Damage to the ecology is incalculable, but the buzzards and peregrines will be gone, as will some of our last curlews. The peace of one of the world’s oldest cemeteries, in its wild and disordered beauty, will be peace no more. Gone, too, will be the real opportunities this place offers as a unique asset for the future. So, as you drive the roads of the South-East, past signs for ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’, think about that. Think of what matters, not only for the past, but future generations. That’s why we want to save something far greater, far more significant to Ireland, than Kilranelagh Hill itself, precious as that is. Electricity must be generated in clean, environmentally appropriate ways. But surely we can do better than destroying thousands of years of a heritage that makes Ireland special in the world? Surely we can do better than destroying the very ecology cleaner energy is meant to safeguard? Surely we can do better than shutting down the prospects for struggling rural communities to use their countryside, their landscape, their heritage, in ways that also enhance these things? Surely there’s a way that won’t wreak havoc on our environment, past and present, or wreck it for the future? Surely that way has to bring hope and not destruction.
