26 July 2007 Edition
Tara demo in Dublin
Over 1,000 people participated in the ‘Love Tara’ march in Dublin on Saturday last, organised by TaraWatch to bring public pressure to bear on Green Party Environment minister John Gormley to reroute the M3 motorway away from the Hill of Tara archaeological complex.
Marchers gathered at the Garden of Remembrance and marched up O’Connell St and along the Liffey to the Department of the Environment at the Custom House. They carried the flags of all 32 counties, to signify the importance of Tara to people all over the island of Ireland. Ógra Shinn Féin participated in the march to show support for the campaign.
Some demonstrators then visited Cloverhill Prison to show solidarity with the four men currently being detained in relation to demonstrations that took place at Tara earlier in the week. They will appear before Judge Brophy in Navan District Court again this week, after refusing to agree to bail conditions that they would not return to Tara to protest.
On Monday, a petition containing 50,000 signatures, gathered online, was handed in to the Department of Environment
“Apparently Minister Gormley is getting annoyed at people saying that he does have the power to change the M3 route,” said spokesperson Laura Grealish. “Perhaps that explains why there were no Green Party representatives at the march today, unlike previous ones.”
Spokesperson Vincent Salafia asserted that “Minister Gormley obviously wants us to ask the courts to compel him to act, even though the EU has stated the demolition of the national monument in Lismullin is illegal.
“There is a another new national monument recently discovered by the NRA, consisting of underground passages and chambers, as reported in the news at the weekend.
“Now Minister Gormley must act. He does have the power to reroute the M3, as this is a material change in circumstances from the order given by former Environment Minister Dick Roche.”
Marchers gathered at the Garden of Remembrance and marched up O’Connell St and along the Liffey to the Department of the Environment at the Custom House. They carried the flags of all 32 counties, to signify the importance of Tara to people all over the island of Ireland. Ógra Shinn Féin participated in the march to show support for the campaign.
Some demonstrators then visited Cloverhill Prison to show solidarity with the four men currently being detained in relation to demonstrations that took place at Tara earlier in the week. They will appear before Judge Brophy in Navan District Court again this week, after refusing to agree to bail conditions that they would not return to Tara to protest.
On Monday, a petition containing 50,000 signatures, gathered online, was handed in to the Department of Environment
“Apparently Minister Gormley is getting annoyed at people saying that he does have the power to change the M3 route,” said spokesperson Laura Grealish. “Perhaps that explains why there were no Green Party representatives at the march today, unlike previous ones.”
Spokesperson Vincent Salafia asserted that “Minister Gormley obviously wants us to ask the courts to compel him to act, even though the EU has stated the demolition of the national monument in Lismullin is illegal.
“There is a another new national monument recently discovered by the NRA, consisting of underground passages and chambers, as reported in the news at the weekend.
“Now Minister Gormley must act. He does have the power to reroute the M3, as this is a material change in circumstances from the order given by former Environment Minister Dick Roche.”