MOORE STREET HOUSE:MEMBERS OF the National Graves Association staged a protest yesterday against a development it claims will damage a national monument associated with the leaders of the 1916 Rising.
The protest took place at O’Connell Bridge, Dublin, at noon, as the Government’s annual commemoration of the Rising got under way at the nearby GPO.
The association claims that the €1.25 billion retail and residential scheme would damage houses of historical and architectural merit in Moore Street, involving major alterations to the No 14 to 17 site which was designated as a national monument.
The leaders of the Rising retreated from the GPO to No 16 Moore Street, a few hundred yards away, before surrendering.
When former taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced that No 16 was to be made a national monument in 2006, he said that it was of significant national importance from “an historical, social and political standpoint”.
James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly, said yesterday that under the plan, major alterations would be carried out to No 16.
“There would be demolition of the structures at the rear, and the area built on,” he said. “The proposal is a violation of the boundary of a national monument.”
An oral hearing is to be held shortly into the proposal, by developer Joe O’Reilly, for the development of the 5.5 acre site in the north city centre.
There would be a shopping and restaurant quarter and two new streets, one linking Henry Street to O’Connell Street and the other linking O’Connell Street to Moore Street. The project would involve moving the Carlton cinema 50 metres north and redeveloping the site as a department store.
There would be over 100 shops, about 100 apartments and 1,000 underground car-parking spaces, accessible from Parnell Street.
