Remembering Dublin’s ‘laneways of history’

THE Dáil statement by An Taoiseach (June 7) that special consideration must be given to the development of the streets and ‘laneways of history’ in and around the 1916 National Monument in Moore Street is most welcome.

The concerned relatives of the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation and others have long been calling for the buildings, surrounding streets and laneways of the Moore Street area to be accorded battlefield status and developed accordingly. The proposal to transform this historic area into a giant suburban-type retail centre should now be scrapped — there is no longer any support for that plan.

If the economic future of our broken country lies in tourism we have in the very heart of our capital an area of huge tourist potential that will attract visitors from all over the world — an historic cultural quarter dedicated to those who gave their lives for our freedom.