Madam, - I am currently living in New Zealand, and reading my Irish Times every day.
It is great to have a feel for what is going on at home. However, I need not have bothered to read about the decision to put a motorway through the landscape of Tara. That news made it onto local kiwi radio.
It's a wonderful message to send to the other side of the world about just how much we value our heritage. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK DAVEY, Christchurch, New Zealand .
Madam, - You can't blame people in Meath for wanting a road, when that is all they have been offered. The half-hearted offer of a rail link to Dublin was tacked on very late in the day and the whole broader issue of public transport has hardly been addressed.
Situations like these don't happen by accident. We are being given roads and nothing else because the Government has been lobbied by people who profit from roads and road-building. Next time the Galway Races are on, please remember that your Government is there in the hospitality tent, being worked on by people who want to limit our options and make our society make money for them. - Yours, etc,
ANNE CAREY, Portacarron, Ballymoneen Road, Galway.
A chara, - The Hill of Tara is a national treasure. It is up there with the other great wonders of the world - the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China. Or so we have been told.
Go there and see for yourself. You'll have a problem, though - unless you have an extraordinary imagination - because you'll find yourself standing in a field of grass, with little or no explanation of what it is all about. It is a huge disappointment.
Are we not being slightly hypocritical when we protest against this motorway? We've known about Tara for hundreds of years. It has been ignored, neglected all this time. Why the fuss about it now? - Is mise,
EAMONN BYRNE, Oaktree Avenue, Dublin 15.
Madam, - In the interests of the beleaguered commuters and business communities in Co Meath I respect the Minister's decision to proceed with the M3 motorway scheme. However, the scheme should be amended to reduce visual, noise and light pollution as much as possible. In this regard extensive earth mounds and appropriate landscaping should be provided and road-lighting should be forbidden.
In addition, the proposed interchange with the existing N3 road at Philpotstown, just south of Tara, should be scrapped to because of the effect of high-mast lighting and to remove any potential for land-use rezoning in the area. Without this caveat the area south of Tara will be blighted forever with industrial estates, retail parks and shopping centres. In any event there is no need for an interchange at this location as Navan will be served by a separate interchange closer to the town. - Yours, etc,
GEOFF CLARKE, Kentstown, Co Meath.
Madam, - Should we change the name to the "Hill of Tarmac"? I am disgusted, ashamed and appalled that traffic congestion in Co Meath, which has emerged in the past 10 years, should take precedence over our heritage of thousands of years. I dread to think what future generations will think of us. - Is mise,
JENNIFER MOORE, Department of History, University of Limerick.
A chara, - "Roche paves way for Tara Motorway" reads a headline in your edition of May 12th. Have we been asked to pardon the pun? - Is mise,
SÉAMAS ÁGHAS, Boston, USA.
Madam, - I have a question for Dick Roche: in what way does the benefit of selecting the most contentious route outweigh the benefit of selecting an uncontentious route? One of the drawbacks will be the preception that the Irish do not value their heritage.
The world is watching. - Yours, etc,
ARTHUR O'DUFFY, Shankill, Co Dublin.