Work on 1916 Moore Street monument completed next year, Dáil told

Conservation work on the national monument at Dublin’s 14-17 Moore Street, which is associated with the 1916 Rising, will be completed next year, the Minister for Heritage has said.

Heather Humphreys said the historical significance of 16 Moore Street, as the final headquarters of the 1916 Rising and the location of the last council of war, was the determining factor in placing as preservation order on it in 2007.

Nos 14, 15 and 17 were included to enhance and preserve the amenity and setting of 16, she added.

“Collectively, 14-17 Moore Street represent the most significant, original complete, discreet and continuous section of substantially intact pre-1916 buildings on the street, most of the remainder being post- 1916,’’ Ms Humphreys said.

Unlike adjacent properties, she said, those buildings also retained significant and extensive internal 18th-century elements, including staircases, partitions, plasterwork, doors, floors, fittings and fixtures. The forms and profiles of the 18th-century buildings also survived.

“Most important, we also have physical evidence of the presence of the insurgents in the form of the openings that were broken through party walls in the houses,’’ she said.

Sinn Féin TD Sandra McLellan suggested that the entire battlefield site should be developed as a national monument. Many sites of that nature, in a national historical sense, existed right across Europe, she said.