Construction of a 1916 museum on Dublin’s Moore Street, originally set to open a decade ago for the centenary of the Easter Rising, is finally moving ahead with builders to be sought within months.
The buildings at 14-17 Moore Street, the final headquarters of the Easter Rising rebels, will undergo restoration and preservation, while a site to the rear at 8–9 Moore Lane will be developed as a supporting visitor facility, with an exhibition space, cultural venue and community facilities.
The museum and commemorative centre project had an indicative cost of €16.25 million in 2022. It is expected this cost will have risen significantly since, but the Office of Public Works (OPW) said it was not prepared to publish projections ahead of the tender process.
Dublin city councillors were briefed on the project by the OPW and the Department of Housing and Heritage at a private meeting in the Mansion Housing in recent weeks.
RM Block
Councillors were told builders would be sought before the end of this year with a view to completing the project by 2028. However, the OPW said it would “not be able to commit definitively” to the centre opening to visitors by the anniversary of the Rising in 2028.
The four 18th-century houses at 14-17 Moore Street were declared a national monument in 2007 and work to enable their reuse was approved by An Bord Pleanála in 2010.
However, they were not bought by the State until 2015. Heather Humphreys, minister for heritage at the time, said the opening of the buildings to the public was a “very important element of the Government’s plans for the 1916 centenary commemorations”.
Within weeks of the announcement, the project ground to a halt after relatives of Rising participants took legal action to extend national monument status to most buildings on the east side of Moore Street, several of which had permission for demolition under plans for a shopping centre.
In March 2016, Judge Max Barrett found in their favour and made orders suspending work on any of the buildings, including the commemorative centre. In February 2018, the Court of Appeal overturned his ruling in full and the then minister for heritage, Josepha Madigan, said the opening of the commemoration centre was a “top priority”.
In 2023, then minister of state for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan said work on the project would resume shortly. However, the following year it emerged the OPW had to seek fresh “ministerial consent” from the Minister for Housing and Heritage, due to the passage of time since the project had been sanctioned.
The OPW hoped to be ready to go to tender for the project in 2025. However, it was determined that a new business case was required to comply with State infrastructure guidelines.
The OPW is understood to have told councillors at the Mansion House meeting that the process had taken longer than it would have liked, but a lot of work had been done in the background that has not been visible.
The buildings flanking the national monument are part of a shopping centre development planned by UK property group Hammerson stretching from Moore Street to O’Connell Street.
Hammerson recently sold assets valued at £69 million (€80.7 million), including the O’Connell Street part of the site, which was bought by Transport Infrastructure Ireland for the development of the MetroLink rail line.
Councillors asked if the State would buy more properties from Hammerson surrounding the houses at 14-17 Moore Street. They were told the OPW’s brief only relates to the site within the boundary of the national monument and it could not offer any observations on that point.
