A site that campaigners claim was an ancient burial ground near the Hill of Tara and which was razed during construction work this week should have been given "the fullest and most detailed attention" and was indeed a national monument, documents published today suggest.
Documents published by Minister for the Environment John Gormley today reveal that the director of the National Museum Dr Pat Wallace wrote to the Minister's predecessor Dick Roche in May urging him to set up a special committee to examine a site at Baronstown, just outside Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
That site was razed by heavy machinery earlier this week.
Dr Wallace said in his letter dated May 3rd, 2007 that a committee should be set up after "a short pause for discussion and reflection" in order to afford "this national monument the fullest and most detailed attention and a total excavation to the highest and most transparent standard".
Protesters arrived at the Baronstown site early on Wednesday morning to find it had been destroyed by construction work. They claim earth movers stripped the site at around 4am.
Dr Wallace's letter said the current excavation strategy during the M3 preparation work - involving the total stripping of the site down to the subsoil - for sites such as the one found at Lismullen was "open to question". He suggested that some areas should be "hand excavated" before "more drastic stripping" is carried out.
A letter on file from Dr Wallace to Mr Roche dated May 3 rdlast congratulates him on declaring Lismullen a national monument and says there is a "compelling case" to be made that Baronstown is also worthy of such protection. Dr Wallace wrote that the discovery of the national monument at Lismullen came as "no surprise" to those who believed the intended motorway route "was indeed bisecting an ancient ritual landscape".
Dr Wallace director also said he remained "very perturbed" about the protection of the ambience at Tara after the completion of the road. He also expressed concern about the scale of the proposed crossroads and interchange at Blundellstown near Tara and the height and nature of the all-day lighting to be erected there. "This too will seriously undermine the sanctity of our most sacred place," Dr Wallace said.
In a submission to Mr Roche on May 10th last, Tara experts Edel Bhreathnach, Joseph Fenwick and Conor Newman ask for a "full-scale review" of the methodology employed to date in dealing with the archaeology of the landscape.
"It seems that, as we have consistently pointed out, it is flawed and likely to lead to deficient interpretations of the monuments likely to be discovered."