TaraWatch Concludes US Tour

TaraWatch Concludes US Tour - Concerns About RTE Documentary

TARAWATCH.org

13 April 2009

'TaraWatch Concludes US Tour - Concerns About RTE Documentary'

Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch has just concluded a tour of the United States, where he met with representatives of both archaeological and Native American institutions, seeking support for efforts to re-route the M3 motorway.

Mr Salafia met with the World Monuments Fund, in New York City, after submitting the nomination for the Hill of Tara to be on their 2010 List of Most Endangered Sites. Tara is on the current list.

He also made a presentation to the Council on Archaeology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and asked them to sign a statement calling for the M3 motorway to be re-routed, before Tara is declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mr Salafia also met with representatives of Native American tribes, and proposed a gathering of indigenous peoples on the Hill of Tara, during Heritage Week, in early September. TaraWatch is currently in talks with indigenous peoples in Australia and Africa, as well as North American and Canada, regarding the proposed event.

A documentary series about the native Irish people and the Hill of Tara, will begin on RTE 1 this evening at 6.30pm. It will make comparisons between native Irish, American and Polynesian peoples, regarding burial rites. It will feature a digital reconstruction of a massive wood henge, which sat on the crest of the Hill of Tara.

Vincent Salafia said:

"We are inviting the Native Americans, and indigenous peoples of the world, to come and celebrate the Hill of Tara, and condemn the M3 motorway route.

"The RTE documentary will show that we have much in common with these people, and that Tara is of outstanding universal value.

"However, after comments in yesterday's Sunday Times, we are extremely concerned that the documentary historian, Robert Vance, has taken a very narrow view of the Hill of Tara, and does not see the M3 as a problem.

"As an historian, Mr Vance may not be aware that Lismullin wood henge, discovered in the pathway of the M3, and later demolished, was almost exactly the same as the one featured in the documentary.

The Lismullin henge was voted one of the Top Ten Most Important Discoveries in the World in 2007 by Archaeology Magazine, published by the Archaeological Institute of America, just before it was bulldozed by order of Dick Roche.

ENDS

© Scoop Media