The Gazette 1973

UNREPORTED IRISH CASES

archaeological features to warrant its inclusion in the notice to treat which was the necessary preliminary to acquisition. The Act also authorised the Commissioners to acquire such additional land as was needed for the preservation of the amenities of the site. In his view, counsel for the Commissioners was right in submitting that the Hill of Tara was properly to be regarded as a single unified site and not a series of separate archaeological monu- ments. On that basis the acquisition of the 10-acre field to preserve the amenities of the Hill of Tara was well warranted. The Chief Justice added : "It will not, I hope, be out of place to call attention to the fact that this is not the first time that a land owner was disturbed at Tara. One of the archaeological sites at Tara is traditionally known as Cormac's house; it lies within Rath na Riogh." Tradition was that Cormac built the great vallum surrounding Rath na Riogh on land belonging to Odran who protested loudly when Cormac began to stake out his work. When the king came to take pos- session of the house, Odran set his back against the door to prevent the king from entering. The king turned his wrath away with the softest answer conceivable : he promised to compensate him by paying him his own weight in silver, daily rations for a household of nine for as long as the king should live, and land of equi- valent value elsewhere. "Today, Cormac's successors, the Commissioners of Public Works, must pay compensation for extending themselves at Tara (rightly as I hold), just as Cormac did." The Chief Justice added when the commissioners came to negotiate terms of compensation with the dis- possessed owner, they might bear in mind that while they did not command royal wealth, or unlimited dis- cretion a niggardly spirit was foreign to the genius and tradition of Cormac Mac Airt, Tara's greatest king. When Mr. Richard Cooke, S.C., applied for the costs of the appeal, the Chief Justice said it was a case of very considerable importance for the Commissioners and he had hoped it had helped to clarify the law. The Chief Justice said there would be no order as to costs. [Tormey v. Commissioners of Public Works; Sup- reme Court; unreported; 22 December 1972.] Union's right to refuse transfer Constitutional. A union which withheld its consent to the transfer of one of its members to another union was held by the Supreme Court not to have infringed in any way the constitutional right of the worker concerned. In a reserved judgment the Court held that the National Union of Vehicle Builders, and the chairman and secretary of the Dublin branch of the union, in deciding to exercise such rights as they had under an agreement entered into with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had not infringed the constitutional right of Laurence Murphy, a Dublin motor assembly worker, of Drimnagh. The Union was appealing against a decision of Mr. Justice Murnaghan in the High Court in which he held that the refusal of the Union to grant Mr. Murphy a 28

Appeal against public control of Tara dismissed. Law relating to national monuments clarified. In a reserved judgment, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal brought by Mrs. Marie E. Tormey, of Castle- town House, Tara, Co. Meath, who had sought an injunction to prevent the Commissioners of Public Works from taking over a certain part of a 112 acre farm at Tara for the purpose of excavations. Her action, in which she sought the injunction in the High Court was dismissed by Mr. Justice McLough- lin in 1968 with no order as to costs. The Supreme Court also made no order as to costs, the Chief Justice Mr. Justice O Dalaigh) stating that this was a case of very considerable importance for the Commissioners and he hoped it had helped to clarify the law. The Chief Justice, who delivered the unanimous judgment of the court, said that under the National Monuments' Act, 1930, the Commissioners for Public Works might, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, acquire compulsorily or by agreement "any national monument which they consider it expedient to acquire." Among the ancient monuments to which the Ancient Monuments' Protection Act, 1882, applied, was "the earth works on the Hill of Tara." The predecessor of Mrs. Tormey in title to the pro- perty, Rebecca Bobbet, by deed dated November 21st, 1908. availed of a provision under the Act to constitute the Commissioners guardians of the ancient monument of which she was owner. The earthworks, which were situated within a 57 acre area of the 112 acre farm, were the subject matter of the Commissioners' notice to treat on May 25th, 1967. Mrs. Tormey, while naturally desirous of retaining the whole area for grazing, had confined her objection in the High Court, in effect, to the acquisition of a 10-acre field, and however one interpreted the extent of the claim she made in the course of the evidence in the High Court, her counsel in the Supreme Court did not seek to contest the Commissioners' acquisition except in respect of this field. The Chief Justice said it had been submitted on behalf of Mrs. Tormey that it was not enough to show that a national monument was likely to exist in the 10-acre field, and there was no power under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947. to acquire land on that basis. It had also been submitted that if facilities for archaeological excavation were to be contemplated, then express powers, as to the powers of prospecting, which were to be found in the Minerals' Development Act. 1940. should have found a place under the National Monuments' Act, 1930. Moreover, the Hill of Taa. it was urged, was not itself a national monument. The Chief Justice said that counsel for the Com- missioners had argued that the burden of the evidence showed the importance of the whole site and that the Hill of Tara could not be chopped up. The previous owner, it had been submitted, had in the guardianship deed, voluntarily chosen the boundaries of the area which the commissioners were now seeking to acquire and in doing so had acknowledged it to be a national monument. On the evidence he would be prepared to hold that, even viewed narrowly, the 10-acre field had sufficient