News

Moore Street campaigners celebrate national monument decision

Campaigners at the 'Arms Around Moore Street' demonstration.  Picture by Niall Carson, Press Association
Campaigners at the 'Arms Around Moore Street' demonstration. Picture by Niall Carson, Press Association Campaigners at the 'Arms Around Moore Street' demonstration. Picture by Niall Carson, Press Association

MORE than 100 campaigners formed a human chain around an historic Dublin street where the Easter Rising came to an end to celebrate a court judgment declaring sections of it a national monument.

Rising leaders fled to Moore Street when their initial headquarters at the GPO caught fire in the fighting.

It was from there the eventual surrender by Padraig Pearse was negotiated.

A high profile campaign has been on-going for years opposing plans to develop parts of Moore Street into a commercial complex.

The battle has been played out in a Dublin courtroom and last month a judge declared a number of the buildings a battlefield site worthy of "unique commemoration".

The ruling widened the national monument designation applied by the Republic's Minister for Arts and Heritage Heather Humphreys and has cast uncertainty on the redevelopment plans.

Among those at the event on Sunday was Brona Ui Loing, whose relatives fought in the rising one hundred years ago.

Some campaigners wore period costumes and carried replica guns.

After a number of speeches, a plaque stating "Welcome to the citizens' national monument" was unveiled.

Campaigners then surrounded the buildings and linked hands.