It was a busy day for many of us with a number of events taking place around the city and luckily the rain held off.
PEOPLE
We had a good-sized turnout today with Bróna, Daniel, Seán
and Diarmuid, latter supported by the two Deirdre’s and Emily.
Along with the usual Irish people from various parts of the country signing in support, we had a Hungarian woman and French woman who were very interested. The woman from Hungary has been living here for years and has been involved in other Irish conservation and historical memory issues.
Mary Doyle talked to us about her Poole family (maiden name). There was Joe who was one of the Invincibles she told and was executed but since no Poole was named among the five executed that might have been Joe Brady. She had Poole relatives in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence.
Another woman who spoke to us seemed to have difficulty in grasping that we are not a Sinn Féin organisation and are in fact independent of any political party.
UPDATE
As many will know, despite Dublin City Councillors on a number of occasions having voted to conserve the street, the UNelected chief Planning Officer of the Council has approved most of the demolition plan of the property speculator Hammerson. However, the struggle goes on.
We were pleased to see that the shop at No.10 is not closing after all (and not just because we borrow a chair from there every week for Bróna – we borrowed two stools today). The owner was instructed by DCC to remove a partition and to open up his shop, which mean the closure of some businesses on the site but not the shop itself. Too many shop-fronts have been closed down already as the property speculator deliberately runs down the street to make it less and less attractive and seemingly not worth conserving.
At 3pm a separate organisation, the Moore Street Preservation Trust had scheduled a rally to which a number of campaigners had been invited to speak, including our group. Although it had only been advertised earlier in the week, the rally attracted a good-sized crowd.
Pat Waters played to open the event and performed a song of his own composition about the O’Rahilly, who was mortally wounded in Moore Street and died in the nearby lane which bears his name after writing a farewell letter to his wife and children.
Micheál Mac Donncha (SF Cnclr.) chaired the event for the Trust and speakers included Diarmuid Breatnach for the Save Moore Street From Demolition group, dramatist Frank Allen who had organised a number of Arms Around Moore Street events, Donna Cooney (campaigner and relative of Vol. Elizabeth O’Farrell), Brendan Mulvihill (relative of Vol. Michael Mulvihill, killed at junction Moore Lane with Henry Place), Stephen Troy (independent local butcher) and Carolyn Awkright (fresh fruit and vegetable street stall-holder). Ó Snodaigh (SF TD) was the last speaker; Mulligan from the Cobblestone played and sang along with another musician towards the end and Pat Waters concluded the event with some more music and song.
Hundreds of our leaflets were distributed during the day, some during the earlier stall and many more during the rally.
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