SNIPPET: In the March-April 2006 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine is a several-page article (with marvelous photos) pertaining to Newgrange by Dublin freelance writer Elizabeth HEALY, a former editor of the magazine. ... "Newgrange Passage Grave, a tomb of the ancients, stands on the bank of the Boyne River. The Boyne flows in a wide curve to reach the sea at Drogheda, north of Dublin on the east coast. About 12km upriver near the town of Slane. it forms a dramatic loop, embracing an area we know as Bru na Boinne, the Palace, or Hostel of the Boyne, usually referred to nowadays, more prosaically, as the Bend of the Boyne. This is the sacred neolithic landscape dominated by three great passage tombs, those of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. As well as its other remarkable qualities, including its immense size, Newgrange is the first known astronomical calendar in the western world. It was created more than five thousand years ago. Little as we know about the religious beliefs of our Stone Age ancestors, what is clear is that even the earliest of them believed in an afterlife and built tombs for their dead. The pattern varied with different waves of arrivals. Some of the earliest built long covered chambers with curved open forecourts. Later groups delicately balanced single great boulders on two upright stones that formed a portal or entrance, supported at the back by smaller stones to create the classic 'dolmen' shape. Those with whom we are concerned here cremated and buried their dead in tombs that took the form of round mounds with passages leading to a central chamber. You could say that the dead were better housed than the living, who lived in houses built of wooden posts and wickerwork." .... Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre (Newgrange and Knowth), Donore, Co. Meath, Ireland.