Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)

When we speak of the GPO and the Moore Street area, we are not just talking about buildings and laneways, but of the cornerstone of our rebel history in a city that fought an empire. The GPO is not architecture; it was the battleground of striking for Irish independence. It is a monument to selfless sacrifice, and, when heavily shelled by the British forces, leaving much of it in ruins, it now appears Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and their Independents seek to rebrand that history and what it represents. At Easter 1916, it was ordinary men and women who stood and fought there, not for commerce or for convenience, but for a vision of a republic that was free, proud and sovereign. To now consider converting this sacred historical area into more shops, regardless of class, and office space is quite frankly an outrage and an embarrassment. We are the stewards of this nation's legacy. Legacies are not preserved by erasing them. They are preserved with purpose. Other nations do this as a matter of pride. They enshrine their revolutionary heritage into civic spaces. Why should we do less? Why should we do less with Irish revolutionary heritage?

This motion sets out a vision of a 1916 cultural quarter, a living, dynamic cultural space that would educate and inspire, a place where young and old engage with history, not as a distant memory, but of our living heritage, where tourists come not just to buy, but to learn and understand who we are and how we got here. It would be a cultural development with soul and a cultural investment with return. We cannot allow history to be overwritten - not at Moore Street or the GPO, which should be spaces that honour our past, enrich our present and shape our future. If we reduce our most historic sites to units of rent, what message are we sending? That profit outweighs our rebel history and our patriot dead. Let us not forget those ordinary people who stood in the GPO in 1916. They did not do it for shops or offices. They did it for an Irish Republic. The least we can do is to ensure that the place that became iconic in that rebellion remains a space worthy of their fight and sacrifice.

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