Moore Street

Easter Rising

Irish Volunteers commanded by Patrick Pearse surrendered to British forces on 30 April 1916, from a terrace of houses on Moore Street at the ending of the Easter Rising. Five of the seven signatories of the Irish Proclamation of Independence - Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Joseph Plunkett and Sean MacDermott, as well as future leader Michael Collins, surrendered from the terrace.

Planning controversy

Dublin City Council planned from 1998 to demolish the terrace to redevelop the area, but this was opposed by groups who held this terrace and the battlefield trail running from the GPO down Moore Lane and Henry Street and into Moore Street to be an important part of Irish history, some referring to the location as "Ireland's Alamo". The National Graves Association began its campaign in 2002, setting up the "Save 16 Moore Street committee" in 2005. Numbers 14-17 Moore Street were declared a national monument in 2007, guaranteeing their retention.

However, plans for a €1.25 billion retail and residential scheme on nearby O'Connell Street, which would be built by Joe O'Reilly (CE of the Chartered Land Group, which developed the Dundrum Town Centre) are controversial. At Easter Rising commemorations in April 2009, opponents of the scheme contended that it would involve major alterations to numbers 14-17 and pledged to challenge it at forthcoming public hearings.

Objectors, including families of the signatories of the Irish Proclamation of Independence (all signatories were executed by the British in the fortnight after the Rising), have pledged to seek an EU ruling to preserve the terrace if the developer's plan to subsume it and Moore Lane into the planned mall surrounding the GPO is waved through by the Irish Government. In November 2012, the legal representative for relatives of the 1916 leaders, told the Joint Committee on the Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht that Chartered Land accepted they do not have the money to build the development due to the developer's debts. In the meantime, the interior and exterior of the houses have reportedly deteriorated badly. In January 2013, a report by the Technical Group of Irish parliamentary representatives called for the Moore Street quarter to be saved and opposed the shopping mall plan

In August 2015, Chartered Land proposed to swap Nos.14-17 (which had a preservation order on them since 2007) for Nos.24-25, which were owned by the local authority. A new campaign, Save Moore Street From Demolition was formed specifically to prevent this exchange, perceiving the intention to begin demolition of the terrace from its northern end. The campaign launched a petition, placed a campaign table on Moore Street every Saturday, distributed leaflets and lobbied elected Councillors The proposal was defeated by a large majority at a Dublin City Council meeting in November of that year. SMSFD continued in the broader campaign to save the quarter, including the street market, which it perceived as also being under threat and already under pressure and declining.

In September of that year, the State agency NAMA sold Chartered Land's property assets to, vulture capitalists Hammerson (British) and Allianz (German)

However in March of that year, it was announced in the media that the State had purchased Nos.14-17 from Chartered Land for a total of €4 million and would be preparing a museum there in preparation for the centenary commemorations of the Rising in the following year. Although the acquisition by the State was welcome by most campaigners, the plan was opposed, since it would take place in the context of the demolition of the rest of the terrace and the building of the shopping centre around the four houses.

In January 2016, the SMSFD campaign became aware of the plan of the Department of Heritage to demolish a number of houses on each side of Nos.14-17 and called emergency demonstrations in the street for 7th and 9th of that month. At the end of the first of those, the houses were occupied by protesters from a variety of political backgrounds and held for five days. (No.20)

A concerned citizen, Colm Moore, took a number of legal challenges on State decisions regarding the street to the High Court. Justice Max Barrett gave an interim order that no demolition take place until the case had been heard and the occupiers left the building. Subsequently, after hearing heavy machinery at work within the buildings and the refusal of the Minister of Heritage to permit independent inspection of the work, refusing access to a delegation of members of the Irish parliament and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, activists of the Save Moore Street 2016 campaign group, which had arisen out of the occupation, blockaded the site and prevented building workers gaining access. The blockade was maintained for almost six weeks and was lifted only with the delivery of the Barrett judgement. On 18 March, having heard the case of Mr. Moore and the State's defence, Justice Barrett declared that not only the whole terrace but the surrounding street and lanes constituted a national historic 1916 Battleground.

The Minister of Heritage, Heather Humphreys, with the support of the Government cabinet, has lodged an appeal against this decision, the hearing of which scheduled for late December 2017.

The campaign for conservation and appropriate development continues. SMSFD have missed only two Saturdays in Moore Street since September 2015 and claim over 70,000 signatures to their petition. The SMS2016 campaign group have organised a number of public events also. Campaigners and traders have claimed that the street market is being run down, campaigners claiming this is a deliberate policy of convergency of interests of property speculators, vulture capitalists, some Dublin City Council officials and the Government.

In popular culture

Moore Street market is shown in the 2014 film, Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie. The title character of Mrs. Brown is shown to run a family owned market, passed down from eldest daughter since 1802. The market comes under threat from Russian developers who wish to turn the street into a giant shopping centre. The street is also the subject of a best-selling book Moore Street - The Story of Dublin's Market District by historian, Barry Kennerk. Kennerk demonstrates that Moore Street was once just part of a larger commercial area and his work is the first to recount the entire history of street trading in the locality since the eighteenth century, taking in thoroughfares that are now covered by the Ilac Centre shopping complex. These included Little Denmark Street, Cole's Lane, Anglesea Market and Riddell's Row.

On 3 February 2013, the Irish Independent remarked that although Kennerk welcomes plans to acknowledge the part that Moore Street played during the 1916 Rising, its rejuvenation as a battlefield historical quarter should not come at the expense of the area's "soul". A broader interpretation of the Casual Trading Act (1995) could facilitate a more viable business model - one that allows traders to engage in the sale of craft goods and finished food products, thus helping to ensure the market's protection as a cultural treasure. Part of Kennerk's vision for the area also includes moving the 'footprint' of the market east into Moore Lane and Henry Place with lock-up facilities and garages turned into businesses, thus helping to recreate a sense of the market district that once existed prior to the 1970s. It could become the Camden Market of Dublin.