Mr. William Finnerty
"St Albans", New Inn
Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.

October 11th 2000

Dear Prime Minister Ahern,

For well over a year now, I have tried at various times to draw attention to the threat that ancient Celtic monuments in our area face from the planned civil engineering works listed above.

A number of Emails and registered letters have been sent to the Ministers for Heritage (Ms Sile de Valera T.D., and Mr. Eamon O’Cuiv T.D.); and, a set of three registered letters I sent on St Patrick’s Eve (March 16th) included one to local Minister Noel Tracy T.D, and one to Duchas (the National Heritage Service).

In so far as I am aware, the correspondence referred to in the paragraph above does not appear to have produced anything whatsoever in the way of useful practical results for protecting the local ancient Celtic monuments.

More recently, I have tried to use the Internet to highlight one particular ancient Celtic monument at Chaplefinnerty (in East Galway). As you can see from the copy of my enclosed Email dated October 10th to Ms Olivia Mathews at Eircom, there are major problems at present for people who might wish to view the information on this page of my web site. It is difficult for me to assess the extent of the difficulty because the Eircom controlled hit-counter appears to have been turned off.

If you look at my web site you will see that one local ancient monument (at Alloon) has already been badly damaged during road works carried out by the Galway County Council. Though I am no expert on these matters, it nevertheless appears (to me) that the physical damage is probably irreversible. (Please find enclosed a slip of paper containing the address of my Eircom web site.)

As I believe that local ancient sites such as those at Alloon are of national importance, I am copying this letter (and enclosures) to President Mary McAleese. (I would ask you both to note that, in so far as it is possible for me to establish, it seems that the site at Alloon may have been built well before the Great Pyramids of Egypt.)

It would be much appreciated if you and President McAleese could personally acknowledge receipt of this letter. As I trust you will both understand, I am very conscious of the fact that civil servants do not normally have to face the electorate from time to time.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. William Patrick Finnerty.

ENCLOSED: Copy of Email (dated October 10th 2000) to Ms Mathews & several others at Eircom.
                         Copy of slip containing my web site address (with Eircom)