Sir, – What a very sad vista the GPO looks out upon today as we begin our year of commemorations of the 1916 Rising! Gone is the proud and elegant boulevard that stretched either side of it, filled with hotels, department stores, banks and tearooms, and which is lined now by endless fast-food outlets, amusement arcades, cheap merchandise stores and even a derelict site that has not been very well concealed.
Gone also is Clerys department store. Now it’s an empty shell that faces the statue of James Larkin, who just over 100 years ago stood with the exploited Dublin workers against the unscrupulous employers of his day.
The sad spectacle that is now O’Connell Street symbolises a society where complacency, self-interest and indifference have won the day. – Yours, etc,
ADRIENNE GARVEY,
Dublin 8.