THE battle to save the iconic 1916 Moore Street battlefield site has been ongoing for over 20 years. During that time there has been a series of plans by developers, appeals against those plans, court cases, protests and sit-ins. Last week, in an appalling decision, An Bord Pleanála (ABP) – the Planning Authority in the Irish State – ruled on the remaining appeals and published its recommendations on the future development of the site.
In its decision, ABP dismissed all the appeals against UK developer Hammerson’s plans made by the Moore Street Preservation Trust and the relatives of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. Despite accepting that the Hammerson plan contravenes the Dublin City Development Plan, ABP backed the Hammerson plan, which will see much of the battlefield site demolished to make way for a mixed retail, office, hotel and residential scheme.
The battlefield site runs west from O’Connell Street to Moore Street, and north from the GPO and Henry Street to Parnell Street. It covers the area into which the defenders of the GPO withdrew duing Easter Week 1916; the houses through which they tunnelled to number 16 Moore Street, where the last meeting of the 1916 leaders was held; to O’Rahilly Parade, where the O’Rahilly died after being shot by British soldiers; to the place where Pádraig Pearse and Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell delivered the surrender to the British; to the Rotunda where the republicans were held overnight surrounded by British soldiers; to Tom Clarke’s shop in Parnell Street.
The Moore Street Preservation Trust is a not-for-profit organisation led by relatives of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. The Trust has created a plan to preserve the Moore Street battlefield site as a 1916 cultural and historical quarter in the heart of our capital city. The heroic story of the Rising is rooted in these streets and buildings. These are the ‘laneways of history’ – all places intimately connected to the Rising and to the men and women who participated in it.
Now many of these buildings and the lanes and streets that connect them will be demolished if An Bord Pleanála and Hammerson have their way.
Under their plan:
• Nos. 11, 12, 13, 18, 19 and most of 20 Moore Street will be demolished to make way for the construction of a large scale archway.
• The rear of these buildings will be demolished.
• All existing buildings on the site bounded by Moore Street, O’Rahilly Parade and Moore Lane will be demolished.
• Nos. 1 to 7 Moore Street will be demolished and Nos.. 8 and 9 Moore Street will be substantially demolished.
• 38 Henry Street will be demolished.
• 41 Henry Street will be demolished.
• There will be a demolition of other buildings and structures to clear the site totalling a floor area of c. 6,701 sq. m. or c. 72,130 sq.ft.
• The boundary wall on to Moore Lane at the rear of Nos. 50 to 51 and Nos. 52 to 54 Upper O'Connell Street will be demolished, when No.54 is a ‘Protected Structure’.
Many of the buildings have been designated Protected Structures by Dublin City Council and currently Hammerson has initiated a judicial review against the Council’s decisions which is expected to be heard in the next few months.
James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly and a member of the Moore Street Preservation Trust and the Relatives of the 1916 Signatories group, described ABP’s decision as “deeply disappointing though not surprising given ABP’s record”. However, he made it clear that “the battle to save intact this hugely important 1916 heritage site is not over. The Moore Street Preservation Trust will now study An Bord Pleanála’s decision in detail and consider our response.”
Uachtarán Shinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, who was one of those who had appealed against the Hammerson plan, said: “The destruction of the Moore Street 1916 battle ground site will not be accepted. The government must intervene to prevent it from happening.”
If it is allowed to proceed the Hammerson plan for the Moore Street 1916 battlefield site will destroy much of this historic area. The possibility of creating a unique historic and cultural quarter as proposed in the MSPT alternative plan will be lost.
There are less than eight weeks left in which to launch a legal challenge. If you support the Moore Street Preservation Trust and the Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation and if you agree that society has a responsibility to protect our cultural and historical legacy, then join the campaign by signing into the Moore Street Preservation Trust Facebook and supporting its efforts to Save Moore Street. https://www.facebook.com/MooreStreetTrust.
Máire: Another light goes out
EVERY week seems to bring the death of another of the last of that generation who kept freedom’s flame lit in the twilight decades of the republican struggle from the 1950s on. Emmett O’Connell from the South Bronx was one of these. Tá sé ar slí an fhírinne anois.
So was Máire Ferguson.
Máire was in her 95th year. She died last week. Her husband Des died three years ago aged 91. They were an inseparable couple, deeply committed to each other, to their family of ten children, and to An Cumann Lúthchleas Gael. Des was a wonderful footballer who won two All-Ireland Senior Football Championships. He was also a lovely hurler. Máire and Des were strong republican activists too. Máire’s parents were both active in 1916. Her father Jack McDonnell was in Dublin’s 2nd Battalion and fought in the GPO garrison in O’Connell Street. Her mother Georgina Wright was in Cumann na mBán. Des’s family also had IRA connections going back to the 1920s in Castlewellan.
RIP: Gerry Adams with the late Máire Ferguson
I first met Máire and Des in the 1970s when Des arranged for Colette and I to go a little chalet in Aughynelli in Meath when I was released from Long Kesh. Máire and Des were wonderful hosts. There was always a warm welcome. A cup of tea, a homemade scone. Always an interest and a curiosity about what was happening. Martin McGuinness, Des and Máire were very firm friends and he loved them both.
Des and Máire were firm supporters of the peace process and of the efforts to develop Sinn Féin. Without doubt we would not be as strong as we are today without their activism.
Mo comhbhrón le Des Óg (níl sé ró óg anois), Orlaith, Terry, Eimear, Conor, Pearse, Barry, Diarmuid agus Rory. Agus tá muid ag smaoineamh faoi Ronan ar an lá mór seo.
Dublin must act to stop Israel
ISRAEL is a first world nuclear armed state methodically obliterating the Palestinian people using the most advanced weaponry its allies in the West can provide. While millions protest around the world against this genocide, a huge amount of responsibility lies with those political leaders in the USA, Britain and in the European Union who by their shameful actions have emboldened Israel’s slaughter of civilians.
By pouring billions into Israel’s war machine and constantly excusing Israel’s butchery of civilians in the name of defence, Israel’s western allies are as guilty of the deaths of the Palestinian innocents as Israel itself.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t concerned about the fate of the approximately 100 Israeli hostages, or of the treatment of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, or the pogroms on the West Bank, or the gathering gloom around an escalation and extension of the conflict into Lebanon and perhaps wider. Over 600 people have been killed in Lebanon in recent days as the Israeli government applies its Gazan strategy to that country. All of this plays into his hands. It allows him to maintain control and to further his aim of creating a greater Israel with Palestinians expelled from their homes and their land.
The US government, the British government, the European Union and some of its larger member states are responsible for this.
Last week the United Nations General Assembly passed a motion demanding that Israel end its illegal occupation of Palestine. Israel won’t leave because it is the right thing to do, it will only leave when it is forced by political and economic sanctions. The Irish government can play a key role in this at the UN, but also by immediately enacting the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill.
