DAOINE
Bróna, Deirdre Orla and Diarmuid were the foireann Saturday. Daniel, nephew to Orla and son to Eileen, died during the week and we are including a photo taken of him last December with his son, his aunt and his mother in Moore Street.
Daniel’s funeral service will be on Monday morning. He had put in a number of months working with us on a weekly basis and it’s through him that Orla and Eileen came to join our team; naturally tá muid i gcobhrón leo.
Daniel had also donated us a Starry Plough flag so we handed that over to his family today and will replace it for our stall next week.
Liam Shortall, who is big on history and archaeology visited us today up from Co. Clare and stayed for a while, mostly chatting to Bróna and taking some photos.
Former active member of SMSFD, Emily dropped in to chat for awhile and to wish us a Nollaig shona. Emily is from the USA and was doing masters degree on historical memory with Moore Street as focus subject and … she met an Irish guy. She got her master’s degree and now she is living in Ireland.
A Palestinian family in from the suburbs for the Palestinian Solidarity march that afternoon enjoyed a little time in the street market, also signed our petition and some of us had a nice chat with them.
As usual we had conversations with people about the status of the campaign, about Irish history etc but maybe a little less than usual in the earlier part of our shift.
The exchanges we have with people are overwhelmingly positive in content and form but we had one of the other kind this Saturday. A woman who made a point several times of saying she lives there (possibly in the apartment block at the northern end; nobody lives in the southern terraces nor in the central “1916 terrace”) asked us why we didn’t want the street “modernised.” We wondered whether she was aware that “modernisation” has led to three big supermarkets and a shopping centre imposed on a traditional street market and that the Hammerson demolition and construction plan would destroy the street market as well as much else.
We told her that there are other people who also live there who are totally in support of the campaign and she went away in a huff.
EILE
The new market stalls were on the street from Thursday this week but will go back to Wednesday-Saturday for next week. The plan for new year is not yet clear (yes, we know that rhymes! – we can’t help our poetic nature).
Our mini-signpost to the O’Rahilly Monument was still up when we arrived to set up this week, although we had forgotten to pack it away last Saturday.
Our campaign group alone pushed for the monument to be signposted for years through the Mayor’s Moore Street Forum, then through having our own printed and mounted at various points.
Finally the Council put up its own sign but we continue to promote this important monument which includes O’Rahilly’s last words to his wife as he lay dying in the laneway that now bears his name.
UASDHÁTÚ
We have no information on whether Hammerson made an appearance at the High Court in pursuance of their complaint that Dublin City Councillors have “interfered with their planning permission” by recognising a number of buildings in the Moore Street area as of historical preservation importance.
We will be pursuing this matter with the Legal Department of Dublin City Council which is a public entity and answerable to the citizens rather than a private legal firm or supposed to be a friend to property developers.
AIMSIR
It was a lá Fómhair breá bog in which one could easily work up a sweat.
