Work starts on €1.2bn centre ahead of 1916 monument appeal
Preparatory construction work has, this week, begun at the site on Dublin’s Moore Street.
The development has been the focus of a long-running campaign by conservation groups supported by several of the families of the 1916 leaders.
Jim Connolly-Heron, great-grandson of James Connolly — who signed the 1916 proclamation — said: “It is incredible that this work is being allowed to go ahead prior to a planning appeal scheduled for April 20.
“On behalf of the 1916 proclamation families who are supporting our campaign to save the national monument, I have written to the city council asking that appropriate measures be put in place to ensure the preservation and security of the national monument pending the outcome of the appeal to An Bord Pleanála.”
Dublin city councillors voted late last year to sell 24/25 Moore Street, the final stumbling block to the development company acquiring the entire site earmarked for the long-delayed Carlton shopping mall.
Longford-based developer, Joe O’Reilly, is the promoter.
His company, Chartered Land, has applied to the council for permission to build a €1.2 billion development, including apartments, shops and restaurants, within a 5.5-acre site on O’Connell Street, Parnell Street, Moore Street and Henry Street.
However, following a large number of appeals, including some by Oireachtas members, for the project to be scrapped due to its impact on one of Dublin’s most historical quarters, the planning process was referred to An Bord Pleanála.
Last night, a Dublin City Council spokesman confirmed the legal title to 25 Moore Street had not been formally ceded to the developer.
Numbers 15, 16 and 17 Moore Street, where the leadership of the Easter Rising formally surrendered, are a national monument. The appeal will be heard 93 years to the week of the Rising commencing.
