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From: laoise.kelly
Subject: Tara Harpers Demonstrate 22nd Sept 3pm Dáil Éireann
A cairde,
Please forgive the general email. I just want to let you know that Anne-Marie O’Farrell and myself are organising a demonstration about the current destruction of sites at the Tara/Skryne valley and details are attached. Some of you are in the media, and your help with publicity would be very much appreciated. Others among you may or may not play the harp, but in any case we’d like to ask your support for this event. If you’re not able to bring a harp on the day, a golf umbrella would be a good alternative!
Anne-Marie, Cormac De Barra and myself along with Liam O Maonlaí, Steve Cooney, Ódhrán Ó Casaide and Martin Brunsden are among the musicians on the Pat Kenny Show broadcast live from the Hill of Tara this Thursday morning 10-12am.
Harpers can sign the harpers petition by returning this email and it will be posted at www.myspace.com/TaraHarpers
otherwise you can sign the current petition at www.petitiononline.com/taram3/petition.html
Go néirí libh,
Laoise.
Wednesday 5th September 2007
News Release
For immediate release
HARPERS OF IRELAND AT DÁIL TO SAVE TARA
On Saturday 22nd September 2007 at 3 p.m. the harpers of Ireland will gather at Dáil Éireann to demonstrate publicly the strength of their opposition to the destruction of historic cultural sites at the Tara/Skryne Valley as a result of the current route of the M3 motorway. The harpers will assemble with their harps along Kildare Street, and will submit a petition to Minister John Gormley insisting he implement alternatives to the continued destruction which is taking place.
Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem. This indicates the primacy of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.
Tara was the gathering place for thousands of harpers to 142 kings, and the harp was an integral part of the ancient Irish parliament at Tara. The harp has been used in the coat of arms of Ireland since 1270 and is the symbol of the Irish State today. It is found in the seals of the President, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Government Ministers, on State currency and is the insignia of the Irish Law Courts.
It is an outrage that the Irish people should be forced to choose between infrastructure and heritage. As a country we are embarrassed internationally by profit-driven, shortsighted planning as exemplified by the fact that World Monument Fund has placed Tara on its list of 100 most endangered sites worldwide.
Many can rightly point out that it would be an archaeological loss, and a historical one. It is also a spiritual loss, since even before the conversion by St Patrick of Ireland’s High Kings it was a place where the Irish sought to express their spirituality. And significantly for us as a nation, it was the place of birth of Christianity in Ireland. The gathering of harpers says that it is also a musical and cultural loss and asserts that the sound of Tara’s harp will not be drowned by traffic jams and the cash registers of toll plazas.
Further information from www.myspace.com/TaraHarpers
Laoise Kelly Tel. 086 2603405 or laoise.kelly@face.ie
Anne-Marie O’Farrell 01-2966222 or 087-2348964 or amofharp@iol.ie
HARPERS FOR TARA
Dear Minister,
We, the undersigned HARPERS OF IRELAND, strongly object to the continued destruction of historic cultural sites at the Tara/Skryne valley as a result of the current route of the M3 motorway. If these sites are destroyed it will also have been an intentional and willful destruction of the home of the national symbol of Ireland.
Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem. This indicates the primacy of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat are inextricably linked with the harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.
Tara was the gathering place for thousands of harpers to 142 kings, and the harp was an integral part of the ancient Irish parliament at Tara. The harp has been used in the coat of arms of Ireland since 1270 and is the symbol of the Irish State today. It is found in the seals of the President, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Government Ministers, on State currency and is the insignia of the Irish Law Courts.
Many of the undersigned harpers have represented Ireland all over the world. We wish to continue to do so with pride in a country, which provides necessary transport infrastructure without destroying its valuable and irreplaceable cultural heritage.
We ask you to act without delay in rerouting the M3 motorway away from the Tara/Skryne valley using the shorter, cheaper route that does not impact so disastrously on our shared cultural heritage.