Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes:

— the sacrifice of the men and women of 1916, who fought and died in the General Post Office (GPO), Moore Street, across Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, so Ireland may be free;

— the status of the GPO as a national monument, the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the place where the Irish Republic was proclaimed on Easter Monday, 24th April, 1916, and defended in arms in the following days;

— the central role of the GPO in delivering postal services to the people of Dublin for over two hundred years, since it opened in 1818, as an early home from 1928 of 2RN, which pioneered broadcast media in Ireland and evolved into RTÉ, and as the historic heart of a communications network connecting communities across the nation; and

— the consistent, widespread and negligent destruction of Ireland's republican revolutionary history presided over by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments;

expresses:

— dismay at the failure to deliver the promised 1916 Commemorative Centre at 14-17 Moore Street, nine years after it was meant to open for the centenary of the Easter Rising; and

— alarm at the plans announced by An Taoiseach Micheál Martin this past week, to turn part of the GPO into retail and office components;

agrees that any plan involving the GPO must include the entire 1916 battlefield site, of which it forms a part, and that therefore, Ministerial consent must not be given to the current plan by the private developer Hammerson, which would demolish much of the Moore Street 1916 battlefield site around the National Monument 14-17 Moore Street, and the promised 1916 Commemorative Centre at 14-17 Moore Street must proceed without further delay; and

calls on the Government to ensure that:

— the GPO remains in full public ownership and control, and that no part of it be made available for private commercial profit;

— the GPO continues as a public office of An Post, a function it has fulfilled since its construction, and its reconstruction following the 1916 Rising, and which it still fulfils successfully today, enhancing O'Connell Street and the North Inner City;

— Moore Street in its entirety, including the terrace at 10-25 Moore Street, should be conserved, and sensitively developed as a cultural historic quarter, cherishing its 1916 Rising heritage and its street-trading tradition, in line with the vision of the Moore Street Preservation Trust;

— no more of Ireland's republican heritage is allowed be subject to wanton destruction for private profit, and that the full heritage and cultural potential is honoured and realised; and

— the Ceathrú Chultúir 1916 Bill 2021, is enacted without delay.

The people of Ireland are rightly proud of Ireland’s rebel history, ach go háirithe anseo i mBaile Átha Cliath, where despite the odds, the brave republican forces took on one of the most, if not the most, powerful military force at the time, and struck a blow for freedom.

The GPO is the most iconic site of Ireland’s fight for freedom. It is where Pádraig Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic aloud at Easter 1916. It was therefore understandable that there was public outcry last week when the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, announced his intention for a redeveloped GPO to include “first-class retail and office components”. Another clanger from Micheál Martin’s pocket, the man who has backed the destruction of Sráid an Mhúraigh, Moore Street, and whose Government colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, only last week said the naming of the new children’s hospital in honour of the most senior-ranked woman of the 1916 Rising, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, who founded the first children’s hospital, was "too complicated". Of course, Fine Gael will back Martin's commercialisation of the GPO, given that it wanted the people of Ireland to commemorate the Black and Tans.

Mar a dúirt Pádraig Mac Piarais ina dán "Mise Éire", "Mór mó náir: mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair". Ba dheis an rún seo don Rialtas seasamh linn agus deimhniú "that no part of (the GPO) be made available for private commercial profit", ach in ionad sin tá an Rialtas ag iarraidh na focail sin a scriosadh.

Clambering around to find a rock to hide under Government TDs have tried to say that Sinn Féin would shut down shops nearby and around the GPO. Nothing could be further from the truth. We want to revitalise the area and bring people into this part of the city. We want the shops on Henry Street and GPO arcade to thrive. We want an end to the State-supported dereliction of the Moore Street battlefield site and the southside of upper O'Connell Street. We want to ensure no part of the General Post Office where the Irish Republic was proclaimed on Easter Monday 1916 is turned into shops and offices for private profit.

Sinn Féin's motion calls on Government to ensure that no more of Ireland's republican heritage is subject to wanton destruction for private profit and that the full heritage and cultural potential is honoured and realised. The Government’s countermotion wants to delete that.

It also wants to delete "the status of the GPO as a national monument defended in arms" and "the sacrifice of the men and women of 1916, who fought and died in the GPO, Moore Street, across Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, so that Ireland may be free". As usual this Government wants to delete, delete, delete. Frascati House, home of Edward FitzGerald was demolished for a shopping centre in 1983. Nos. 124 and 125 Stephen's Green West, home of Robert Emmet, was demolished for an office block in the 1980s. No. 40 Herbert Park, home of The O'Rahilly, was demolished in a dawn raid for luxury apartments in 2020. The historic Moore Street terrace where the leaders of 1916 made their last stand after evacuating the GPO is left to rack and ruin, rotting under an accumulation of tacky phone repair shops and dereliction, with a green light from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to an English property developer, Hammerson, to demolish part of the historic battle site to build guess what? Another shopping centre. It is a case of delete, delete, delete.

What of the paltry 1916 commemorative centre that was supposed to appear at 14-17 Moore Street to open in 2016 as part of the centenary events? We are still waiting. If that is the timescale for what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael consider “accelerated delivery”, will any of us live to see the planned new museum in the GPO?

The Government’s amendment describes their “accelerated delivery ... to drive urban regeneration” in Dublin. That will surely come as a slap in the face to those communities who have waited 15 years, and much more in many cases, for regeneration of their decrepit and unsafe flat complexes, considering this Government is now withholding funding for those essential repairs.

The betrayal of the GPO and Moore Street is symbolic of the betrayal of the ideals of 1916. We will not stand for this betrayal. Was it for a Starbucks that all the blood was shed? Or for Carroll’s Irish Gifts, no harm to them?

No other country that fought for its freedom would have a government that is so blatantly desecrating its hallowed ground, choosing the profits of private developers over the memories of those who gave everything for Ireland. Ireland’s revolutionary history is an asset to be cherished, protected and enhanced as a driver of regeneration. In any other city in the world, we would see visionary, ambitious plans to develop the GPO and the surrounding areas, preserving our rebel history with a national museum, arts and culture, education, tourism and homes to make it a living, breathing space.

I have set out in my Ceathrú Cultúir 1916 Bill what a cultural historic quarter could look like, preserving the Moore Street battlefield site in its entirety and implementing the masterplan of the Moore Street Preservation Trust. The GPO could form the heart of that 1916 cultural quarter, not only as a museum and as a space for artistic and cultural events, but also as the signature headquarters for a vast array of cultural agencies whose offices could be accommodated in its huge 25,000 sq. m expanse. Instead of the State paying extortionate rent to private offices to house public bodies like the Arts Council, Foras na Gaeilge and other agencies in offices spread across this city, we could save money and promote best practice and the cross-pollination of creative ideas by bringing them together under one roof, the roof that gave birth to the Republic.

Tá tús curtha leis an gcath chun Ard-Oifig an Phoist a chosaint. The fight to save the GPO has started; a fight we intend to win for those who came before us and those who will come after us.

See this speech in context