From: William
Finnerty
To: Editor
(The Irish Times)
Cc: TV3 ; Tuam Herald ; TG4 (Newsdesk) ; Sunday Business Post ; RTE (Irish National TV Station)
; Irish Times
; Irish Independent Newspaper Group
(Unison) ; Irish Examiner Newspaper ; Irish Emigrant Newspaper ; Ireland On Sunday
; Galway
Advertiser Editor (Mr Declan Varley) ; Connacht Tribune Editor (Mr John Cunningham) ; Galway Bay FM (local Radio
Station)
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 4:37 PM
Subject: Archaeological sites
Dear Irish Times Editor,
I was very pleased to see the archaeological article (relating to Counties Meath
and Louth) written by Ms. Eileen Battersby in the "Weekend" section (page 8) of
last Saturday's Irish Times (i.e. June 9th 2001).
You may wish to be informed that some ancient heritage sites in east County
Galway are also under very serious threat, and that the source of the overall threat is
not by any means restricted to projects involving the National Roads Authority. If
interested, please see an example contained in the photographs of the
"pre-historic hurling field (?)", as some now refer to it, near the Hill of
Grange (New Inn, County Galway) at the www page address immediately below:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/grange.htm
The above matter concerning the Hill of Grange has been brought to the attention of
several senior politicians, to Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, and to a number of
others who are involved with heritage protection. Written acknowledgements of receipt
for the information in question have been received by me from the Garda Síochána, and
from Mr. Noel Dempsey, T.D., Minister for the Environment and Local Government; for
further information on this subject please see www page address:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/gd-si-2.htm
Though I have not inquired, and I have not heard or been told anything regarding this
particular aspect of the situation, I cannot help feeling that the recent alterations made
to the field near the Hill of Grange might have been carried out with the aid of a
government grant (of one kind or another).
I would like to finish this letter by stating that, in connection with my efforts at
protecting ancient monuments, I have had a steady flow of supportive e-mails during
the past two years or so from people of Irish decent living overseas. When
the views of this widely dispersed group of people are combined, and put in a
nutshell, they amount to this: "One of very best
ways for Ireland to protect its future, it to protect its past (as in ancient
archaeological sites)". In sharp contrast, and for
whatever reason, I have had almost no interest or support at all from the
vast majority of people who live in Ireland.
Sincerely,
Mr. William Finnerty.
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Email: wfinnerty@eircom.net
Web site: http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/
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