our ancient Brehon Law, the culture of the druids, and most importantly, what is concealed by nature but once was a venue of the High Kings of Ireland. Why do we forget where Tara is situated and the castles that were build in its environs.

If we were the Italians, would we accept our ' over embellished bureaucracy' knocking down the Vatican. I could never see this happening. Vatican City is a separate entity in Italy....

As Heritage week approaches - the book for tourists is worth picking up, let us think of the invisible Tara going back a few centuries and Imagine......just Imagine....and ask why is this being allowed happen. Who has the vested interests? Why have they same? and why not embrace change and re-route the M3 or set up a train route or organise a proper transport system e.g. park in an area Phoenix park and then bus or walk. www.heritagecouncil.ie

How can we ignore such Heritage?

Michelle Clarke

Quotation
Dr. Arundhati Roy (born 1961) Indian novelist and essayist
Author 'The God of Small Things and The end of Imagination

'Bombs and Brains'
If protesting against a nuclear bomb implanted in my brain is anti-Hindu and anti national, then I secede by declaring myself an independent mobile republic

I am a citizen of the earth. I own no territory. I have no flag. I'm female but I have nothing again enuchs. My policies are simple. I m willing to sign any nucvlear nonproliferation treaty or nuclear test ban treaty that's going. Immigrants are welcome. You can help me design our flag......'

by Dr Fu Manchu Sat Aug 25, 2007 20:34

Read this http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0825/environment.html (The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, has said he is committed to ensuring there will be no major development along the route of the M3 motorway, close to Tara, Co Meath. He was speaking at the launch of Heritage Week, which is expected to involve a quarter of a million people in events across the country. The case of the M3 motorway and Tara is a prime example of the clash between development and heritage.)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

by Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Sat Aug 25, 2007 22:37 art at tomandsusan dot us

Thank you Fu. I am already in receipt of one e-mail and two postal letters from Minister Gormley. It would seem, according to all three, that he feels due to official and independent legal advice that his "hands are tied" in this matter. So, whatever his intention are as regards the newest statement you reference in the link remains to be seen.

Tara is due the greatness indeed.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Sep 22, 2007 00:03

Tara by J. Quigley, renowned for his aerial photography.

Susan, I was looking up the site and saw your photos and thought about the considerable contribution these photos make, to the Tara Skryne Gabhra stand for heritage.

Michelle

Quotation
Consequences by Chico Mendes (1944-1988) Brazilian rubber-tapper and environmentalist
'I don't want flowers at my funeral because I know that they would be taken from the forest'..................

by Susan Isabella Sheehan-Repasky - Flicker Light Studio Sun Sep 30, 2007 22:02

Thank you Michelle.
We have just returned from two weeks in the EU.
Anything we have that could be of use to the Tara campaign is available for the asking.