!!!SAVE TARA CAMPAIGN- UPDATED LINKS!!!

[Florence]

I'm in touch with the irish communitty here in Buenos Aires so I have copied and pasted your message and sent it to them. I also belong to  a forum that gather a large number of descendants of irish or people like me that simpathyses with the celtic culture and I've posted it there too. This Forum has over 4000 members. But the question is: Is there an easier way of protesting than the letters you talk about? For instance a place where you can sign and leave your mail and identification for instance?. Because many of the irish descendants don't speak english anymore and even though they could understand at least what's the matter it's easier than having to write a whole letter. Is only a question but I'd appreciatte an answer because that would make things faster and easier and probbably you'll get a lot more supporters from abroad.And not only among irish descendants but among all the celtic culture lovers here that don't know enough english to write a full letter.Love

[unicawn]

Video clips from TARA.

Some are painful to watch.

http://www.tarapixie.net/video.html

[Beith]

Hi Florence,

Apologies, I didn't see your msg until now.

There is a petition but it's an electronic one (links to it via http://www.tarawatch.org and http://www.savetara.org) and in my original posts in this forum and in Discuss Druidry. Letters are much more effective though as they will go directly to the minister's office.

I suggest the following: Could someone write a template letter in Spanish or Portuguese and its translation into English so people could use it and sign it and post it ? or alternatively, just write in your native language, send it to your Embassy in Dublin and ask them to forward it to the Irish government (To Minister John Gormley and "An Taoiseach" Bertie Ahern). They will either provide a translation or a covernote explaining the letter.


Argentinian Embassy
Embassy of the Argentine Republic,
15 Ailesbury Drive,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4
Ireland
Tel: + 353 1 269 1546 also +353 1 2691713
Fax:+ 353 1 260 0404

Brazil
Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil,
Europa House,
Block 9, Harcourt Centre,
41-45 Harcourt House,
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel: +353 1 475 6000 also +353 1 416 1202
Fax: + 353 1 475 134

Spanish Embassy
Spanish Embassy in Ireland
17A, Merlyn Park, Ballsbridge
Dublin
Tel: +343 1 269 16 40
Fax: +353 1 269 18 54
Email: embespie@mail.mae.es

Portuguese Embassy
Embassy of Portugal
Knocksinna Mews
7 Willow Park / Westminster Park
Foxrock
Dublin 18
Tel: +353 1 289 4416 also + 353 1 289 3375
Fax: + 353 1 289 2849


General links to Embassies in Ireland
Please note, if anyone is calling their embassy or sending a fax, the number is the following:
(1) Dial your international access code (eg. 00)
(2) Then dial 353 for Ireland
(3) Then dial 1 for Dublin
(4) Then dial the embassy number eg. 2691640

eg. Spanish Embassy
Spanish international access code + 353 1 2691640

(Find your embassy here)
http://www.dochara.com/info/health/emba ... reland.php

European Embassies in Ireland
http://www.jobsearch.ie/applicants/embassies.htm

Thank you so much for your letters.
best wishes
Beith

[Beith]

TARA - KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!

A status update on Tara, Ireland & actions below on what you can do.

The Irish government and National Roads Authority, despite having had a choice of available alternative routes have continued work on the M3 motorway, destroying ancient sites of national and global historical, archaeological and spiritual significance in the Tara-Skryne area, none of which would have been necessary had an alternative route been chosen. They have bulldozed heritage sites like the Baronstown and Lismullen henges and are effectively cutting open the hillside and concreting over sacred landscape, all in a bid to earn income from sale of the motorway tolling rights to a foreign toll company.

The High Court in Dublin has just rejected application for an injunction to halt the M3 motorway development at Tara. Tara is a complex of several monuments – forts, henges, enclosures, burial mounds in an ancient sacred landscape pivotal to rule of sacred kingship, druidry and power in Ireland.

At present Rath Lugh - a national monument (an ancient military site on Tara) is in danger from motorway construction there. There is a 20 metre exclusion buffer around the rath which is founded upon an ancient esker - a ridge of sand and gravel that is now at risk of destabilization due to the construction that impinges upon the exclusion zone.

The actions of the protectors (the anti-motorway protestors) and in particular, a very brave young woman, Lisa Feeney, who barricaded herself into a makeshift tunnel by the site thereby preventing the bulldozers, have resulted in an agreement by the National Roads Authority (who commissioned the motorway and are in charge thereof) to a 4-week cessation of further construction while a review is carried out to ensure the terms of the preservation order on Rath Lugh are met.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

More pressure is needed in the form of letter-writing to ensure that the protection of Tara stays in the media spotlight and that pressure is consistently levied upon the Irish government to ensure that the motorway route is moved away from national monuments such as Rath Lugh.

1. Letters to the Irish Government
Protest letters to the Taoiseach (prime minister) and Irish government ministers with direct responsibility for roads and environment are important. They must respond or acknowledge your letter. If you address your letter to all three, the government departments will have to copy it to each minister.

To:
Environment & Heritage Minister: John Gormley
Taoiseach (Prime Minister): Bertie Ahern
Transport Minister: Noel Dempsey

Address:
Dáil Éireann
Leinster House
Dublin 2
Ireland

[size=150]2. Letters to the EU Commissioner for the Environment - Stavros Dimas [/size]
The European Commissioner for Environment will prosecute the Irish government for failure to comply with EU legislation on protection of heritage sites. Letters,emails protesting to him at the destruction in the Tara-Skryne area of Ireland are vital to increase focus on the situation and bring forth EU action. stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu


3. Letters to newspapers and embassies
-are particularly effective because of the strong weight of international protest. The Irish government are very much under the influence of America, due to business investment here and are also under the jurisdiction of the European Union and the directives on Environment law and preservation of heritage sites. Increase pressure by the writing to the following

(a) Newspapers

This has impact. We are seeing increasing amounts of published letters to the editor of national newspapers here. Protest letters from abroad carry additional weight because they shame and embarrass the government, they keep international focus on the damage being done at Tara-Skryne and very importantly, affect the tourism industry, which has a knock-on effect on economy.

Ireland is dependent upon heritage tourism and visitors, so letters stating disgust at what is being done in the region of Tara and the threat not to visit the country or return again because the government is damaging the very sites that people come to see, are powerfulin getting increasing lobbying by the Heritage Tourism sector .


Irish National Newspapers
These have huge circulation and strong lobbying capabilities through adverse publicity:

The Irish Times

Address:
Letters to the Editor
The Irish Times Building,PO Box 74,
24-28 Tara Street,
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel +353 1 675 8000
Fax: + 353 1 675 8035
Email: lettersed@irish-times.ie

Guidelines for writing to The Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/about/p_letters.htm
(ie. short letters more likely to be published than long ones & preferably without attachments)

The Irish Independent
Letters to the editor: independent.letters@independent.ie

The Irish Daily Mail
Letters to the editor:
3rd Floor
Embassy House
Herbert Park Lane
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4
Ireland
Telephone +353 1 637 5800
Fax +353 1 637 5880


(b) Letters to Embassies:
If you instruct your embassy to make representation on your behalf to the Irish government, in protest at the destruction they are wreaking on Tara, they can communicate it with the Irish Govmt Dept of Foreign Affairs who liaise with the Embassies. Request that your correspondence be forwarded with the complaint by the embassy to Irish Govmt. The more official channels that register protest, the better.

Find your embassy here:
http://www.dochara.com/info/health/emba ... reland.php

European Embassies in Ireland
http://www.jobsearch.ie/applicants/embassies.htm


This 'war' will be won through publicity - by putting pressure on the Irish Goverment through protest (Direct letters, letters to Embassies) and adverse publicity (letters to Newspapers) and through Legal means (letters to EU commissioner).

Thank you for anything you can send. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

best wishes
Beith

info on http://www.tarawatch.org

[Holly]

I came across an article in The Independent today which is relevent and I thought you all might enjoy reading. There is a graphic representation at the link below:

Wood you believe it? Stonehenge find at Tara

By Louise Hogan
Saturday April 11 2009

SCIENTISTS have unearthed what appears to be a mammoth wooden version of the famous Stonehenge monument at the Hill of Tara.

In a revealing new RTE documentary, many theories and insights into the country's prehistoric past and 150,000 ancient monuments are unveiled and explained.

For the first time, people will be able to view a computer-generated recreation of what archaeologists believe was a major wooden structure -- a version of Britain's Stonehenge -- at the ancient seat of the Irish high kings in the Hill of Tara in Co Meath.

Archaeologist Joe Fenwick revealed a LiDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) laser beam had been used to scan the ground surface to create a three-dimensional map, which revealed more than 30 monuments around Tara.

Using another technique -- described as taking an X-ray through the hillside -- archaeologists discovered the huge monument, a ditch stretching six metres wide and three metres deep in the bedrock.

The ditch, circling the Mound of the Hostages passage tomb, separated the outside world from the ceremonial centre of Tara.

It was believed the ancient architects had also surrounded the ditch with a massive wooden structure on each side -- a version of Stonehenge -- on a large scale. Its sheer size meant a whole forest would have had to be cleared to build it.

"In scale, it is comparable, for example, to Croke Park's pitch. The Hill of Tara had enormous ritual significance over the course of 5,000-6,000 years, so it's not surprising that you get monuments of the scale of the ditch pit circle," said Mr Fenwick, from the Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway.

Cutting-edge technology is helping to provide a new insight into the lives of our ancestors, according to the documentary makers behind 'Secrets of the Stones'.


Civilisation

It shows Ireland's first civilisation began 7,000 years ago, they withstood major climatic changes and voyaged throughout Europe, returning with new religions and mementos.

An RTE spokesman said the broadcaster, along with the Department of Education, would be sending two free copies of the book accompanying the series to all second-level schools in the country.

The first part of the 'Secrets of the Stones' will be shown on RTE One at 6.30pm on Easter Monday.

- Louise Hogan

[Andraste]

Thanks so much for this, every time I see something on Tara I can hardly bear to read it, what a surprise and how amazing, and sad, after all the campaigning we have done over the past years to try and save the area to be encroached and ruined by the road scheme

Perhaps now the people of Ireland will see what we were fighting for, their history and culture - and as an Irish descendant, I feel slightly vindicated for protesting so long and hard, and also dismay.

Andraste

[Andraste]

Thanks so much for this, every time I see something on Tara I can hardly bear to read it, what a surprise and how amazing, and sad, after all the campaigning we have done over the past years to try and save the area to be encroached and ruined by the road scheme

Perhaps now the people of Ireland will see what we were fighting for, their history and culture - and as an Irish descendant, I feel slightly vindicated for protesting so long and hard, and also dismay.

Andraste