State’s approach to preserving Moore Street criticised

The Government’s vision on the centenary of the Easter Rising is to turn the historically significant area of Moore Street in Dublin into a shopping centre, it has been claimed.

Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan criticised the State’s approach to the preservation of Moore Street buildings and linked lanes and streets which were significant in the Rising.

The State is to preserve numbers 14-17 Moore Street but Ms O’Sullivan said it should also save number 10, the location of the Rising leaders’ first council of war after the evacuation of the GPO.

She has previously called for the whole terrace to be saved and linked properties on streets including Percy Place held by Fine Gael hero Michael Collins, which the Taoiseach had described as "the laneways of history".

Appealing for the preservation of number 10 Moore Street, Ms O’Sullivan said the suitability of the current plan for a “massive shopping centre” had to be questioned.

Defending the Government's approach Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys said that "coupled with the new visitor centre being developed in the GPO, the Moore Street commemorative centre will be a fitting and lasting tribute to the 1916 Easter Rising".

While number 10 Moore Street was the first building broken into by the insurgents, it was now separated from the national monument of numbers 14-17 by new buildings built since the Rising and “is therefore isolated from its context”.

Ms Humphreys said her responsibility was for the national monument that is numbers 14-17 Moore Street. “The decision to add structures to the record of protected structures is a matter for the local authority.”

Ms O’Sullivan questioned why the Minister paid €4 million for numbers 14-17 when it was a “derelict site”.

She asked: “Why were these buildings not handed over to the State by Nama instead of the State having to pay €4 million for a derelict site?”

The Minister said the site was bought from the previous owner through the assistance of Nama, “and the consideration of €4 million was arrived at in the normal commercial manner”.