Protesters disrupted preparatory work along the route of the M3 motorway in Co Meath today as part of their bid to have the road moved away from the historic Hill of Tara.
Save Tara campaigners gathered at Rath Lugh, the site of a promontory fort in the Tara-Skryne Valley, to block the diggers from clearing the felled trees.
Work was disrupted after a number of protesters entered the site and stood in front of the mechanical vehicles before climbing into the buckets of the diggers. Siobhan Rice from Dublin, a Save Tara Campaigner, said the work was being carried out on the outskirts of Rath Lugh, which is a defence fort of Tara, the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
She said: "We still continue to ask that independent archaeologists be allowed to inspect the sites. It is an area that is extraordinarily rich in heritage, it has been compared to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.
We are not anti-M3 campaigners we just want the road moved around the Tara-Skryne valley where it would cost the tax payers around 50 million euro less." Trees have been cleared from the bottom of Rath Lugh on the slope of the Hill of Skryne, opposite the Hill of Tara.
The protesters vowed to continue to return to block machinery and attend sites where archaeologists are working every day as the preparatory work for the M3 motorway from Clonee to Kells continues. Campaigner Anita Ni Nuallain, 22, from Newbridge, who has been camping near the site, said: "We will be here as long as it takes, until we can get the road rerouted."
She added: "I think people don't realise the importance of Tara, and Tara is not just a hill, it is a whole complex, the whole Boyne Valley is all interlinked." A construction machinery depot has also been set up near Dunshaughlin although the public private partnership (PPP) contract for the motorway has not yet been signed.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) is to hold an oral hearing this month on its draft tolling scheme for the road. The hearing on issues surrounding objections to the NRA's draft scheme is due to start on January 17th in Navan.
A High Court challenge to the motorway route by campaigner Vincent Salafia was dismissed, and the appeal to the Supreme Court was withdrawn after there was an agreement to cover costs.