The Celtic Congress was founded in 1902 in order to promote the knowledge, use, and appreciation of the languages and cultures of the six Celtic countries. National Branches of the Congress meet in an International Congress each year in order to help further these aims. Individual Branches of the Celtic Congress  can be found in the Isle of Man, Scotland, Brittany, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall.

The XIII Celtic Congress, hosted by Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, held in Bonn this summer has sent the following letter to TD Gormley regarding the Tara environs situation:

16 August 2007

Mr John Gormley, TD
Minister for the Environment Custom House,
Dublin 1

A Aire Uasail, a chara,

At its closing session on Friday 27 July, the assembled delegates to the XIII International Celtic Congress, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, instructed us to send you this letter, to protest most vigorously against the destruction of the environs of Tara and of other historic and prehistoric sites in Ireland, such as Lismullin.

These are essential parts of the Celtic and pre-Celtic inheritance not only of Ireland but of the whole of European civilisation. We urge you, Minister, to reverse these official decisions and to act decisively as the protector of Europe’s cultural heritage.

Yours sincerely,

WILLIAM GILLES
Professor of Celtic, Edinburgh University
President of the Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies

ANDERS AHLQVIST
Professor Emeritus of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology,
NUI, Galway
Secretary of the of the Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies