Tara's current dilemma is reflected in concerns voiced on July 6th, 1844, in The Nation by Young Irelander Thomas Davis.

Referring to the then potential threat to Newgrange from road builders, Davis asked "what, then, will be the reader's surprise and anger to hear that some people having legal power or corrupt influence in Meath are getting, or have got, a presentment for a road to run right through the Temple of Grange! . . . We do not know their names, nor, if the design be at once given up, as in deference to public opinion it must finally be, shall we take the trouble to find them out. But if they persist in this brutal outrage against so precious a landmark of Irish history and civilisation, then we frankly say if the law will not reach them public opinion shall, and they shall bitterly repent the desecration. These men who design, and those who consent to the act, may be Liberals or Tories, Protestants or Catholics, but beyond a doubt they are tasteless blockheads - poor devils without reverence or education . . . "