Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Tá mé sásta go bfhuil an deis seo faighte againn chun díospóireacht a bheith againn ar an ábhar seo. Tá mé sásta fosta go bhfuil na gaolta anseo linn anocht chun éisteacht leis na tuairimí éagsúla.

William Butler Yeats' poem, September 1913, applies perfectly to the survival of the Moore Street national monument and the clash between two starkly different cultures. On the one hand there is a culture of naked consumerism, which is exemplified by one developer's ambition to create yet another cathedral to the God of profit, another mall in a city of malls. Yeats summed up that mindset:

What need you, being come to sense, But fumble in a greasy till And add the halfpence to the pence And prayer to shivering prayer, until You have dried the marrow from the bone?

The other side of this clash of cultures is located on the GPO battlefield site. This sorry saga, even the need for this debate, is a metaphor for our times. The Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, described the lanes from Tom Clarke's shop on Parnell Street to the GPO, Henry Street where the Proclamation was signed, Moore Lane and Moore Street where the GPO garrison retreated to the spot where the O'Rahilly died, to the Rotunda where the garrison was held by the British and where the volunteers were founded three years earlier, as the lanes of history, na lanaí stairiúla. These are all places intimately connected to the Rising and to the men and women who participated in it. These modest buildings in the back lanes provide a tangible link with the great idea at the core of the Rising, namely, that we could be free and equal.

Busts of the signatories look down on us from the floor above. Five of those signatories spent their last hours of freedom in Moore Street before being taken from there to their deaths. We know their names and should know their strengths of character. Yeats did. They were of a different kind, the names that stilled out childish play. It is a great honour to this Oireachtas that the relatives of these leaders are with us this evening. Cuirim fáilte mór rompu uilig. Moore Street and its environs are at the heart and soul of the 1916 Rising. If consumerism and the rush to profit have their way the buildings and lanes around Moore Street will be obliterated.

The Minister is being asked to grant his consent for a change to this national monument. He set out his position in this regard last night and highlighted the difficulties he faces in terms of planning permission already granted. He rightly decried the fact that the surrounding lanes were not in 2007 designated as part of the national monument. It is almost as if he is confronted by a dilemma. There is no dilemma. There is only one position for a Minister and the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, knows this. There are no circumstances or justification for giving the go-ahead to a development that will demolish any part of a national monument, including buildings within its protected boundary, in the commercial interest of a private property developer. I spoke privately with the Minister on this issue. There is a moral obligation on him and the Government to develop this area as a historic revolutionary quarter. There can be no "if", "buts" or qualifications in this regard. The impact of the Minister giving his consent - other speakers either do not understand this or do not want to understand it - to the construction of this mall would be the destruction of all the outbuildings and yards to the rear of the national monument buildings. The buildings on each side of the four monument buildings would be demolished and the lanes would disappear. Where the O'Rahilly was killed would be under a car park. Thereafter the project for a battlefield site would have to be abandoned. That would be the Minister's legacy, one which I know he does not want.

This is where Pearse, Clarke, MacDiarmada, Plunkett and the wounded Connolly met as leaders for the last time. These are the lanes where Michael Collins and others courageously fought a superior British force. Moore Street and the lanes of history are connected to the six days of fighting and the last hours of the 1916 leaders and the Rising. For most of this to disappear under a mall would be unforgivable. The Government can take action to preserve this historic site and to develop the area as a fitting tribute. Luke Kelly put it well when he said:

To whom do we owe our allegiance today

To those brave men who fought and died that Róisín live again with pride?

.....

Or the faceless men who for Mark and Dollar,

Betray her to the highest bidder,

To whom we do owe our allegiance today?

Can anyone imagine the demolition of Robben Island Prison where political prisoners resisted the Aparthied regime or of Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence and United State Constitution were debated and adopted? Other states and people take pride in their history. Did the Americans demolish Paul Revere's house or the Alamo to build a shopping mall? Moore Street and its surrounding lanes are our Alamo. This Government cannot allow it to be destroyed so that another shopping mall can be built. The Government must not-----

See this speech in context