None if by air

Showing once again that it is on the side of Good, the New York Times follows up Sunday's slam of the (Irish) Sunday Independent with an op-ed piece by Colm Tóibín in opposition to the proposed motorway next to the Hill of Tara in County Meath. While we modestly believe that our own incomparable tirades on this subject, most recently here, are at least as good as Colm's piece, we'll grant that a star writer with yet another award under his belt might rally a few more to the cause.

Of course you should read it all (2nd link here), not least for the fine side illustration of the entire island getting paved over, which for residents of County Meath is what things currently seem like (there are other motorways being built besides the proposed one next to Tara). Frankly we think Colm pulls a couple of punches, not least in words of quasi-praise for the maniacal road builders at the National Roads Authority:

The National Roads Authority in Ireland has built up significant expertise in doing these [archeological] rescue missions according to best possible practice.

We never see the point in praising an institution for doing something that they should be doing -- and careful digging and transportation to a warehouse in Dublin doesn't offset the visual destruction that the motorway will cause.

Let's use a different news item to take one more run at the insanity of the Republic's transportation policy. The government is emphasising tolled motorways for an island of about 5 million people with virtually no international transit traffic. And it's an island, so you'd think the points of transit in and out of the country would be getting some attention. But No.

Instead we have Dublin Airport, a developing country-style single terminal facility with now up to 90 minute wait at security after lapses a couple of weeks ago. This is on top of all the other aggravations to which passengers had already resigned themselves. So for the tens of millions people travelling to the airport from the west, there will be flashy motorways to speed them past all that pesky historical stuff. All the time gained will then be spent, plus some extra, in queues at the airport. Brilliant!