HOME TRUTHS: Stuart Townsend blasts Bono over star's failure to back Save Tara campaign
Relations between two of Ireland's most famous men are set to turn frosty after actor Stuart Townsend lashed out at U2 frontman Bono.
The Irish actor slammed the world-famous singer for failing to step up and help in the fight to save the Hill of Tara.
And to add insult to injury he went on to claim that the humanitarian was more interested in helping those overseas that in getting involved in campaigns in his native Ireland.
"I don't know why Bono hasn't gotten involved so far. Maybe it's because his focus is on Africa and heritage isn't his thing," the actor claimed.
Townsend made the remarks while enjoying a romantic weekend in Paris with his partner Charlize Theron.
The actor himself has long been involved in the campaign to save the ancient spot and halt construction of the controversial motorway.
Fight
And he went on to call on Bono to end his silence on the issue and join the fight.
"Things are really getting desperate now so we really need Bono to say something.
"He's Bono for God's sake, he's Irish and he lives in Ireland.
We really need someone of that magnitude to help," he added. Townsend said that the campaign was getting the backing of poet Seamus Heaney. The poet and Nobel laureate criticised the Taoiseach and the M3 project saying: "Bertie thinks his legacy is the Celtic Tiger and economic -- but his real legacy will be letting them put a motorway through Tara."
Last year Townsend and Theron visited the site and organised photo opportunities and interviews.
The actor revealed that it was causes like Tara that kept the couple so much in love.
"I suppose part of what attracts Charlize to me is that I'm a space cadet who likes going to places like Tara. She digs it," he said.
Townsend went on to praise student radical Lisa "Squeak" Feeney, describing the campaigner as a "hero" after she encased herself into a seven-metre underground pit for three days in a bid to halt further work near the ancient site.
"It's a sad reflection on the Irish Government that a young woman has to put her life on the line to protect what our Government should be protecting.
"I think people should join her and the other protestors and get involved...none of us have done enough to save Tara," he added.
© 2008 independent.ie.
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I wonder about Bono. I wonder does he know for example…that….
1. ALL Irish ngo's (non gov organisations) have been funded generously by the present Irish Government..all that is but for one group. The Environmental ngo's of Ireland. For ten years their funding has been curtailed to the degree that they have been essentially silenced and have become, almost ineffective.
2. The Aarhus Convention has created the greatest empowering legislation for local Democracy and Environmental protection in the World and Ireland is the ONLY Country in Europe that has NOT ratified it (bringing it to the people and making it law). The convention among other things guarantees the right of citizens to seek justice in the courts of their country on matters of Environmental and Sustainability law without having to WORRY about legal costs. Without this legislation individuals and communities all across Ireland have had to face the courts on matters of pollution, unsustainable development and Environmental Justice with the considerable weight of having to raise the legal costs themselves. Additionally the convention demands that Governments include communities in all planning processes.
3. This failure to ratify Aarhus has been one of the greatest weapons/tools used to accelerate the celtic tiger economy which many serious commentators are calling a 'cancer'.
4.Wells being bored in Africa Bono on your Birthday (PURE WATER lovely)...and Ireland is top of the list for pollution and high level degradation of public drinking water from leaking septic tanks, farm slurry overspill and incompetently run public/private water systems. Not to mention the fact that Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe to put an Industrial Chemical, ‘fluoride’, into our water system without the permission of the people of Ireland.
5. 800,000 houses built in the boom and NOT one estate fitted with Alt energy systems, no solar panels, no solar water heaters and criminal house insulation levels in the new homes while 40% of extant homes are without any insulation at all! But the nice bit here is the Irish paid thru the nose and beyond for this inferior housing while at the time we have told we are buying the best...creating the best...we are the best...extending mortgage slavery for the young Irish couples from 20 yrs to 30 and 40!!
6. The vast majority of homes in Ireland have been kitted with hardwood doors and window frames, all raped from the remaining lungs of rainforest the planet has left and Forests are the 1st and greatest ecosystems to convert carbon!! Not to mention the hardwood 'marine' decking that the country is so avidly building in their back yard...'for an ocean level rise perhaps?' And the place where we might need the greatest strength...the roofs of Irelands homes? Built with inferior, highly sugared (therby soft) Irish sitka spruce which just ...meets a building standard...when the right few bob was moved into the right direction. If Al Gore's film is correct the greatest danger Ireland faces with Global warming will be the cessation of the Gulf Streams influence on our climate. Its the only influence we have that has us presently 'NOT' experiencing Canadian Winters. Now what house in Ireland is ready for that shift in temperature? And what house is ready for the increased gales and Storms that will follow ocean temp change? And for those who now will never be able to afford a house… thank you to the pretender leader of this country who had his bought for him.
7.All of this has happened under the reign of a man who in the late 90's went to the country to canvass for our vote by promising one memorable thing...Can anyone remember back that far? He made the promise that if he was brought to power he would reinvigorate and overhaul the way local Government did its business in Ireland IN ORDER TO BRING GREATER LOCAL DEMOCRACY TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.
No greater Law has been made in the history of ‘Democracy for the people’ than this and for 10 years it has been intentionally shelved.
TARA is the most critical Issue facing Ireland today because it encapsulates the most important issues for a Nation in ONE.
DEMOCRACY AND ITS CORRUPTION.
The Motorway is ALMOST there because of private development interest thru gross aggressive lobbying by the same on its behalf AND public political corruption. Public consultation with Communities has been a fiction, a lie. A controlled process that enabled a hood wink. IN ALL THE DEVELOPMENT PLANS THAT WERE CREATED BY OUR MONEY, NOT ONE OF THEM SUGGESTED THAT THERE WAS A NEED FOR A SIX LANE DOUBLE TOLL ROAD BETWEEN NAVAN AND DUBLIN..ALL OF THEM SUGGESTED MAINTAINING THE EXISTING ONE, CREATING BYPASSES FOR DUNSHAUGHLIN AND KELLS AND REOPENING THE RAILWAY.THIS IS THE TRUTH.
HERITAGE, SPIRIT AND POETRY.
Heritage is a peoples resource, like energy reserves and a clean and Natural environment, the peoples right to it is an absolute. This place we call TARA really is an Irish ‘Valley of the Kings’. The region embraced by the two hills of Tara and Skryne are peppered with a huge number of ancient sites. If we could switch off our mobiles for a minute and CONSIDER the import our Ancestoral leaders put upon the ‘creatives’, the poets, the singers and the Harpists we might remember that it was because these people had the ability to envision, they had visionary power and our tradition of leadership held this visionary ability in great esteem wherby all leaders of our people took council from them in all decision making. And if we can consider that to still be a good thing for us then what better way to honour it and reintroduce it into our culture by envisioning this place to be of a special status that merits an investment of time to unearth its remaining secrets and embrace the place into a Heritage Park of World status. What better thing to do for a creative than to click his fingers and manifest the rerouting of a, if you like, another Masonic ley line of cement and tarmacadam to reaffirm that Poetry is more important to the Irish People right now than another tired and false call of ‘progress’.
Seamus Heaney is standing there PAULBONO. If we don’t steer this one off to the side then we are going to find it increasingly difficult to find a meaning to HOME outside of our own cold houses.