24 November 2004
Dr. Henry: There is a lovely little village in County Cork called Glanworth. I have visited my brother’s house there but have never had time to walk around the village until recently. It is located on the River Funcheon, across which there is a beautiful 11 arch bridge, which is one of Europe’s oldest and longest. The bridge has been treated in an extraordinary manner for many years. It was used by very heavy traffic, as with the bridge at Slane, until one day two 40 tonne trucks faced one another in the centre of the bridge and neither would back down. The locals decided to take the law into their own hands and decided that no more would these vehicles cross their bridge. They put traffic lights and height barriers in place so that this could not happen again. The local people had a sense of value of their heritage.
The village is delightful. There is a castle on a rock above the bridge, a mill with a functioning water wheel and an ancient abbey built by the Dominicans in 1475 — not a very good time to build abbeys — which was supported by the Norman Roche family from the area. There is also an ancient graveyard and a castle which was built by the Condrons before even the arrival of the Normans. There is a great deal of history and even romance; an heiress called Amy Fleming was about to be abducted with her fortune from the castle by some rogues but, fortunately, another gang called the Nagles rescued her, telling her they would mind her and her fortune.
Members probably think all this information was gleaned from splendid notices all over the village. However, there is not a word stating anything about the place except the usual “fógra” which informs one that the Office of Public Works is in charge and that if anything happens to one, one cannot sue the OPW or the Minister. It is thanks to the restaurant in Glanworth Mill that I gathered all the information that day. I sometimes feel many things happen in this country because we do not understand what we have around us until it is under threat.
When widening roads was all the rage, there was talk about doing something about the bridge in Glanworth so that it would be more convenient for the 40 tonne trucks to travel across. Someone tried to blow up the bridge during the Civil War but it mercifully withstood the blast as well as hundreds of years of traffic before and since. The Fermoy bypass was built but, because there will be a toll on it, the town will still attract traffic — perhaps over my little bridge.
Too many people knew about Tara for what is proposed there to be taken on the nod. I am delighted that Senator O’Toole tabled this motion tonight because, when one examines what has already been destroyed in various parts of Ireland, it is unthinkable to allow this area to be destroyed too. I was in a town called Bolgheri on the west coast of Italy when a motorway was being built linking Rome with Geneva. There is a line of fairly slow-growing cypress trees outside the town that are the subject of a poem by Giosuè Carducci, which is learned by every school child in Italy. Therefore, there was no question of the trees being touched, which meant the motorway had to loop around the avenue of cypresses.
In Tara we have, as Senator O’Toole has rightly described it, a place of kings, saints and scholars — steeped as it is in our history, culture, mythology and legend — being attacked by a road which can be built elsewhere without a great deal of difficulty. Sometimes the simplest of solutions seems to be dismissed as quite impossible. When we discussed Carrickmines Castle, I suggested that a flyover be built. It could have gone over the site quite easily as only two roads needed to be connected on either side of the castle area. However, this was considered impossible because it is all the go nowadays to build roundabouts.
I suggest that when we come to areas of such importance as Tara, our imagination must come before what is practical. In that context, we need only consider what happened at Wood Quay. When I visited York to see the Viking settlement, I thought I would see something incredible when all I saw was two sorts of basements, on which one could not walk but rather travel around on a little train. At that time, I remembered what we had where the civic offices are now — fine as they are. I was in Cologne when workers building an enormous development found ancient mosaics right beside the cathedral. However, there was no question of their being disturbed. A splendid development has been built but one can still look down onto the mosaics through the glass in the museum which has been built.
I was in Verona when the Porta dei Leoni was rediscovered. Once again, it was imaginatively dealt with so that one could see the mosaics underneath and alternative arrangements were made to avoid the important site. We have such knowledge about our own heritage areas. I am quite sure that Senator Mansergh did not mean to suggest that if we just found such sites by good luck rather than by ancient knowledge, we should do nothing about them. Rather, if we find such sites by good luck, as was the case in Cologne when war reparations were still being made in the 1960s and in Verona, when sewerage works were being undertaken, one must treasure what is found. Whatever good fortune we have had to find artefacts in excavations south of Tara, we should consider the alternative routes which have been suggested.
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