DAOINE
Bróna and Diarmuid were the depleted foireann inniu as health and holiday trips depleted our forces on the street.
The petition table was busy enough considering but we couldn’t reach as many through leafleting as we normally do.
Nevertheless we had petition signers from Dublin and different parts of Ireland and further abroad, including Africa and Belgium (Flemish). The latter is a reminder that we have a ‘Dutch Billy’ building in Moore Street, a design that inspired many Dublin buildings with their gable ends towards the street (like all the old buildings in Moore Street) instead of parallel with it. The Dutch Billy is a narrow house and the tallest in the street, in the south-west terrace.
That style, reminiscent of old Amsterdam buildings, were introduced by Huegenots from France and the Netherlands, refugees from Catholic Royal France persecution in 1685 and about 10,000 are thought to have come to English run-Ireland. They developed industries in cutlery, watch-making, lace and silk-weaving.
Some of their family names survive: Andrieu/Andrews, Boulanger/Baker, Barbier/Barber, Delacroix/Cross, Reynard/ Fox, Le Cerf/Hart, LeBlancs/White. And famous ill-fated United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken, hanged in Belfast in 1798, and his Republican activist sister Anne, are believed to have had Huegenot ancestors.
Less than even the usual small numbers of traditional street traders’ stalls were open as their owners took time off for the bank holiday weekend but the newer stalls kept the market alive and buzzing.
AIMSIR
Bhíomar dóite ag an ngrian, or we would have been if not for hat and cap and sometimes shade.
UASDHÁTA
We await the High Court hearing for the Hammerson appeal against Dublin City Councillors naming five buildings for listing as of historical importance.
An Bord Pleanála’s long-postponed decision on our appeal against the Hammerson plan is still outstanding. It may well await the publicity around work starting on the State’s shoebox museum in order to counterract the bad feeling around giving Hammerson the go-ahead.
Let’s face it, ABP decisions have a tendency to favour the property speculator over the conservationist, even overruling their own officers’ recommendations at times (as has occurred at least once before with Moore Street).
LE CHÉILE
What people can mostly do to help is to spread the word which can be done by sharing our posts on FB or website smsfd.ie on your social media from time to time. All your contacts potentially would then be reached and all together that’s thousands and hundreds of thousands.