Not intending this to provoke controversy, but John from Cork has got a point: sometimes progress is necessary. Hear me out.

There's been a bit of discussion on some archaeology forums about this. Someone made a very good point that landscapes evolve and peoples' needs change. What we see in the landscape today is not some end result, some static ancient landscape. Time will move on, and we are contributing to future archaeology through our own impact on our surroundings.

I'm not saying that building this motorway there is a good idea. Far from it - I'd love to see it re-routed somewhere else (although turn any stone in that neck of the woods and you'll find something archaeological). However, why the hell shouldn't people have decent roads?

There are two things I find a little annoying about the article cited above. One is the quotation given that this motorway "the decision of a people who no longer understand their past". I find that rather patronising. This comes across like some form of cultural heritage blackmail: either you appreciate your archaeology, or you want a road. Yes, it's a controversial decision, and yes, there may be a lot more politics behind it than we may know or care to know, but if blame is laid with the excuse that people don't understand their past, then we as archaeologists are the ones in trouble - we should be making sure that people do have pertinent knowledge of cultural heritage.

The second statement, "You should only excavate as part of a research project" is beautifully idyllic, but is never going to happen. Rescue excavations are the main form of excavations undertaken in Ireland, and it's damn necessary to do so. Given archaeology's destructive nature (once dug, forever gone), things are left in place wherever possible to await the possibility of future, new techniques. Rescue excavations have unearthed some fantastic new sites in the past few years which have caused us to re-examine some previously held concepts about Irish archaeology. I think it's a pity that anything has to be excavated - I wish there was a non-intrusive, non-destructive means of doing things - but I'm glad that some very good archaeologists are out there working on these threatened sites.