Tara fears overestimated says Irish archaeologist

A week before the save Tara campaigners takes to the streets in the Love Tara march, where they will demand the new M3 be re-routed, a senior Irish archaeologist has said the fears about Tara are overestimated.
Mary Deevy, senior state archaeologist for the National Roads Authority’s (NRA) has said, fears about the impact of the controversial M3 motorway on the Hill of Tara had been overestimated. Mary Deevy said she believed the new M3 would not impact on the Tara landscape in Co Meath and reiterated the state’s position that the new M3 will not impact on the Tara monument and would be further from the ancient site than the existing road.
The NRA’s archaeologist stated this as she was giving journalists a guided tour of the archaeological excavations at the newly discovered national monument at Lismullen, near the Tara monument, which she agrees should be preserved by record
"I think Tara is a very special place, but I think some people have overestimated the impact (of the motorway). There is no way to change their minds until the project is finished and they can see for themselves".
Mary Deevy however agrees that Tara campaigners concerns of future development of the Hill of Tara area were legitimate, but added that a landscape conservation scheme was being considered by Meath County Council, that would restrict the construction of large-scale housing developments and retail outlets.
Currently around 30 archaeologists are preserving by record the Lismullen site, which contains artefacts from the Iron Age dating centuries before the birth of Christ. It was granted National Monument status earlier this year.
A preservation by record means that Lismullen prehistoric henge will be photographed, sketched and measured before the site is bulldozed to make way for the new M3 motorway.
Save Tara
Ancient Irish burial ground near Tara has been bulldozed

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Tara fears overestimated says Irish archaeologist