The sensitive archaeology of the Bremore area can be “worked around” according to John Bruder, Treasury Holdings’ managing director for Ireland.
There’s only a small pleasure to be had in being cynical about this type of announcement. Much greater are the feelings of despair, irritation, even anger, that it provokes. I’d really rather not have to think about or react to it, but things in Ireland are the way that they are.
Our quotes of the week have often tended to be in the form of these gob-smacked reactions, to the latest line of blatant falsity or misrepresentation. The dripping grease on the burgers being shoved down the public throat, if you will. John Bruder’s reassurance, uttered back in March, follows one such formula. The ‘what are you getting all het up about? We’ll look after it’ approach. There are many others and I’m sure that we’ll all get well used to them before this is finished; ‘major job creation‘, ‘no other options for a deepwater port‘, ‘just the boost the country needs at this time’ and so on. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, or so they say.
Ok. Just in case you’re tempted to trust John’s intentions and think, “Well, that’s me off so. What the hell are we worried about at all? Stick a fence around the old lumps and bumps and everything’s sorted”, have a read of the excellent, funny and accurate article below. If I could fit the whole thing into a quote of the week I would, just to celebrate the truth for one week. It‘s a nice feeling now and again:
http://blather.net/blather/2009/09/what_do_the_bremore_passage_tomb_complex.html
“…Ah now, An Taisce, hold on there just a minute. Don’t you know that there’s no need for one of them things at all, at all. Sure everyone knows that the Irish government, or any of its tentacled organs, never publishes an actual, independent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), at least not one that disagrees on its ‘preferred’ route, I mean, option. The portions of the original EIS it left out of the (2001) Halcrow Barry Report on the M3’s route picking selection, was nothing more then an attempt to save the environment. It was already fierce long altogether, so it was…”
The Heritage Journal 
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10/10/2009 at 14:30
madam k
Please join the Save Bremore discussion group and learn what you can do to raise awareness of the planned port development and what people can do to stop it.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaveBremore/
From Irish Times article Wed Sep 02
Port threat to passage tombs
by Frank Mc Donald, environmental Editor
AN TAISCE has warned that the proposed deepwater port at Bremore, north Co Dublin, could threaten an archaeological complex of passage tombs even older than Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth in the Boyne Valley. The environmental trust was commenting yesterday on plans by Drogheda Port to extend its boundary southwards so as to incorporate Bremore for development of the deepwater port in partnership with Treasury Holdings.
An Taisce said it had ascertained that the proposed alteration of the Drogheda Port Company’s area of control is to facilitate the construction of a new deepwater port at Bremore to cater for vessels up to 250 metres. Saying it was opposed to this development, the trust complained no environmental assessment of its effects has been made available, and thus there could be no proper public consultation, as required under EU law. It pointed out that the river Nanny Estuary is an EU-designated nature conservation site – a special protected area under the bird’s directive and a candidate for special area of conservation under the habitats directive.
The foreshore and associated sand dunes is home to many species of concern. According to a Foras Forbartha report (1972), the Helix Pisana is a “species that is only found on the Irish coast between south Co Louth and north Co Dublin” An Taisce said the archaeological profile of the Bremore area was particularly significant, as it included the legally-protected Bremore Passage Tomb Cemetery as well as elements of the Gormanston Passage Tomb Cemetery. Archaeologist Dr Mark Clinton, chairman of An Taisce’s national monuments and antiquities committee, said one mound had an entrance orientation indicating the possibility that it was aligned with the summer solstice. “In this regard, and given their morphology and geographical location, there’s every possibility the builders were the near ancestors of those that built the nearby world-acclaimed tombs of Brú na Bóinne [the Boyne Valley tombs].” Dr Clinton said the two cemetery complexes proposed to be incorporated by Drogheda Port under the 2009 Harbours Act “must be considered within the greater context of other passage tombs nearby at Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange”. “Hence we believe it is far more appropriate that the World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne would be extended to include the Bremore-Gormanston complexes rather than their obliteration as a result of an ‘extension’ for ‘development’ of Drogheda Port.” An Taisce highlighted a potential loss of public amenities, noting that Gormanston lies at the southern end of a “renowned stretch of sandy beaches.
We need numbers so please register now and encourage others to do so also.
Pass this link on. Thank you.