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CAMPAIGNERS FOR THE preservation of a derelict Dublin street synonymous with the 1916 Easter Rising have launched legal action against planning permission to revamp the area.
The Moore Street Preservation Trust, whose membership includes descendants of the rebels who staged the insurrection against British rule, have launched a judicial review seeking to have a High Court judge block the permission.
The leaders of the rising retreated from the GPO on O’Connell Street to a row of terraced houses on Moore Street in the final stages of the rising. Revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse formally surrendered to the Crown forces on the street.
Four properties in the red brick terrace row – 14 to 17 – are designated as a national monument and there are plans to turn them into a museum.
Planning permission was granted to property firm Hammerson in 2021 to develop pathways between and around the street and build a town square in the area.
The development plan also includes drawings for new retail and office spaces on the, largely, derelict street. It would see the demolition of homes which current sit opposite the national monument.
The project insists however, on its website, that No 14-17 Moore St will be retained as it is due to its national monument status and historical links to the 1916 Easter Rising.
But Moore Street Preservation Trust oppose the plans over its concerns that the site would be ‘destroyed and demolished’. Organisers have now launched a legal bid to have the renovations blocked after calls for the State to intervene fell of deaf ears.
Speaking to a rally on Moore Street this afternoon, the great-grandson of James Connolly, James Connolly Heron, announced the judicial review.
“The Hammerson plan would demolish much of the 1916 battlefield site, including buildings occupied by the Volunteers at the end of Easter Week,” Connolly Heron said.
“The area would be turned into a building site for up to 15 years to construct unwanted and unnecessary retail and office developments.”
He added that their legal action would not be necessary if Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government Darragh O’Brien intervened and called on him to refuse the planning under the national monument regulations.
“Moore Street campaigners, with widespread public support at home and abroad, have up to now saved this historic site from destruction. That support will be needed more than ever now in the latest phase of our campaign,” he told the crowd.
The event was attended by many local campaigners and activists who also opposing the planning.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has also attended the event and today addressed the crowd, voicing support for the decision to overturn the planning permission. She has previously launched her own legal bid to block the planning approval.
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What did the men and women fight for .1n 1916 ffs for the future a holes..to knock any remaining historical buildings down are there not enough retail buildings along Henry street . Don’t see Amsterdam knocking the Frank’s hidden home to make way for retail buildings for the future
@Karen Marten: because the franks house is not near shops. As for Moore street, why not modernise it (and I don’t mean vape shop sites)
@Alan: that’s a rub ish point. These houses are historical . And near plenty of retail outlets. Leave them alone .
@Karen Marten: We seem to think everything will get better, if we just do nothing.
@Karen Marten: utter rubbish, get on with developing the area as it’s a Kip
@Paul M Doe: developing dosent have to include knocking down the houses it might be a kip as you call it . Those houses are part of history . Just need s a bit of thought on how to clean up the area .
@Karen Marten: utter nonsense as usual from you. Rip it down and modernise the areas, move the vermin on from Moore street
@Paul M Doe: i see you’re still desperately trying to offend as many people as possible. Go ahead, let’s all hear your well researched urban development masterplan for the area. Any response will prove you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, prove me wrong.
@Paul M Doe: who the fudge are you you don’t know me so do one .
@Paul M Doe you on your mammy’s account again
@Karen Marten: His mams first name is Dil.
@Karen Marten: Everything is part of history. It doesn’t matter, it’s just a building which already has been changed after 1916. It isn’t even the same building. Nobody cares. Destroy it, keep it. Revamp the gypsy lane, that’s what we need.
@Karen Marten: Those houses l, and all of Moore Street, is tat. Crying out for redevelopment.The GPO is historic and has a fantastic museum. SF did object to the housing element in the previous plans, which is par for the course.
@D Farrell: maybe we should have kept the tenements, a big part of Dublin history, instead of building new apartments. Why build the Aviva. Was landsdowne Road not a part of history . Dalymount Park. Why replace it? Or Nelson’s Column. There’s only one rubbish set of comments here. Fixated on a fear of the new. Moore street can be memorialised in other ways.
@Karen Marten: What did they fight for in 1916? What plans had they for the state after British rule. None would be the answer. When an independent state did come it came with dire poverty and as the Unionists fore told – Home Rule is Rome Rule.
Peaceful route would have had a better outcome.
@Alan: Replacing Nelson’s column (which was blown up by the IRA and subsquently the state) with a monument to intravenous drug use was a good move.
@Vincent Alexander: a history lesson from someone who knows nothing about history.
@Sean Buckley: omg
It’s a ghetto now, full of refugees and drugs. Get rid.
If Roma or any EU person do not work, under EU law they must return home. How about we enforce immigration law.
You can stay in Ireland for up to 6 months to look for work. You do not have to register with Immigration Service Delivery (the Irish immigration authorities). If you have not found work after 6 months, you can stay in Ireland if you are able to support yourself.
@Dan Murphy:
Could you point out the relevant EU law?
@P. J.: He is right on this.
Listed on ihrec and citizens information websites.
A quick Google will find it.
Didn’t these patriots fight and die to rid the county of hereditary positions of power?
The descendents of revolutionaries have no more say than anyone else!
I find it so hypocritical when these descendents seem to think that their opinions on historical matters carry any more weight than anyone else’s! I couldn’t give a fiddlers who your grandfather was!
@Soundy Sound: Well Said! I have often thought that myself!
@Soundy Sound: exactly, they go on like being a relative is almost a qualification lol
@Soundy Sound: Same of generational wealth. So you’re super clever because your dad gave you millions… hmmmm. Actors too, revered as sensible for er ‘acting’… South Park got that one good enough tho.
@Soundy Sound:
Their descendents surrendered when it was their turn to die for Ireland, unlike all the working class who did die fighting, plus all the poor from the slums of Dublin shot on the orders of the same leaders for looting.
Walked there several times – people urinate openly – smell is disastrous. Never seen anyone protesting against illegal open cigarette sales, drug dealing, urinating and sheeting publicly… Street turned into gipsy street who replaced Irish illegal cigarettes sellers and nobody protesting. Those fallen apart hoses should be demolished and all area totally rebuilt with high modern buildings. This is the city centre but looks like worst Venezuelan ghetto!
@Sergej Simonov: the riff raff should be moved on
The usual commenting, those who would never bother even walkinv down Moore Street, a gistorically significant street but if course they want to whitewash our history.
@Brian D’Arcy: Correct, they won’t pull it off though. They wouldn’t dare disclose their intentions in front of people, it’s all done online where they can hide. For now.
@Brian D’Arcy: I work on O’Connell street, park my bike on Moore lane, and walk through Moore street on a daily basis, and I fully support its redevelopment. How can you champion its current state??? The amount of drug taking/using between Henry lane, Moore lane and Moore street is off the charts, plus, there is a Roma convention, with kids, taking place every day outside the entrance of the Ilac. The place is an absolute S**thole!!!!
Plus, the developers have committed to keeping the relevant buildings as a museum.
Some people just love complaining
@Michael O’Callaghan: we need to clean up that place, filthy shitbox it is. Taken over by wrong uns.
@Brian D’Arcy: it’s all chavs on Moore street, who would want to go near the Kip
@Basildon Joe: The locals unfortunately.
@Brian D’Arcy: Keeping your head in your a$$ isn’t it? Moore street is complete trash. I crossed up for 5 years every day before it begin to slip to gypsy land, now it should be destroyed and every single Rom moved back to Romania.
The street is dilapidated and dangerous at this stage. If the plans are executed properly historical sites and street trading can be preserved.
These professional objectors need to cop on the street and by extension part of O’Connell Street are falling apart.
Moore street should be turned into a trendy gypsy quarter of the city. It’s almost there
Moore street is a keep. You talk about keeping historic building alive while 90% of Irish castles are complete ruins. Revamp it and remove all the roms.
Get rid of it!! New plans will be great for the area
If SF want something then you can assume it’s a waste of time
Did I hear somewhere that the buildings in question (14-17) were totally re-developed internally sometime in the late 1920s, leaving only the facades as original?
‘This is a kip. And we don’t want it to be a kip anymore. But we don’t want anything changed and we certainly don’t want someone who’s not from round here telling us how they’re gonna change it.’
Right….
The Journal should really shut the Comment Section down. Utterly appalled with the racism and hate that’s allowed to be published on this site.
@PhiBo:
Why is it interfering with your project to flood Ireland with fugees in order to bring social unrest in working class areas?
Simon GlHarris repulsive remarks too good to be commented on. What short memories we Irish have of money being sent home being the life-blood of our economy, repulsive commentary by Harris, again, feeding into far-right cluelessness.
@Brian D’Arcy: Calm down there Brianna. You’ll be called farcical Darcy for spewing such hate towards an elected official. Ye did vote for the man, after all.
Just leave planning to the professional planners and then anyone who gets in the way of a legally approved scheme should be locked up for awhile!!
@chris gaffney: Like the Bord Plaenala con man, who used it to enrich himself & his family or the local authority planners who turn down families on family land stating various issues but then accept the brown envelope allowing Developers build in same areas withe the very same issues. Rotten to the core.
Moore St, as it is, is like downtown Mogadishu, and just as dirty.
Develop it, with sensitivity, and respect for it’s historical significance. It served it’s purpose in past years, as a vital market for cash strapped Dub’s, but it’s time for change.
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