There’s been a lot of talk about Dublin’s Moore Street as of late but what exactly is all the fuss about? Is there a 3 for 2 sale on punnets of strawberries we don’t know of?
What’s all this talk about Moore Street got to do with anything?
Well, Moore Street has been in the papers quite a bit of the past few days and it’s because ‘Big’ Gerry Adams isn’t happy with how the street is being looked after. Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Big Gerry called out the government, saying the state of care that the site has received in recent years has been “inadequate and deeply disappointing”.
But what’s so special about Moore Street?
Well, it’s the buildings numbered 14 to 17 that Big Gerry is particularly interested in. We’ll save you a massive history lesson but no.14 to no.17 Moore Street had a very big role to play in Irish politics almost 100 years ago.
The buildings actually stand on a battlefield site and they were the headquarters to the Provisional Government during the 1916 Easter rising. So it’s a pretty meaningful site to republicans like Gerry and the rest of Sinn Féin.
Ah I see, but why is it in the paper? Is Gerry Adams just venting?
Well, not really. In fairness to Gerry, the buildings along the terrace on Moore Street are in major need of repair and they’re not being looked after as a ‘historic site’ the way Gerry would like.
Yesterday in the Dáil, Sinn Féin got together with Fianna Fáil and a few other TDs to propose a motion to protect the site as a significant historical area. The government took a look at the proposal and tweaked it slightly, but Gerry wasn’t pleased.
Cen Fáth… as Gerry himself might say?
Well, because the current government loosened the terms of the proposal which Adams then said would lead to the buildings’ surrounding area being demolished.
“It does not guarantee that the terrace, now lying in a state of disrepair and dereliction, would be preserved but allows for it to be subsumed into an inappropriate setting within a shopping centre,” he said in the Dáil.
So why doesn’t Gerry get in there with the aul Marigolds and a tub of elbow grease?
Well he can’t, and neither can anyone else for that matter. The site is ‘protected’ in the sense that no modifications can be made to it without the prior Ministerial consent from the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. At the moment, that’s Jimmy Deenihan. So there won’t be any double-glazing going in anytime soon.
The site could have actually been destroyed back in the Celtic Tiger days. Back in 1999, planning permission was granted to the site, which could have seen its demolition. We wonder how big that envelope was.
Thankfully, a preservation order was granted back in 2007 so for now numbers 14 to 17 are safe. As for the surrounding area… Gerry isn’t so sure.
[Image: no.16 Moore Street via Stéphane Moussie – Flicker]
