Tara {tar'-uh}
The hill of Tara, traditionally considered to have been the seat of
the high kings of ancient Ireland, is located 32 km (20 mi) northwest
of Dublin. Documentary sources, notably the Dindseanches (c.1000),
catalogue the individual sites on the hill together with their
legendary associations.
Among the surviving earthworks on the site, the so-called Banqueting
Hall is most reminiscent of other elongated cult-enclosures built by
Celtic peoples. The Rath of the Synods, where Saint Patrick reputedly
held assembly, has yielded burials and evidence of occupation in the
early centuries of the Christian era. The Rath of the Kings, which like
other Irish royal sites is enclosed by an external bank with an internal
ditch, itself encloses the Mound of the Hostages, shown by excavation
to cover a Neolithic passage-grave, and the conjoined earthworks known
as the House of Cormac and the House of the Kings. The site apparently
was abandoned during the 6th century.
D. W. Harding
Carrowmore, Sligo
Irish Times - a 1997 Saint Patrick's Day article
With an interpretive centre now located in the Protestant church on the Hill Tara, it is definitely worth the pilgrimage. Maybe never more so than on St Patrick's Day with its crowd-free, wide windy spaces. As others drink green beer and don plastic hats why not comingle with the spirit of the man himself on Tara?
Drogheda, Ireland, seaport on Boyne River, 27 mi (43 km) n. of Dublin; Poynings' Law, or Statute of Drogheda, which placed Irish legislature completely under England's control, was passed here in 1494; captured by Cromwell 1649; taken by William III 1690 after battle of the Boyne; pop. 17,908
On July 11, 1690, on the banks of the River Boyne near Drogheda, in Ireland, the deposed English Roman Catholic king, James II, was defeated by the army of his brother-in-law, Protestant successor, William III.
The annual (continual) celebrations of thriumphalism that features the Lambeg drumming and marching of Protestants in the northeast corner of Ireland is to honor a victory over Catholics, whom they hate. In the minds of many peoples across the world there is a sense that their victory was within the six county statelet that was carved out of Ireland for them.