Save Moore Street Awareness Week 329 (Suspension)

Occupation of Moore Street Terrace, January 2016

Photo: Activists on the scaffold during the occupation in January 2016

Throwback to January 2016

It was in Moore Street the GPO garrison took their last stand in 1916; it was also where the bitter decision to surrender was taken. Those present included most of the signatories of the Proclamation and members of the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan.
 
They evacuated the blazing GPO through Henry Place, crossing Moore Lane into Moore St. and tunnelling through the houses, occupied the whole terrace. Earlier, the O’Rahilly and others went down in a hail of bullets in a bid to open an escape route in a charge up Moore St. at a British machine-gun post in Parnell Street.
 
The GPO garrison, over 300 volunteers including four later shot by British firing squad, a future Taoiseach and a father of a future Taoiseach, along with Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell, spent their last hours of freedom in these streets, lane-ways and buildings.
 
Earlier this week a contractor has started works on the terrace but numbers 14, 15, 16 and 17 are being ripped apart without any respect for their historical value and numbers 13, 18 and 19 are under threat of being demolished.
 
The Office of Public Works are not carrying out work to the usual excellent and higher standard that many other National Monuments have received over many years.
 
The above are some of the reasons to occupy the buildings to protect their great significance in modern Irish history. Moore Street and its surrounding lane-ways from the GPO are a unique battlefield site recognised abroad. If restored sensitively it could be the jewel of the city … Dublin’s Historic Quarter. Tourists come for history, not supermarkets!!

Text taken from the original Facebook post on the 9th January 2016

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