Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Almost 100 years ago Dublin and the entire island of Ireland were in a state of desperation. Unemployment was rampant. There was a massive rate of child mortality and swelling slums were rife. The only option many people had was to be shipped off to the killing fields of Europe to spill their blood for their imperialist oppressor. Out of this despair and destitution, arrived the men and women of 1916 who offered Irish people an alternative vision. They offered a republic that would guarantee equal rights and equal opportunities for all its citizens and declared its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. The hope and vision they offered to Ireland, to strike for her freedom, are as true today as they were 100 years ago. Ireland today is searching for hope in turbulent economic times. Similar to the conditions in which the men and women of 1916 found themselves, we are at the whim of foreign rulers and foreign markets. There is no finer example of courage and determination than the one the men and women of 1916 set.

For the past 100 years we have drawn inspiration from their heroism and as we are now in these difficult times we should still draw inspiration from them into the future, yet, a Government in this country would even consider not securing the Moore Street battlefield site. The buildings are not just bricks and mortar; the area is a symbol of why we exist as a country and as a people. The environs of Moore Street make up a very important part of our story as a nation because from that block with its small rooms and lanes emerged this Parliament. Every person who stands and speaks in this Chamber owes allegiance to those who occupied the environs of Moore Street. Future generations will condemn any politician or Government that would allow the vandalisation of this precious monument.

Seán Mac Diarmada came from north Leitrim. His cottage is preserved as it was when he was alive. The vandalisation that will be visited on the Moore Street area is as bad as what Seán Mac Diarmada would see if he were alive today and looking out his window. He would see the beautiful rolling hills and drumlins but in 20 years times he would perhaps see fracking wells. Imagine that. How would he feel if we were to vandalise that beautiful area for the benefit of the very few? If the men and women of 1916, who showed such courage and leadership, came back, what would they say about the vandalisation of that area of Moore Street? We must stop the penny-pinching. One can get shopping malls a hundred a dime in any country in the world but there is one and only one battlefield site in the centre of Dublin. It should be there for the next century and for the next thousand years. We should do the right thing by it.

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