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by Gordon Kingston, Heritage Action
The hills are alive – with the sound of vehicles… The Irish Times reports that the controversial Tara-Skryne M3 route is to open to traffic on the 4th of June;
“The 60km M3 motorway from Clonee on the Meath Dublin border to the Meath Cavan border provoked controversy, legal challenge and some direct action protests because of its route which passes through the Gabhra Valley between the hills of Tara and Skryne. Complaints about the process which permitted the destruction of a national monument were also made to the EU, some of which are ongoing. The route is expected to greatly ease peak-time traffic between Kells and Dublin bypassing the towns of Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells.”
Those caring politicians, eh? They’re always worrying about the common good. I also notice that councillors, in the exact same county, are getting themselves all het up – over a threat to the God-given right of landowners, in sensitive, world-famous, prehistoric landscapes, to stick houses where they damn well please. In this case, in a proposed buffer zone around the same Tara-Skryne area. Houses, roads – hey, why not just let them dig the whole bugger up, stir it well and bake it into a cake? Or ball it up and lob it across the sea at England. It’s ‘their land’, after all;
“I don’t want to see happening in Tara-Skryne what happened in the Newgrange area. I don’t want to see a person who owns land in the proposed buffer zone being unable to provide a site for a house for a son or daughter,”
Don’t forget, County Meath already has enough land zoned for 124,173 houses and a projected need for only 2,032, and these are the same lads and lassies responsible. Would you buy a used vehicle (to pay to drive on the M3) from them? Would you trust them to make decisions of permanent impact? Well, actually you do.
A lot of people have tried to make themselves noticed over this M3 issue and a last protest is to be held at the road-opening on the 4th of June. As many as possible are being asked to support it, and the vigil over the next couple of weekends – with any luck it will be the biggest gathering of all. Please go, if you can, or if you’re able to get there.
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