‘Incisive gesture’ on Moore Street ended Rising, court told

The "incisive gesture" that marked the end of the 1916 Rising happened on Dublin's Moore Street when Patrick Pearse laid down his arms before a British general, according to a report put before the High Court.

An author of that report, archaeologist Franc Myles, has said he has some sympathy with the view that an area on and around Moore Street constitutes a 1916 "battlefield" site, the court heard.

Because of that sympathy, Mr Myles, a specialist in historical archaeology, was reluctant to provide a sworn statement for the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht as part of her opposition to an action aimed at preserving a battlefield site in the area, Terry Allen, director of the National Monuments Service, said.

Mr Allen said Mr Myles told him he considered an affidavit from him might not be “helpful” to the Minister.

Mr Allen disagreed with views expressed by former National Museum director Pat Wallace and others that a 1916 battlefield area and route extends from the GPO into Moore Street.

His view was the 1916 battlefield was “Dublin at large” and Moore Street was “a chapter in the Rising”, not a battlefield in its own right, Mr Allen said.

He was giving evidence to the High Court in the continuing action by Colm Moore, a nominee of the 1916 Relatives Association, against the Minister, Heather Humphreys, aimed at protecting as a national monument any buildings and places on and around Moore Street which are linked to the Rising.

On Thursday, the fourth day of the case, Mr Allen told Mr Justice Max Barrett that Ms Humphreys disagreed there was a wider battlefield site that should be designated a national monument.

A predecessor of the Minister, Dick Roche, had in 2007 designated a terrace at Nos 14-17 Moore Street a national monument and Ms Humphreys considered the extent of the national monument does not go beyond that terrace, the court heard.

Commemorative centre

The terrace was acquired by the State for €4 million, and a 1916 commemorative centre is to be developed there.

Mr Justice Barrett was shown a video setting out details of the planned centre, the heart of which will be No 16, where the leaders of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic met for the last time and decided to surrender.

The centre will also include part of an original tunnel dug through several buildings down Moore Street by rebels after they fled on Friday April 28th, 1916, from the GPO, which was being shelled and fire-bombed by British forces.

Mr Allen said the contractor has been prevented by third parties for some three weeks now from going onto the site of the centre to carry out works.

A banner placed on the terrace, which Mr Moore alleges was erected in breach of planning requirements, functions as a screen and is not permanent, Mr Allen added.

In evidence, Jacqueline Donnelly, an architect with the Department’s Architectural Heritage Advisory unit, said the purpose of demolishing buildings at Nos 13 and 18 Moore Street was to structurally isolate the national monument at Nos 14-17 for conservation. She disagreed there was evidence of pre-1916 brickwork on certain buildings outside the national monument designation.

The case continues on Friday.