Campaigners protesting against the route of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara are to hold a "Love Tara" march and demonstration in Dublin on Saturday.
TaraWatch will hand in a petition with 50,000 signatures calling on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for the Environment John Gormley to reroute the M3 motorway away from the Tara archaeological complex.
Meanwhile, campaigners in Brussels presented a petition, signed online by 12,000 people, calling for a halt to work on the site, to EU and Irish officials yesterday. The petition asks the Taoiseach to intervene personally to choose an alternative route for the motorway.
Fionnuala Devlin, spokeswoman for Protect the Tara International Campaign, said people throughout Europe thought the Government was acting "like the Taliban" by destroying part of its unique archaeological heritage.
"Most of the people who signed the petition are from Germany. But we also have people from Ireland, the US, England Australia and other countries," said Ms Devlin, who has co-ordinated an international campaign to save the Hill of Tara from the proposed route of the M3.
She presented the petition to the Irish Embassy and the Irish permanent representative office to the EU in Brussels. She also presented it to the petitions committee in the European Parliament and to the commission's environmental directorate. MEPs on the petitions committee have agreed to send an urgent letter to Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas requesting that he intervene to immediately halt any further work on the site of the M3.
Mr Dimas has already written to the Irish Government warning that aspects of the planned motorway, just one kilometre from the Hill of Tara, could be in breach of EU law.
Munster MEP Kathy Sinnott, who attended the petitions committee meeting, said MEPs had also agreed to write to Mr Gormley, Mr Dimas and the chair of Meath County Council to have any further work halted.
Ms Sinnott said she hoped the presentation of the signatures would convince the Government "that Tara is a historical and valuable area that extends beyond our shores".
Vincent Salafia, one of the organisers of the Dublin parade said he hoped the protest would be peaceful.
Marchers will gather at 12.30 at the Garden of Remembrance and march up O'Connell Street to the Department of the Environment at Custom House Quay.
Mr Salafia said more than 10,000 of the signatures were taken in the last week alone, which he claimed was evidence of a turning point in the debate following the recent intervention by the EU Commission.
Laura Grealish of TaraWatch said: "We want to compel a political solution, rather than being forced to go to court."