Save our 1916 heritage
Posted on April 28, 2010 at 11:29 PM
I went with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment Heritage and Local Government yesterday to meet with James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly, and Honor Ó'Broilcháin, grand-neice of Joseph Plunkett, and to see the buildings they wish the State to protect and enhance on Moore Street. Number 16 in particular was the final headquarters of the 1916 rising. James Connolly was brought there from the GPO, and then on to number 17, through tunnels and on a stretcher made from a sheet. In a nearby lane the O'Rahilly, shot and fatally injured, passed away, having written a letter to his wife that is now engraved on a plaque that adorns the walls of a building at the lane.
We met at the GPO and had a tour guided by James Connolly Heron and Honor Ó'Broilcháin, where we stopped at various points along the way, where the men and women of 1916 travelled as they retreated from the GPO. Local TDs Maureen O'Sullivan, who had requested this deputation, and Joe Costello T.D. who has long campaigned for the preservation of 16 Moore Street, were also there. The campaigners and Deputy Costello and Deputy O'Sullivan, as well as other local activists, want the buildings taken out of plans for the development of the Carlton site. They propose that the state take on a project of preserving the terrace and surrounding laneways that involves recreating the street and laneways as they were in 1916, as part of the celebration of 1916.
James Connolly Heron and Honor Ó'Broilcháin had all of us enthralled including passers by. "Read it out" a local lad who joined us for most of the tour shouted at James Connolly Heron when he was speaking about the O'Rahilly letter, which he duly did to the rapt attention of us all. The photographers when they had taken all of their photos did not rush on but stayed on to ask questions. We were shown the picture of Padraig Pearse when he surrendered very near to the place the picture was taken. James Connolly Heron and Honor Ó'Broilcháin had won over everyone there for their vision of how these buildings and lanes could be preserved, and the streetscape enhanced and made central to tours around our City that would recall the events of 1916. Going on that deputation really made me very convinced that the campaigners to protect Moore Street have the right idea. We have allowed too much of our heritage disappear, unlike other countries, when its enhancement could make Ireland a far more interesting place to live in and visit. Part of the lane where the O'Rahilly died comes to an abrupt close where the Ilac Centre was built with no requirement that the landscapes of these lanes be preserved. The buildings in Moore Street, when you look beyond the shop signs and the unkemptness, are nice old fashioned buildings and could be a feature of a much enhanced street, where we could be reminded of our history and the foundation of our Republic. One building we stopped along the way had the name of the owners in 1916 to be seen underneath the name of a more recent owner. I certainly will be doing what I can to put pressure on the Government to make the protection and enhancement of Moore Street a key part of the lead into the hundred anniversary of the 1916 rising.
Comments
I've certainly no problem with preserving much loved parts of my native city. Neither have I problems with preserving buildings associated with our violent history.
I do however have problems with the celebration of 1916. I was in secondary school in 1966 when the 50th anniversary was celebrated. I had recently discovered some of what exactly had gone on rather than the "Christian Brothers" account. I refused to have anything to do with the celebration. (That I pissed off my "teachers" was an added bonus!)
We need to be very careful about who we choose to lionise.
Colm,
I don't think to celebrate 1916 is to romanticise it. It was a key juncture in our history that encapsulated many things. Even the pacifist Francis Sheeh- Skeffington got caught up in it. James Connolly's role in the events in 1916, including the writing of the proclamation, is something Labour should celebrate.
James Connolly's life work was the establishment of an Irish Labour Party so that the workers too could take their place in an Irish Parliament. He was very much a supporter of parliamentary democracy and he was a democratic socialist. This is clear from his speeches and articles. He wanted Labour to be a party that would have mass support. I believe that Connolly anticipated that independence as opposed to home rule was where mass support in terms of nationalism was heading, and that he made a judgement that it was better for Labour, and him as a key figure in Labour, to be part of the military campaign for independence, influencing the political tenor of the campaign, rather than staying on the sidelines. The Labour Party then, wrongly I believe, took the opposite view to him, in 1918, when he was no longer there to influence its course of action, and stood on the sidelines for that election and was sidelined in the first Dail.
Joanna,
I don't doubt that there were good people involved. My difficulties start with leaving out part of the account. What about a memorial to the civilians and police killed in 1916 or even a memorial to the children killed? That won't happen because it would complicate the story.
I accept that many republics celebrate bloodshed but in Ireland there may be consequences because we still have patriots prepared to do desperate things like "the men of 1916".
We need to be careful in our treatment of this history and above all we need to be truthful.
Joanna,
Time for action - please support the campaign now that demolitions are taking place!! We urgent need action....
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