‘Carrickmines Castle/M50 Supreme Court Judgment Tomorrow Will Impact Hill of Tara/M3 Case’

national | history and heritage | press release

Monday July 24, 2006 21:18

by Siobhan Rice - TaraWatch

info at tarawatch dot org

086-319-9833

Tuesday is an historic day of reckoning for Irish heritage

The Supreme Court will deliver its third judgment tomorrow morning at 10.45AM in the Carrickmines Castle/M50 saga, and the decision will have a major impact on the Hill of Tara/M3 case now being appealed to the Supreme Court. A date of October 11 has been set for that Appeal.

PRESS RELEASE

TaraWatch.org

24 July 2006

‘Carrickmines Castle/M50 Supreme Court Judgment Tomorrow Will Impact Hill of Tara/M3 Case’

The Supreme Court will deliver its third judgment tomorrow morning at 10.45AM in the Carrickmines Castle/M50 saga, and the decision will have a major impact on the Hill of Tara/M3 case now being appealed to the Supreme Court. A date of October 11 has been set for that Appeal.

This Carrickmines case was taken against the Minister for the Environment by Dominic Dunne, of the ‘Carrickminders’, who occupied the castle site in 2002. Although the site has been partially demolished, the legal issues involved will have big implications for infrastructure development and heritage nationwide, particularly the M3 at Tara.

The core issue in tomorrow’s case will be whether there is a constitutional duty on the authorities to protect national heritage, as Mrs Justice Mary Laffoy decided there was, in her High Court opinion of September 2004, which is now being appealed.

If the Supreme Court agrees with her, and holds there is such a duty, the next question is whether Section 8 of the National Monuments Act 2004, which specifically allowed for demolition of all national monuments in the pathway of the South Eastern Motorway, breached that duty. If so, then the entire National Monuments Act may, by implication, be unconstitutional. That is the argument made in the Hill of Tara/M3 case by former Carrickminders spokesperson Vincent Salafia.

However, even if the Supreme Court finds against Mr Dunne on all counts, the Hill of Tara/M3 Supreme Court case will proceed. Mr Salafia has alleged that the NRA is in breach of the 2004 National Monuments Act because new national monuments have been discovered in the Tara/Skryne valley while excavating for the M3 and work has not ceased as it is required to.

Mr Salafia said:

“This will be an historic day of reckoning. The Government changed their own law to facilitate the motorway at Carrickmines, even after two Supreme Court decisions said they were acting illegally.

“The same new law is also being used to run the motorway through Tara, and while Carrickmines Castle may be ruined forever, it will not have been in vain if Tara can be saved.

ENDS