A substantial portion of the former Clontarf Town Hall in Dublin, including the room where the Irish Republican Brotherhood decided to authorise the Easter Rising in 1916, has been demolished.
Mr Denis McIntyre, a local teacher and author of a 300-page book on the history of Clontarf, said people in the area were "stunned" by the demolition, which he claimed had been done without planning permission.
He said the room where Arthur Griffith and other IRB leaders met had been "flattened", despite the fact that the building was listed for preservation, and nobody in the area was aware of any plans to develop the site.
The former town hall dates from 1890, but became redundant 10 years later when Clontarf Township was absorbed into the city. In 1927, it was acquired by the Catholic Church as a chapel-of-ease to cater for a burgeoning parish.
The building served as a church until 1972, when it was replaced by a new church at the rear. Since then, it had been used as a community centre catering for bingo sessions, tennis, indoor football and other recreational activities.
Eight years ago, local people formed an action group to campaign against plans by the church authorities to demolish the former town hall. It was as a result of this campaign that the building was officially listed for preservation.
Mr McIntyre said Clontarf residents had a "genuine love" for the building because many of them had their weddings there, when it was a church, and it had also witnessed numerous First Communion, Confirmations and funeral services.
Two days before the demolition work got under way, he said 80 children had been turned away without explanation when they arrived for a soccer training session. "Next thing we knew, the bulldozers were on the site", he added.
Two-thirds of the original town hall had been demolished, according to Mr McIntyre, and the rubble was "cleared away very quickly to avoid a Drogheda Grammar School situation where they might have to rebuild it brick by brick."
A priest in St Anthony's presbytery, who did not identify himself, denied on the telephone that any part of the town hall had been demolished, saying the work was confined to a former presbytery at the rear. When asked how he knew this was not part of the original town hall, he hung up.
