Gone with the votes

It's great that poet Paul Muldoon got space in the New York Times to document the insanity of the Irish government running a motorway next to Tara --

It seems strange, to say the least, that the idea of the scene of the Battle of the Boyne as a tourist destination is being bandied about while Tara is being bulldozed. If Bertie Ahern does happen to be returned as prime minister, it’s still not too late for him and Fianna Fail to go down in history as the government that paved the way for a new era of Irish cooperation rather than the government that, at least with regard to Tara of the Kings, literally paved the way.

Unfortunately, today's Irish election results indicate not only that Bertie will be back in power, but that voters in Meath don't especially care about the issue, and that voters in Waterford, home base of the buffoonish Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, applaud his job performance.