(It does seem strange that Ireland gets lots of money from tourists based on its legendary past, and then the government agrees to run a road through it. )

In the article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4999740,00.html

Edel Bhreathnach, a University College Dublin archaeologist who has been studying Tara and the surrounding fields for 15 years, called the site ``a ceremonial landscape of the utmost importance, not just to Ireland but to the world.If another nation was proposing to do this we'd be calling them barbarians"

``Sure, hardly a single one of those do-gooders even lives in Meath. If it was up to them, they'd like no buildings or people at all in Meath, just this precious landscape,'' said Eamonn Fitzsimons, 37, a Dubliner forced to relocate to Navan by high real estate prices. ``We have a right to a modern road in the year 2005. I spend more time in my car than with my children.''

As the Irish Labour party were saying yesterday, it really is the worst of both worlds. Not only will Irelands most historic area be bulldozed, but those most for it, the commuters, will have to wait ten maybe twenty times longer to get their motorway than if they had chosen an alternative route. On top of a busy motorway there will also be a large floodlit interchange within view of the hill also.

Thats Ireland for you. They are building a tunnel under Dublins northside and only realised (cough cough) near the completion that its not high enough for European trucks. So with a few months to go they wanted to raise the roof, literally.

There's some serious cashing in to be done. I'm sure even the printing industry will make a small fortune changing tourist blurb to remove the 'un' from 'unspoilt countryside'.

Irish politics makes Father Ted look like a civics lesson, one of the last banana republics in Europe!