The harp that once through Tara’s halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls
As if that soul were fled.
– Thomas Moore
The Save Tara Campaign spread its wings to New York City and the steps of the Irish Consulate on Park Avenue on September 22 when a group of Irish artists gathered to protest the building of a motorway, approved by the Irish government in 2003, to run between the Hill of Tara (the historical seat of Ireland’s High Kings), and the Hill of Skryne, in County Meath (north of Dublin). The motorway will run through a complex of archaeological sites associated with the Hill of Tara, which were placed on the World Monuments Fund’s list of 100 Most Endangered Sites in June 2007.
The New York event included piper Jerry Dixon; Strings of Tara, a group of seven women harpists who played “Brian Boru’s March” (Boru was the last of Ireland’s High Kings), and host Susan McKeown, who sang “Mise Éire” (I am Ireland), a Pádraic Pearse poem set to music. “Mise Éire” includes the words: “Great my glory; I who bore Cú Chulainn the valiant; Great my shame, my own children that sold their mother.” New York musicians Isaac Alderson, James Riley and Keith O’Neill performed a virtuoso set of tunes that had a neighboring construction crew rocking, and various speakers including Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon spoke of the spiritual need to preserve Tara.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, a simultaneous event was held, and a huge crowd gathered to form a human harp on Tara. Muireann Ni Bhrolcháin who heads the Save Tara Campaign in Ireland, said she was heartened by the turnout. “The support for the campaign is growing — this was clearly demonstrated at the recent equinox event when 1,500 people gathered to form a huge human harp on Tara for the international artist John Quigley.” Ni Bhrolcháin went on to say, “With climate change a frightening reality, it is madness to persist in building motorways instead of public transport.”
To lend your support to the campaign to save Tara check out (www.tarawatch.org and www.savetara.com).
MY ROOTS COME FROM IRELAND, AND WISH I COULD GO THERE! BUT I LOOK UP THINGS ON IRELAND AND I KNOW THAT LAND IS SACRED, IT IS IN THE BIBLE THE STORY. NO LET IT ALONE!! IRELAND IF NOT CAREFUL WILL END UP LIKE PROGRESSIVE AMERICA!! YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE LIKE AMERICA!! WE ARE FALLING APART! WE WERE LED TO FUN, FUN, AND MORE OF EVERYTHING, LEFT GOD, AND THE SMELL OF EVIL IS EVERYWHERE HERE!! DON’T BE DECEIVED LIKE WE HAVE BEEN!! IRELAND IS SPECIAL, AND WAS SACRED. APOSTLES WALKED THERE, AND PROPHETS!! WISHING YOU WELL!