Clear up status of our pre-1916 historic sites

Minister Aodháin O’Riordáin in a Dáil reply (July 9) on the proposed NAMA auction of the last extant 1916 battlefield referred to no’s 14 -17 Moore Street as being “the only pre-1916 buildings on the street”.

This is a misleading and inaccurate statement.

A cursory glance at the Battlefield Report submitted to the minister’s department on behalf of Chartered Land shows ‘surviving pre-1916 built fabric visible from the public realm’. (Figure 6 in that report).

This includes the O’Brien Mineral Water Works Building along Henry Place. No 10 Moore Street, two bottling store buildings to its rear, Hanlon’s at 20/21 Moore Street and other pre-1916 structures along Moore Lane.

Relatives have incontrovertible proof that No 18 Moore Street is also a pre-1916 structure – apparently missed by the developers “expert” surveyors.

All are set to be auctioned off to the highest bidder by NAMA with a breathtaking disregard for their historic importance in an area described as “the most important historic site in modern Irish history” by the National Museum. Despite that status, it has yet to be independently surveyed.

We very much welcome the minister’s wish “to dispel the confusion that has always been the hallmark of certain parties” as he puts it.

Barry Lyons

1916 Relatives Association,

James Connolly Heron

Relatives of the Signatories to the Proclamation

Proinsias O’ Rathaile,

1916 Relatives Centenary Initiative

c/o Pearse Family Home

Pearse Street

Dublin 2