CAMPAIGN TABLE AND EASTER COMMEMORATIONS
Today we had our usual campaign stall out but in addition our Easter Rising Commemoration. Large letters lent to us for the day were laid out to spell NO DEMOLITION. We were fortunate to have Paul O’Toole (not tired of us yet) playing guitar and singing a number of songs, including his own We Will Not Lie Down, very apt to our times and to our conservation struggle.
Passers-by including shoppers stopped to listen, to sign the petition, to ask us questions and encourage us to continue the struggle.
Our speaker, Diarmuid Breatnach. pointed out the historical importance of the site and of the centuries-old street market. He also said that history is not a dead thing and that commemorating our history reminds us of who were are and what we have done, the many times we rose in resistance. We need the reminder to encourage us in our battles today, he said and to win the future which was fought for in the 1916 Rising.
Unfortunately two vans were parked directly in front of our usual pitch and therefore blocking our performer and speaker. The man in charge of the tent market stalls, which were there today, said the vans did not belong to any of the tent stalls and he didn’t know who the drivers were or where they might be. It was very frustrating but we had to put up with it for today.
Earlier, the Independent Republicans group, after having their Easter Commemoration outside the GPO, following the known evacuation route of the GPO Garrison, paraded down through Henry Place to Moore Street, led by a lone piper and colour party. A number of floral wreaths were attached to a pole at the corner of O’Rahilly Parade.
AIMSIR & DAOINE
Bhí an aimsir maith go leor and dry and many came to sign the petition, talk, ask questions, buy a campaign badge …
Bróna, Orla, Deirdre, Diarmuid, Steve, Seán and Mac Sheáin were the foireann today.
UASDÁTÚ
We await to learn what are Hammerson’s objections to the Council’s naming buildings in “the 1916 Terrace” as “protected structures”; although the expectation was for the case to be heard in March it has not yet been so.
Ours and others’ appeals to An Bord Pleanála against the Hammerson Plan being approved by DCC’s Planning Department remain awaiting adjudication.
According to DCC Sanitation Department workers, DCC has invested some money in uprgrading their depot offices in Moore Street which seems strange, since its Planning Department approved the Hammerson property speculators’ plan to build a (another!) hotel on that site.
As we reported last week, Stephen Troy, a Moore Street butcher has challenged the supervision of the street and the threat of the Hammerson projected building site in a threat not to pay his rates, for the first time in decades of his and his family’s business on the street. See link for the report:
Dublin butcher says he’d rather ‘do a week in Mountjoy’ than pay council rates
Dublin butcher says he’d rather ‘do a week in Mountjoy’ than pay council rates
