[size=4][font=Comic Sans Ms]A GREAT-MUST READ-LETTER FROM TOMMY ON 'OUR HERITAGE'
Letter to the editor, Irish Times, August 15^th 2006
Madam, - There is a current planning application submitted to Meath
County Council for a construction and demolition waste recycling plant
at the base of the Hill of Tara. The location of the proposed plant is
at Philpotstown cross roads, commonly known as Garlow Cross.
The applicant refers to the small River Gabhra which is in near
proximity to the proposed development, not by its name, but as a "drain".
Surely the applicant must know that, in Irish mythology, the area of the
proposed development was the scene of the Battle of Gabhra in the third
century AD. In that battle, caused by the resentment of the High King of
Tara towards Finn and the Fianna, the Fianna outnumbered by 20 to one,
were defeated and their power broken. The legend concludes: ".. and it
is many of the Fianna were left dead in Gabhra, and graves were made for
them and the whole length of the Rath of Gabhra, from end to end, it is
that was the grave of Oscar, son of Oisin, son of Finn."
In my reaction to reading this unworthy reference to the River Gabhra I
made a connection with a small river in northern Italy, the Rubicon. As
is well known, Julius Caesar crossed that river in the first century BC
in defiance of Pompey and the Roman Senate and so gave us the phrase
"crossing the Rubicon." It is said that as Caesar crossed the river he
uttered the phrase "The die is cast" and so began a civil war .
Have we crossed the Rubicon in permitting the planned M3 motorway
through the Tara-Skryne valley and across the Gabhra battlefield site?
Will the die be cast for the internationally important Hill of Tara and
its setting if this development is permitted? Will this be the first of
many developments around the nearby preposterous Blundelstown interchange?
Will Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, who promised protection
against development in this area, take decisive action to prevent this
first assault and so preserve the integrity of the area, or what little
is left of it, if and when the motorway is constructed? Does anybody in
authority care?
I will conclude by quoting from W.B. Yeats in his preface to Lady
Gregory's/ Irish Mythology/: "This land where your fathers lived proudly
and finely should be dear and dear and again dear". - Yours, etc,
*TOMMY HAMILL, Ballinter, Navan, Co Meath.*
WELL DONE TOMMY...A BIG THANKS FROM ALL OF US HERE!!!
AND.../'Sweeps' says: Send a message to the 'GROUP'...in support of their efforts. Use the LINK below....THANKS
earthchanges@yahoogroups.com
0
No replies to this topic
