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Pledge to Protect Tara from the M3 Motorway in Ireland

TaraWatch | 14.05.2007 23:45 | Climate Chaos | Culture | History

A new national monument was recently discovered by the National Roads Authority, close to the Hill of Tara, in County Meath, Ireland. TaraWatch is calling on activists worldwide to pledge to come to Ireland and help protect this important national monument. Please sign our confidential Tara Protection Pledge, and we will contact you.

http://www.petitiononline.com/tara101/petition.html

38 sites being impacted by the M3. The new site was not previously detected

Location of ceremonial henge type monument found. Rath Lugh in background

TARA PROTECTION PLEDGE - TaraWatch.org

http://www.petitiononline.com/tara101/petition.html

To: Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche
[Petition posted 14 May 2007]

I understand you, Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, will decide the fate of a new national monument, discovered during the course of excavations for the M3 motorway, in County Meath, Ireland.

This national monument is a prehistoric royal ceremonial site, roughly 80 metres in diameter, that is believed by experts to be a part of the Hill of Tara archaeological complex. The Hill of Tara is Ireland's premier national monument, being the site of where 142 kings were crowned, and belongs to all the people of Ireland.

The Minister for the Environment and Heritage has a constitutional imperative; to give the national heritage the highest level of statutory protection possible.

The Minister has the power, under Section 14A(4)(d) of the National Monuments Act 2004, to reroute the M3 away from this national monument and the entire Tara complex.

Recent surveys have shown that 70% of Irish people want the M3 rerouted, and I make my pledge on behalf of that democratic majority.

If you decide to allow the M3 to carry on as planned, and instruct the National Roads Authority to demolish the national monument at Lismullen, I pledge to join TaraWatch and actively demonstrate against this decision in Lismullen, when I am called upon to do so.

The site must be preserved intact until such time as the Minister's decision can be judicially reviewed by the High Court.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

TaraWatch
e-mail: info@tarawatch.org
Homepage: http://www.tarawatch.org

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Apologies - Petitiononline site down - please email pledges

15.05.2007 14:58

The site that is hosting the Tara Protection Pledge

http://www.petitiononline.com is down and so we are asking interested parties to mail us their details directly at

info@tarawatch.org

Note for UK Indymedia subscribers and staff: This exact post was made to Indymedia Ireland and was removed for 'possible breach of editorial guidelines'. Doesn't something stink about that?

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82560

TaraWatch
mail e-mail: info@tarawatch.org
Homepage: http://www.tarawatch.org

Petition ~ spam

15.05.2007 18:09

Petitions are akin to spam thats why it was hidden you know that.

Posting up the same info and pictures again and again does not do you any favours.

Typical snotty attitude

17.05.2007 02:10

Hello X, and thanks for the snotty remarks.

First of all I posted similar articles in 2 places. One in Ireland and one here. The one in Ireland had an intro, which read:

"TaraWatch is launching the Tara Protection Pledge drive. We need to build a rapid reaction force, in the event of works beginning on the national monument. Please fill in the form with your mobile number and email address. They will not be published on the petition page. This petition just displays the number of signatories to the public."

The entire message was removed, without any explanation whatsoever. So, when I made the above comment, I had not been alerted to the accusation that I was in violation of any rule to do with petitions.

As you can see, the gist of the story is not that we are starting a petition, but that we are asking people to make a promise to take action, and to supply us with their contact information, confidentially. We are recruiting. The petition aspect is coincidental to the issue and the article. It is merely a mechanism that we used, because we are not good at cgi coding and forms. If we were we would have put it on our site and simply said sign the Tara Protection Pledge 'here'. Would that have breached the petition rule? No. Because it is not a petition.

A petition is signed and that's the end of the persons involvement, In this case, the form is signed and that marks the beginning of a relationship, which is designed to lead to action. So the news story is that TaraWatch is going on a recruitment drive....not TaraWatch is starting a petition. Does that news story violate any Indymedia rule? I would hope not. And it is not like Spam at all. It has nothing to do with spam.

I assume you're an Indymedia (Ireland) editor, from the tone of your remarks. Maybe not. But if you are you aren't doing Indymedia any favours either... To be honest, my continued experice is that Indymedia is becoming more and more user-unfriendly. There is no courtesy, no positive attitude, no kindness, no humour, just snottiness. May I suggest that when you delete somebody's contributions that you contact them and give them a reason for doing so, and a means of responding.