RELATIVES OF the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation have met the board of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to express their opposition to developer Joe O’Reilly’s plans for the redevelopment of the Carlton site.
The 2.7ha site stretches from the former Carlton Cinema on Upper O’Connell Street to Moore Street and surrounds the national monument houses on Moore Street that were occupied by the leaders of the 1916 Rising.
Mr O’Reilly was last year granted permission for a large-scale development to include retail and residential units, restaurants and car spaces. He is one of the first 10 developers who went into Nama. He was also named as one of 10 Anglo Irish Bank customers who borrowed from the lender to buy a 10 per cent stake in the bank.
Members of the Connolly, Clarke, Ceannt, MacDonagh and Plunkett families yesterday met Nama chairman Frank Daly and chief executive Brendan MacDonagh. The relatives’ group sought the meeting with Nama to ask that Mr O’Reilly not be “in any way” facilitated by the agency to proceed with the development.
They were particularly concerned that demolition had begun last Christmas on buildings on Moore Lane, backing on to Moore Street, that they believe were also occupied by leaders of the Easter Rising.
The 19th-century buildings at 17 and 18 Moore Lane had been judged unsafe by Dublin City Council, which ordered they be lowered in height to make them safe.
Patrick Cooney, spokesman for the Save 16 Moore Street Committee, said the group had been “very well received” by the Nama representatives. He said he realised the representatives could give no commitments as to the future of the site, but said it was an opportunity for the group to outline their alternative plans, which include a museum, but would also allow residential and commercial development on an appropriate scale.
Due to their historic role, four houses on Moore Street were designated national monuments by then minister for the environment Dick Roche in 2007.
