CAMPAIGNERS FOR THE preservation of a derelict Dublin street synonymous with the 1916 Easter Rising have been granted a judicial review of the development plans for the area.

The Moore Street Preservation Trust said grounds for the judicial review include interference with and demolition of protected structures in the Moore Street area.

The leaders of the 1916 Rising retreated from the GPO on O’Connell Street to a row of terraced houses on Moore Street in the final stages of the rising.

Revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse formally surrendered to the Crown forces on the street.

Four properties in the red brick terrace row – 14 to 17 – are designated as a national monument and there are plans to turn them into a museum.

Planning permission was granted to property firm Hammerson in 2021 to develop pathways between and around the street and to build a town square in the area.

The development plan also includes drawings for new retail and office spaces on the largely derelict street.

It would see the demolition of homes which currently sit opposite the national monument.

Generated image of what the new development on Moore Street in Dublin would look like. Image created by Visual Lab Image created by Visual Lab

The project insists however, on its website, that No 14-17 Moore St will be retained as it is due to its national monument status and that the area will be “appropriately restored as part of this landmark destination”.

But Moore Street Preservation Trust opposed the plans over its concerns that the site would be “destroyed and demolished“. 

In a statement today, the great-grandson of James Connolly, James Connolly Heron, described Moore Street as the “great survivor of the 1916 Rising” and added that it is “the location of the last HQ of the Provisional Government still standing today”.

He said the Moore Street Preservation Trust “will not stand idly by and allow this sacred ground to be destroyed in the commercial interest of private property developers”. 

“It simply cannot be allowed to meet the same fate as the family home of The O’ Rahilly – bulldozed overnight courtesy of another infamous decision by the members of An Bord Pleanála,” he added.

That building, 40 Herbert Park, was the former home of 1916 Rising leader Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, the only leader killed in the fighting.

It was bulldozed in September 2020 to use the site for a 12-storey apartment and hotel development.

James Connolly Heron added: “The Hammerson claim that their plan will sensitively rejuvenate this historic part of the city is simply untrue. 

“It will do nothing of the sort. It will redraw streets and lanes that have remained intact for over a century. 

“We are confident that the High Court will once again find in our favour and hold that this area satisfies the criteria for National Monument status and so must be preserved and protected in accordance with its historic importance.” 

Sinn Féin’s general election manifesto meanwhile has said the “heritage of Ireland must be protected” and adds: “From the ongoing threat to the 1916 battle-site at Moore Street, it is clear that the preservation of our rich history requires a new government willing to put the people’s inheritance above the private profit of developers”.

One of the party’s cultural heritage priorities includes “declaring the Moore Street terrace, its yards and laneways, a National Monument and developing a 1916 Culture Quarter by enacting Aengus Ó Snodaigh’s Ceathrú Cultúir 1916 Bill”.

That Bill seeks to establish a body called An Cheathrún Cultúr 1916 Teoranta in relation to the “preservation, restoration and management of the cultural historical quarter within the Moore Street Battlefield Area”.

-With additional reporting from Muiris O’Cearbhaill