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THE INDEPENDENT

FIELD-NOTES

3.03.2007

The Ancient Hill Of Tara

Here in the footsteps of the High Kings walk I.
Here amongst the megaliths
and the long-barrows and the ring-ditches.
On a clear day, from atop
this long, low-lying limestone ridge,
you can see for miles;
viewing as many as 13 of Ireland's 29 counties.
Today is not a clear day.
Today a thick and persistent mist prevails
(common as it is in cold air above warmer waters).
The mist is strangely appropriate.
The mist is more fitting than you might imagine.
For it was in mist that the Tuatha Dé Danaan,
the people of the Triple Goddess,
first came through the high air to this land
- bourne aloft on a giant cloud.
From the Islands in the West they came.
From ancient Falias and Gorias
and Finias and Murias too.
From the Land Of The Forever Young.
And with them they carried The Hallowed Treasures:
The Spear of the Sun
The Sword of the Moon
The Cauldron of Blood
and The Stone of Destiny, or Lia Fáil.
Forbidden and empowering weapons,
salvaged from the lost land of Atlantis.
The monolithic pillar stone
that sits stoically upon this hillcrest
is reputed to be that self-same Stone of Destiny.
It is said that if the rightful King of Ireland
should happen to lay his feet upon its surface
then it should cause the Lia Fáil to sing out in joy.
The stone's song, so it is said, will be heard
from one end of the Emerald Isle to the other.
Despite much protest, work has begun on a new
motorway project in the nearby Tara-Skryne Valley
slicing through the heart of this sacred landscape.
At its closest the intended thrombus of automobiles
will come within 1.2 km of the Ancient Hill of Tara.
For sure it is the work of
the evil lord Weird Slough Feg,
in servitude of his monstrous master
the many-headed maggot-god Crom Crauch.
They seek to turn the earth to sourland.
They seek dominion over the rivers and the forests.
So let the Lia Fáil sing its song.
Let the almighty Tuatha Dé Danaan awaken
from their sleeping place in the Otherworld below,
and come forth armed with
flickering lances of blue flame
and shields fashioned from shining purest white light.
For they have fought and defeated
the fearsome Fir Bholg
and the primordial Fomorians
and they fear not the advance of the asphalt.
The Land must prevail. The Goddess must not be tamed.



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