LAST Thursday the relatives of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic and the Moore Street Preservation Trust launched their detailed plan for the protection of the 1916 Moore Street battlefield site and for its development as a historic cultural quarter. The commercial plan which would see much of the iconic 1916 architecture of the area demolished has the support of An Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his government. Mr Martin, who met developers Hammerson and endorsed their plan before the developer published its proposal, has refused, thus far, to meet the relatives. To their shame successive Irish governments have supported the private development of Moore Street and allowed the national monument at 14-17 Moore Street, the lasting meeting place of the 1916 leaders, to fall into decay. The Moore Street Preservation Trust, the 1916 relatives and other Moore Street activists have fought a long, difficult public and legal campaign to protect and preserve this site which the National Museum of Ireland has described as “The most important site in modern Irish history.” And on Thursday the latest phase of that battle was launched with the unveiling of the scale model of Moore Street and its environs. Appropriately, the Moore Street plan was unveiled in Ionad an Phiarsaigh, the Pearse Centre, former home of the Pearse family in Dublin. James Connolly Heron, the great grandson of James Connolly, described Thursday as “A red letter day for the campaign... Today the 1916 relatives salute architects Seán Ó Muirí and James Kelly and the Trust team for the realisation of a plan that we can enthusiastically endorse and adopt as the way forward for the development of an area so close to our hearts.” Among those in attendance were Proinsias Ó Rathaille, grandson of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly – The O’Rahilly; Harry Coyle, grandson of Henry Coyle; and Brendan Mulvihill, grandson of Michael Mulvihill. Their grandfathers were killed in the Battle of Moore Street.
