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‘GET YOUR APPLES or oranges’… ‘Anyone now for the last of the strawberries’… ‘Wrapping paper five for fifty’… The sounds of my childhood.
My family were ‘dealers’ on Moore Street, subsequently changed to traders after the infestation of heroin into Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s.
My grandmother’s fruit and veg stall faced the now famous terrace. The last stand in which the leaders and the ordinary men and women that fought in 1916 fled the burning GPO to seek shelter and set up their final command as their headquarters against the British empire.
I heard stories on that street of the fighting and slaughter that took place on Moore Street and the heroic stories of sacrifice men made in the surrounding lanes of Henry Place and Moore Lane.
As the years passed, The Dublin Corporation tightened its strangle hold on Moore Street, as my family, like many others, grew ever distant and detached from the street, swapping inner city life to raise a family in Finglas.
Something clicked with me on Friday – I had to go down there
Yet, despite the absence from the street, something in my brain clicked on Friday when I first heard the news of the builders entering the terrace with the intention of demolition and a small group of protesters stopping the destruction.
Maybe it was equating the hypocrisy of all the years that the Dublin Corporation and Dublin City Council had tried to end the livelihood of traders on Moore Street, while also selling the picture of Moore Street in its blooming glory in advertisements as a Tourist destination.
Comparing that to our government’s eagerness to sell 1916 by constantly reminding us of the vast commemorations and celebrations that they have organised, while at the same time destroying the very buildings in which this rising took place.
Destroying these buildings forever. There is no getting them back once gone, but we can always build more shopping centres and hotels; the reasoning behind the destruction.
Millions of tourists flock to see empty fields where great battles took place at Somme or Gettysburg, yet on our own doorstep we have a unique situation of having a preserved battlefield. The buildings, the roads, the lanes, the bridges, the houses, the gardens that contain multiple stories of the Rising are all still there and intact; for now.
Anyone who visits Boston will be familiar with the ‘Freedom Trail’, yet any future tourist to Dublin will be only be familiar with tacky cut price shops and fast food restaurants that will stand instead of the buildings where the birth of our independence was incepted, and where a few idealistic men and women with hopes of freedom took on the biggest empire in the world.
A part of our history
We can retrace the last footsteps of the men and women who fought in 1916, down the same roads and lanes and to the same buildings. The rebels left the side door of the GPO onto Henry Street, under a hail of bullets, seeking shelter in the adjacent Henry Lane.
In the lane, many rebels died as they tired to build a makeshift barricade across Moore Lane, out of carts seized at the still standing lemonade bottle factory in Henry Lane.
Erecting the barricade under the unrelenting fire of British machine gunners from the Rotunda Hospital end. Having successfully mounted a barricade the rebels made their way further down the lane to Moore Street, but once again stopped by the hail of machine gun bullets.
Stuck in the lane between Moore Street and Henry Street, their only option was to burrow through the wall of 10 Moore Street, where Willie Pearse spent that night, occupying the the now endangered terrace.
The rebels continued to burrow through walls with hammers, bricks and butts of rifles until the leadership had taken up command in the centre of the terrace in number 16.
This was the last stand of the newly declared Irish Republic, where the dying James Connoly lay and where Elizabeth Farrell and Patrick Pearse took the final steps up Moore street with a white flag to surrender to the British forces.
As a father, I want to be able to have the chance to bring my children down through these lanes and buildings to see an intact history and hear the stories as I did.
As a history teacher, I want to bring my kids and students here
As a history teacher, I want to be able to bring my students and future students down these roads to show them that the need all, get all, consumer and commodity thirsty culture taking a grip on young people can be superseded by education, knowledge and history.
What example are we setting to future generations if we allow history to be bulldozed for another shopping centre, another fast food restaurant and for the profits of developers.
We hear constantly about the success of the Atlantic Way in bringing hoards of new tourists to Ireland, therefore any logical thinker can see the benefits of replicating the ‘Freedom Trail’ in Boston and bring in a wave of new tourists to Ireland and Dublin to partake in the ’1916 Freedom Walk’, or the creation of a ’1916 Quarter’.
With these thoughts in my mind, I decided I needed to act and head towards Moore Street after work on that Friday afternoon.
Behind the newly erected building hoardings of the dilapidated National Monument gathered up to 60 people from all walks of life, and huddled in number 18 Moore Street were builders to bus drivers, politicians to musicians, teachers to taxi drivers, shop owners to unemployed.
People chatted in small groups dispersed between piles of rubble in the wind swept and cold building that resembled a building site. The few chairs that occupied the building were reserved for older men and women protesters present.
We passed the time chatting to strangers, we talked about the history of the building, I told Wicklow people about Moore Street of old, while more serious conversations and debates ensured about Dublin GAA and the quest for back to back All Ireland’s without our full back O’Carroll.
Gathering with strangers in Number 18
Unselfish people made tea, while the rest of us drank it, mainly holding the cup to keep our hands warm. That evening the group gathered at the back of number 18 away from the exposed front of the building.
The protesters stood in a large circle and spoke openly about the seriousness of protecting the buildings, that only impeccable behaviour will be accepted on site at all times.
The group erected barriers blocking anyone from entering the ‘protected’ monument from numbers 14-17, while one man gave a lecture on safety; constantly reiterating this is a building site.
With just a few scattered chairs, the realisation dawned that after my initial impulsive reaction to simply go to Moore Street upon hearing the news, most of those staying the night will not be sleeping.
Volunteers putting their names forward to stay were not in short supply. The task to preserve these buildings and our history was too important, before it is erased forever.
The National Museum described the buildings as ‘the most important historic site in modern Irish history’. Some people had to volunteer to stay out in cold, misty rain that had begun to descend, tasked with guarding the entrance and the scaffolding, as being a Friday night those inside needed to be prepared for any mischievous nightclubbers that might appear in the early hours.
Sitting against the historical walls, discussing our past
Inside people sat on the cold ground, with backs to walls and on make shift benches. With all of us gathered in the one space we continued our previous conversations about the building, the street, our history and the government policy to knock this important and symbolic terrace down in the centenary year of 1916.
The ultimate question in all of this is, ‘what we value more as a society’.
The destruction of our history for another shopping centre, fast food outlet and hotel. No one standing in this building now, believes that those things don’t have a place in a modern city, we simply believe their place should not be at the destruction of our historical buildings.
We can always build more shopping centres or hotels in different city centre sites, but we can never rebuild our history once destroyed.
Seán Fox is a history teacher from Finglas.
Slightly off topic but Moore street was never the vibrant market portrayed in oral history and tourist posters. It was always smelly and slapdash. It is tiny. Compare it to the central market in any other European capital like Barcelona. Clean the place up and build proper stalls. Close the Chinese and Nigerian shops and give Dublin a Moore St to be proud of
Good point, we have a market area (Smithfield) and like it out not, the street traders were able to cover the massive illigal trade in the area that made Moore street an area to avoid for 40 years. The derelict buildings are a part of that, and while it may be nostalgic to remember the stories, these buildings are not fit for that. That side of Henry Street needs regeneration, and part of that would include a museum, but holding up progress for the sake of personal memories isn’t right. Comparisons to the major battle places is incorrect as well… the GPO more than fulfills that role.
Well said alien, moore street is not an area of significant history. It is a crime laden area of the city with more likeness to Beijing or lagos than dublin. The proposed revamping of moore street includes a museum and a partial indoor area for traders. The gas thing is, the fruit sellers on moore street want this change and actually are against this occupation. Dublin is growing and needs redevelopment but let’s be honest, the vast majority of these occupiers are the same anti everything brigade. It’s their hobby / job. Wasters!
I’d love to see it upgraded. Put in a strip of nice, independent shops selling quality Irish produce. There is huge demand for that and would be a lot nicer than another bog standard shopping centre filled with UK and US chain stores. I won’t hold my breath on DCC coming up with a good solution though.
Moore St was never just Moore Street alone, before they built the Ilac centre that whole area was made up of stalls selling food, cloths and everything you could think off. The traders were then forced onto Moore St when they closed the surrounding area. Moore St is embedded in Dublin heritage and for many thousands of Families was the shopping area every Fri Sat. I agree that it should be cleaned up but don’t take away the character of the area. Leaving the building as they are is not an answer as they will become dilapidated and beyond repair.
Kevin, No one wanted Moore street before the Chinese and Nigerians moved in because the place was a kip and pretty much still is.
Btw my point was not directed at Chinese or Nigerian businesses per se but the kinds of shops that seem to populate the street like phone unlocking and nasty Internet cafes.
Ethnic cleansing is not the answer to everything Kevin.
” Close the Chinese and Nigerian shops”
You are a bigot.
@James Xenophon,
But you seem to think it’s OK to ethnically cleanse the native Irish.
Four of them were interviewed on Saturday on the Marion finnucane show , all of them
Are also water protesters !! Where to they get their time to do all this serial protesting ?
Or possibly people who care both about our history and future?
Great article, fantastic to see so many people taking a stand on this.
Did you not read the article? After work on a Friday. and on the weekend.
Or possibly people with too much time on their hands maybe ?
Them houses have been derelect for over 40 years..Why the protest now.
Because there is a move to demolish them, ironically (or intentionally) during the year we celebrate the 1916 Rising.
@Lorna Leonard
The “Save Moore Street” campaign has been going on for about 15 years now. It is strongly backed by the 1916 Relatives’ Association.
Renovate the buildings to what they were in 1916, and turn the whole street into a museum. The National Museum has far more stuff than it has space to display, here is an opportunity to put this stuff on display in the very place where it was used. Half the retail centres in the country are empty we don’t really need another, but when these buildings are gone what will we do? lead people round Starbucks or MacDonalds and tell them “This is where the Barricade so many died to man used to be. Over there in that closed unit with the whited out windows is where Connolly lay bleeding”? We have a chance to hounor the start of our Independence and create a world class interpretive centre in the actual buildings where men and women fought and bled for a dream of an Ireland of equals.
If you renovate number 18 & 19 to restore them to how they were in 1916 you’d have to demolish them.
They didn’t exist in 1916.
The ignorance of this simple fact is truly astounding.
You’re quoting from the bible of Heather Humphries – who, in an effort to justify the commencement of the demolition, first tried to tell us that there were no foundations to these houses – despite them having been built in 1832 ……. don’t believe all you hear or read in the newspapers….
Well said Sean, a government are complete sellouts of our history and our nation.
Fair play to them
The building in which the Rising leaders held their final council of war is being preserved. The buildings that are being demolished have no connection to the Rising.
John Bruton(former Taoiseach) said in a recent interview that 1916 was totally unnecessary & a waste of Irish lives. Home Rule had bee granted & the rising was misguided. These decisions are being made by a Government of this thinking. How can we protect our heritage from them???
He isn’t wrong that it was a total and unmitigated disaster. It was effectively a Coup within the Irish Volunteer movement as the radical left fringe used subterfuge to fool the various Volunteer organisations into thinking that it was sanctioned.
The true Genesis of an independent Ireland comes from the Conscription crisis of 1918 and not some Disney style patriotic call to arms following 1916. During and after the German Michael Offensive, the British army had an acute manpower shortage of which there was much lobbying to conscript the previously exempt Ireland. With that, membership of the IRA ballooned.
TLDR: It was the Conscription Crisis and not Easter 1916 which pushed thousands of Irish men into the IRA. This is a fact that is backed up by historical records and not some opinion of some Republican revisionist. Reclaim your history.
He was right. A total waste of time and lives. You go and celebrate failure if you want or you can grow up.
Sure we really only achieved freedom in the 1990s
We should be revering Mary Raftery and not Micheal Collins.
Ron where is your standup routine showing, i need to know to avoid it.
It’s like Homestore and More….! When they’re gone they’re gone!
They didn’t seem to care about these derelict looking buildings for decades.
Bandwagoners. They were the same group that jump on the anti everything. This is their flavour of the month
The Save Moore Street campaign has been running for the last 15 years.
A pity they didn’t knock moore street 16 yrs ago to stop the most useless campaign of all time.
This article is misinformation designed to confuse people unfamiliar with the situation.
The author is a history teacher which makes the misinformation even worse
The buildings that will be demolished did not exist in their present form in 1916 at all .
As far as I can see this is just the usual roving mob of protesters and bandwagon jumpers.
Very nice Sean. Brilliant article
It full of “Serial” protesters – the same ones you’d see at the water protests .
Any chance to rise up against the establishment !
Nothing to do with keeping the Moore st buildings .
Bin Charges , Property tax, Water charges, Modular Homes being built in Ballymun, Moore Street , exact same heads you will see at each protest .
Yes because these type of people have taken it up the a**e from the Government for too long now. And can’t take it anymore
Derek ,yet they are happy to take their €188 of said government !
Pretty sure teachers don’t get the dole.
Should be turned into a museum or something fcuk sake trying to tear it down what’s wrong with use c.unts
Good riddance – and take those horrible hawkers away too, please!
A history teacher does not necessarily teach history. Some history teachers, it would appear, do not understand the difference between an insurgent and a rebel.
Great article Seán, fair play.
Its very important that all these buildings are preserved for future generations. I dont think anyone has a problem with the buildings being renovated in regards to an interpretive centre. For me, i would love to see a cultural quarter being set up around the Moore Street area, something that Dublin is sadly lacking.
Its also interesting to see some people in the comments section here who support the destruction that is planned, also show some racist/xenophobic tendencies in their posts.
Well said Kevin move the Chinese and nigerians what are they doing there in first place some irish street that is more like spot the irish on at street
They’re there because it’s a fvcking kip. Simple as.
Good man Sean sending the right message as usual.
Where were all the “saviours” of Moore st for the last 20 years as the street became a den for drug use, drug sales. Where were they when the “home” of the rising was taken over by phone repair shops, hair extensions shops and the likes? If the place is so precious why haven’t they been down there before protesting?
They’ve been protesting since the late 90s. Google search Save 16 Moore Street
They have David. Protests have been held for many years now.
Is it worth a quick profit for some developer to destroy this ?
There are many empty sites, shops and units across the city or even very near to these buildings.
O’Connell street needs to be re vamped. empty building and empty sites. This does not need to include the destruction of our heritage for greed. The builder will make a quick profit and then the shops will struggle to keep rent payments until they leave and make room for the Euro Shops, Starbucks, Dealz and Phone shops that are on every corner, we might even get a Penneys so we don’t have to walk to the other 3 about 50 meters away.
Get traders back, clean up the street and make this a place to visit and be proud of.
This is and should be a tourist attraction.
Fool by not paying your water tax ,would be considered protesting.
Ireland is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Moore Street is NOT beautiful.
.
Only nostalgic Dubliners would care about saving the old dump.
Stay there lads. It means the Government will not have to waste any more of our money renovating the buildings
Moore Street is a complete dump.
The place needs to be cleaned up.
The stench is appalling.
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