Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Déanaim comhghairdeas le Sinn Féin on introducing the Bill. I welcome that it is not being opposed and will be allowed to progress. I have not heard all the debate and do not want to repeat what others have said. It is important to recognise the relevance of the monument. The space between the GPO and Moore Street is very significant in our history - the history of struggle in this country to rid ourselves of British imperialism. Those most associated with it were the heroes of 1916.

For me, one of the greatest heroes among them was James Connolly. The relevance of his role in the Rising should stand out on its own. Connolly did not actually come from a nationalist tradition. He came from a socialist tradition but saw the relevance of joining those who were willing to fight to strike at the heart of the British Empire. This was done in the middle of one of the worst carnages on a global scale, the First World War. We should not forget that in 1916 the First World War was raging. In the words of a famous poem, "Dublin's broken union men die first in Flanders fields" because many of them after the Lockout could not get any other work, fled into the ranks of the British Army and were killed at the Somme, Flanders and the other famous horrible battle sites.

Connolly stood out among the international socialists as somebody who absolutely opposed the First World War. There was major pressure on socialists and people who are engaged in international fightback at the time to endorse the war as a way of protecting what were then called the small nations, such as Belgium. That was the spin put on it by the British Empire. Connolly, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were among a handful of socialists who stood up, condemned the war and declared their opposition to it. That is very relevant to this battle site because the role of James Connolly in an international historical context cannot be forgotten.

It should also be noted that after the Rising many of the auxiliaries and the officers who fought the volunteers at the GPO and elsewhere across the city were then moved off to Palestine to carry out the British divide and conquer there; we can see the bitter fruits of where all that has left us today.

The British Empire was an empire in which it was said the sun never set, but it was also said that on it the blood never dried, which is very true. We can see the connections between the Rising in Dublin and its consequences across the empire where revolts in India and some countries in Africa and in the Middle East against the British Empire were inspired by the handful of brave men and women who stood up against the might of this imperialist force in 1916. That is a very important international lesson that we should remember. We should also remember the lessons from one group of colonial repressed people rising up against their oppressor were learned without the benefit of television, Facebook, Twitter are any of the modern connectivity that we have, but connectivity was nevertheless there.

Famously, Lenin wrote about the Rising in Dublin and put it up to the rest of the international socialist movement that James Connolly absolutely did the right thing by throwing in his lot with the nationalists and striking a blow against the British Empire in the middle of the First World War.

For me, that is an aspect of the history that it is not only important to remember, but should also attract people to this site once we have it in our grasp and treat it properly as a national monument.

I would like now to focus on what is in the Bill and how, possibly, it could be amended. I refer to the idea of a living city. A city is not alive without people living in it. Paris, Berlin, Brussels and many of the other wonderful European cities that have cultural quarters also have populations living in them. We, unfortunately, do not have people, or at least enough people, living in places such as Moore Street and the quarter surrounding it. We should be pushing for public housing in this area such that we can take people off the housing list and bring them back to live in the heart of the city where many of them have come from. At the time the Rising took place, it was a living city, but that is not the case now.

Others have mentioned the relevance of the market and the Moore Street traders. Clearly, they are very much part of the future and they cannot be forgotten about, but the other communities that I believe we should factor into whatever plans we have are the new communities that have kept Moore Street going. Moore Street would have collapsed long ago through neglect were it not for the Chinese, African and Indian shops and restaurants built up there. They have kept that street alive, enhanced it and made it more multicultural, vibrant and interconnected than ever before. There has to be a special place for the new communities in the campaign to create this quarter.

The campaign to reclaim Moore Street was important because it was neglected by the city council. When I was a councillor people such as James Connolly Heron, the Moore Street traders and others were constantly lobbying councillors to try to get something done to reclaim Moore Street and to not let the developers flatten it and change its character entirely. At one stage, councillors were brought on a walking tour from the GPO through the back alleyways while it was explained to us how the escape from the GPO took place and where they took refuge before the surrender. We were then brought into the houses to see how the walls had been blown through from one house to another in an attempt to escape. That campaign is to be commended. We would not be here today were it not for people resisting the agenda of the developers and the neglect of the godfathers of this city, namely, those who run the city council. They have neglected the city badly in many ways. It is down to ordinary people that it was preserved.

My final comment relates to the company that the Bill proposes to establish. At all costs, we should avoid - this may have been referenced earlier and I missed it - this company turning into a replica of the Temple Bar Investment Trust. We cannot allow that. We need something that will be about people, history and culture, not stag parties and people drinking to all hours of the night and taking away from the dignity of the area. It has to be open and accountable in terms of the culture and the history, remain that way and not be seen as a means of topping of the profits of the drinks and entertainment industry across this city. I look forward to the debate around it and to making a positive contribution to it.

Go raibh maith agat do Sinn Féin agus molaim an Bille don Teach.

See this speech in context