GO GINEARÁLTA
Bhí sé grianmhar, uaireannta scamallach ach te.
DAOINE
The Foireann today was Bróna, Orla agus Diarmuid, with Bróna being inducted into the banner erection procedure.
Mary dropped by later to chat and to collect some of our leaflets for a history tour she’ll be conducting for some people from Belfast.
We met Errol today, absent for months so it was good to see him again and know he was well. Fiachra (surname?) came speaking Irish to sign the petition and was replied to in the same language by Bróna agus Diarmuid.
Petition-signers kept coming. The flood of Irish cowboys was noticeably less this weekend. Diarmuid, who lives within earshot of Croke Park, says he can’t wait for Brooks to ride off into the sunset.
We always also get people with backgrounds in other countries signing our petition and among those this Saturday were a Georgian (Eastern Europe, not Southern USA), a West African, Algerian and two socialists from Canada, the man in particular a great fan of James Connolly. We told the latter some of the international and national history and about the O’Rahilly monument, which they went off to see, returning to tell us how impressed they were with it (and agreed that it should be prominently signposted – they found it by our signpost).
BADGES
The new SMSFD badges are going at a steady rate, between individual purchases and people buying a number to give or send to friends (some have reached Australia already, we hear and some are on the way to the USA). Go raibh míle maith agaibh arís, Shamrock Superstore.
The image on the badge is of the grotesque on the roof apex of No.55 and is also our campaign group’s logo. It survived the fighting in 1916 but lost a wing-tip to a British Army bullet.
FLASHBACK (mid-September 2014)
This time in 2014, we were into our second or third Saturday with a Saturday stall on the street with petition and leaflets. The objective was to have the councillors refuse the property speculator Joe O’Reilly (Chartered Land) to exchange the protected Nos.14-17 for the DCC’s 17-18, viz. their sanitation department at the end of the terrace. We feared once he got those he would begin demolition all the way down to No.18. In November 2014 a majority of the councillors voted against the land swap, against the recommendations of the City Managers and, indeed, the Government’s Minister for Heritage.
It was a great victory but we little dreamed we’d be on the street every Saturday for the next eight years ….
UASDÁTÚ
New Market
The word on the street is that the new market taking place on Moore Street is to begin on Thursday 22nd will run from then until and including Sunday every week. The stalls will be rented out at €160 for four days. The current stalls on the street will remain without change in their status.
It will be good to see more use of and liveliness in the street, which has been run down for years – no doubt in order to reduce opposition to speculator plans for the area. The opening up of the market to more stalls and Sunday opening was part of the recommendations of the Market Expert Group’s Report in December 2020. Our group was represented in Expert Group and made some of the proposals for market extension — but also for the marking and celebration of the history of the street and we hope that will not be forgotten.
Mar is gnáthach, you can help spread the word by the occasional sharing of our posts.
