Moore Street buildings left unprotected for more than two years

Five Moore Street buildings, believed to be associated with the 1916 Rising, have not been added to the Record of Protected Structures, despite Dublin City Council having agreed to initiate their protection more than two years ago.

The buildings, two on Moore Street, one on Moore Lane and two on Henry Place, are scheduled for demolition to make way for the €1.25 billion Dublin Central shopping complex.

Dublin city planner John O’Hara on Monday night said the council has been unable to gain access to the buildings to assess the suitability of their interiors for protection.

Four houses on the street are already listed for protection. These are numbers 14-17 which were designated national monuments in 2007 because of their association with the Rising. They date from about 1760 and were bought by the State for €4 million from Nama for the creation of a 1916 commemorative centre.

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However, in June 2015 city councillors voted to extend protection to five more buildings on the street against the advice of council management.

The buildings are the stables of the O’Brien’s Mineral Water Building on Henry Place just off Moore Street, occupied by volunteers in 1916; the remains of the White House, also on Henry Place, which was occupied and held by Michael Collins; number 10 Moore Street; and the bottling stores at the rear of 10 Moore Street and Moore Lane.

Also included is the former Hanlon’s premises at 20-21 Moore Street, the building where the surrender order was accepted by volunteers after consultation with Thomas Clarke, Joseph Plunkett, Collins and Seán Mac Diarmada.

The council in March 2016 advertised for conservation architects to assess if these buildings should be given protected status.

However Mr O’Hara said the buildings’ previous owners had refused access to the buildings.

In 2010, Chartered Land was granted planning permission for a shopping complex on a site stretching from the former Carlton cinema on O'Connell Street to Moore Street, but the development never went ahead and the company subsequently went into receivership.

In October 2015 UK property group Hammerson took over a number of Chartered Land assets, including the Carlton site, as part of the Nama portfolio known as Project Jewel. In 2016 it secured a five year extension of the planning permission for the shopping centre, and the building demolitions.

Mr O’Hara on Monday night told city councillors he would write to Hammerson and seek access to the buildings. The buildings cannot be placed on the Record of Protected Structures until the interiors are assessed.

Separately the State is appealing a court order protecting Moore Street as a 1916 “battlefield site”.

In March 2016, the High Court’s Mr Justice Max Barrett ordered the protection of nearly all of the buildings on the east side of Moore Street, as well as the laneways leading to it.

The judge declared the buildings a 1916 Rising battlefield site that collectively constitute a national monument.

In June 2016 the Government decided to appeal the ruling following advice from the Attorney General, the appeal is ongoing.