AN TSRÁID – BBC AND OTHER
It was very busy on the Street today with stalls, traditional and new, along with shoppers, passers-by, strollers, tourists …
Without two of our outlying leafleters present today we were not very busy at our table but we did get signatures and had conversations with people about the street’s history and the conservation campaign.
We learned that the man who had assaulted a market worker last week had since been arrested for another offence but released and was sleeping in a Moore Street doorway this morning. The Gardaí moved him on but that was probably because the BBC was going to film in the street later.
The BBC was doing a program about food and their “Ulster” filming team had Aishling Moore — head chef and owner of Cork’s seafood restaurant, Goldie, who won Best Young Chef 2023 of the Food & Wine Awards — walking Moore Street and engaging with some of the food stalls.
Aishling was accompanied by one of the actresses in the fictional (!) story of the campaign to save the street in the “Mrs. Brown’s Boys” series (an film). A big target for the filming today was Mama Shee, who sells hot Nigerian food from her stall on the street but Aishling Moore and the BBC film crew also spent time on the traditional traders.
It was Mama Shee’s birthday and Diarmuid sang “Lá breithe shona dhuit” (‘happy birthday to you’) to her in Irish; the customers and her team sang it in English. Later we observed one of Mama Shia’s workers giving free food to a homeless person.
The smoke from the BBQ stall was bad at times today – some people complaining about it said they should get an extractor.
One of our petition signers today was an Irishman living in a hostel but when a black man came to sign it also, the Irish man said that “he wouldn’t know anything about it”. Bróna told him quite sharply that he would indeed and didn’t want to hear any more of that talk.
Many of the migrants in Ireland come from areas of the world where their antecedents also fought British colonialism or, if not the British, the French, Spanish or Dutch variants. And two of the Seven Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation were migrants and another two, sons of migrant people.
EILE
We hear that the Mayor of Dublin wants to renew the ‘Queen of Moore Street’ event but to hold it in the Mansion House – we’re not sure how appropriate that location is; traditionally the setting was always Moore Street itself.
On the other hand, another reason to focus on Moore Street can’t be a bad thing.
Signed the On-Line Petition? If you haven’t signed the on-line petition yet let us encourage you to do so please. Or if you have, to get your contacts to do so too.
AN FOIREANN
B’iad Bróna, Deirdre agus Diarmuid the team for the day, our 507th Saturday on the Street.
AIMSIR
Bhí sé grianmhar agus te go leor.
