"The WMF said that Tara was considered the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland and was the centrepiece of a large archaeological landscape."

WORLD MONUMENTS FUND
Tara listed with 100 endangered world heritage sites
June 7th, 2008

The World Monuments Fund (WMF), based in New York, has just announced that the Hill of Tara has been included in the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

TaraWatch nominated the Hill of Tara in January, and the application was endorsed by Dr Ron Hicks, of Ball State University, Indiana, who has 35 years experience researching prehistoric Irish and European sites. The nomination focused on three key issues:

(1) The global importance of the site. The Hill of Tara is akin to the National Monument of Ireland, due to its central and continuous role in Irish life over the last 5,000 years.

(2) The severity and immediacy of the threats:
(a) The immediate threat of the M3 motorway, which is severing the archaeological complex and landscape of Tara , running along the northern slope of the Hill of Tara, demolishing dozens of related sites.
(b) The inevitable subsequent commercial and industrial development of the Tara/Skryne (Gabhra) Valley, due to the large 50 acre interchange at Blundelstown, 1000 metres from crest of the Hill.
(c) Neglect, due to the lack of any coherent management plan that recognises the true extent of the archaeological complex of the Hill of Tara.

(3) The reasonableness of the solutions, particularly in light of the discovery of a new national monument at Lismullen, which will now cause delays on the current route:
(a) Rerouting the Navan to Dunshaughlin section of the M3, either to the east of Skryne or west of the Hill of Tara.
(b) Combining the M3 with the M2, which runs parallel and is in places only 5 km away. A spur could be built from Ashbourne across to Navan.
(c) Putting in a 2+1 scheme, with bypasses of Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells.

TaraWatch is proposing to have an independent archaeological assessment performed on the M3, as a result of the nomination to the List.

The World Monuments Fund— headquartered in New York City with an affiliate in London — is the foremost private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of endangered architectural and cultural heritage sites across the globe. Since 1965, WMF has worked with local communities and partners to help save more than 450 irreplaceable sites in more than 90 countries.

Assembled by an international panel of experts, this list is a global call to action on behalf of sites in need of immediate intervention, bringing them to international attention and helping to raise funds for their rescue.

Siobhan Rice and Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch are attending the WMF UK press launch of the List, to be held at the historic Wilton's Music Hall in London on Thursday morning, at 9.30 am.

Vincent Salafia, said:

"We are extremely grateful to World Monuments Fund for committing to rescue the Hill of Tara from inappropriate development.

"This is really is an appeal to both the Irish Government and people to protect our delicate, unique heritage, which is now confirmed to be under the gravest threat.

"We hope will help the Green Party and Fianna Fail reach a reasonable, negotiated settlement to this long-running dispute, in their potential programme for Government.

WORLD MONUMENTS FUND: http://www.wmf.org

Related Link: http://www.tarawatch.org

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Hill of Tara and Georgian villa on endangered list

Irish Independent
By Paul Melia
Thursday June 07 2008

THE ANCIENT seat of the Irish High Kings and a 18th century Georgian villa are among the most endangered monuments in the world.

Yesterday, the World Monuments Fund included the Hill of Tara in Meath and Vernon Mount in Cork in its list of the 100 most threatened monuments under threat of immediate destruction unless steps are taken to save them.

Richhill House in Co Armagh - which dates from 1655 - is also included because of its poor state of repair while Vernon Mount in Cork, from the 1780s, is 'considerably deteriorated'.

The house, which commands views across Cork City, contains exceptional' neoclassical mythological paintings by the late-eighteenth-century artist Nathaniel Grogan but its current owners say the rest of its site must be redeveloped to fund renovations.

But perhaps the most contentious site is the Hill of Tara in Co Meath. There are plans to build the M3 motorway through the Tara/Skryne Valley just 1.5km from the hill and the World Monuments Fund (WMF) placed it on its crisis list after campaigns and court battles failed to reroute
the motorway.

Environment Minister Dick Roche has yet to decide if the M3 should be rerouted following the discovery of a national monument earlier this year, but yesterday his department had no timeframe for when the decision might be made.

The WMF said that Tara was considered the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland and was the centrepiece of a large archaeological landscape.

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