The High Kings Strike Back

Where this blog leads, the New York Times and Washington Post follow. With the Post having featured the demented motorway building through County Meath a week ago, the NYT (reg. req'd) does a similar piece today, complete with nice picture of sheep grazing next to historic monuments on the Hill of Tara. As we said about the Post article, we think that the commuter vs preservationist narrative is too simplistic but understandable within the confines of a newspaper story.

But just to highlight one important part of the debate which that angle doesn't capture, take a look at the simple map accompanying the NYT story (or this PDF map); note the proposed M3 along with the indicated existing "highway" -- but also the N2 road just 7 miles to the east (this is the road to Derry). One of the most effective points of the anti-M3 group is against the government's intentions to upgrade both roads even when they are so close together; why not just a single upgrade that would serve both routes and avoid the historic sites?

One other postscript to our previous rant about this. In our comment on the Post article, we pointed out that they interviewed "local politician" Tommy Reilly, a M3 supporter, without mentioning his own history of odd-looking land deals, something par for the course in his party, Fianna Fail. Well today comes news that this history has caught up with him and he has withdrawn as a candidate in the forthcoming Meath by-election, in which the road is sure to be an issue. Could there be a Curse of Tara?