A very mild day on the cobbles as our campaign group drew close to the end of our 8th year of Saturdays on Moore Street – week 377.
PEOPLE kept us busy on the street, signing, accepting leaflets, asking questions …. like the couple from Derry, for example, or the two young men, none of which knew about the O’Rahilly Monument, about which we were glad to tell them of course and towards which to direct them. They thought the monument should be signposted and of course we agree with them – for three or four years Dublin City Council has been promising us they would but they haven’t done it yet. Of course, maybe signposting history in a street you think should be handed over to a property speculator would seem such a good idea …..
Donna from Derry agreed to pose for her solidarity portrait and she can of course share that on her own FB page to spread the word with a personal touch to her own social media contacts.
A young man called something (sorry, forgot) Meehan showed us a 1916 GPO card as he was signing and asked us to tag him when we posted his photo. We will try but might not be able to find him on Facebook ….
Lots of people with children were interested in signing and in telling their children about the history.
Our team today was Bróna, Mary, Emily, Daniel and Diarmuid. Bróna was asking about one of the stall-holders, from whom she normally buys her fruit and veg but who hasn’t be there for a couple of Saturdays. It turns out that this stall-holder always takes December off but, as we were talking, who should we see but herself, walking down the street. Can’t stay away, even when not working!
One man talked to us about a study carried out in Moore Street by the School of Architecture in the 1970s. Some of us wondered whether that might have been the study of the circumstances of the construction of the ILAC shopping centre over many of the Moore Street neighbourhood’s streets and laneways. That report concluded that apart from the owners and the construction contractor, it was Debenhams and Dunne’s that had mainly benefited and that the small traders and workers had lost out on the deal. The Library has a copy of that report which was printed on a duplicator.
Troy’s the butchers have their seasonal displays out …
UPDATE
People were asking us but we had no news to give them, as the Planning Manager muses over all the registered objections received to the Hammerson plan.
No.10 seemed to be undergoing a reorganisation of the space. In the past this has been an Asian hot food buffet (where some of us ate quite often), then fresh fruit and vegetables store in front and Brazilian restaurant out back (from where we borrow a chair every week) so we wait to seen what it will be now.
One of the permanently locked-up shop fronts on the street was opened today for 10 minutes or so by a security man checking it for leaks etc. So the property speculator keeps shop-fronts closed to help run down the street but every once in a while they still need to be checked.
Ná déan dearmad that you can support us by sharing our social media posts from time to time.