Tara, the M3, and the celtic Tiger: Contesting cultural heritage, identity, and a sacred landscape in Ireland

Nationalism, Sacred landscape, Tara This article explores the intersubjectivities of person and place, present and past, imagination and memory, heritage and identity, in the context of a decade-long dispute over the Irish government s decision to build a motorway through the iconic landscape of Tara in County Meath. Tara has performed as a mnemonic for innumerable cultural narratives from the Neolithic to the twentieth century- stories materialized in the archaeological monuments and sedimented in the landscape. The state s backing of the motorway signaled a departure from the traditional, state-encouraged yoking of Tara with Irish roots, identity, and nationalism and pointed to a major reconfi guration of the state s relationship with its cultural heritage at the height of the economic boom called the Celtic Tiger. Public debate became entangled with bitterly contesting views about the republic s economic and political direction. The paper argues that the campaign to save Tara was a fi ght as much for intangible heritage as for tangible heritage.