Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald has today announced that she will host an international conference later this month on the future of Moore Street, in association with the Moore Street Preservation Trust.

The conference, Preserving our Past, Rising to our Future, will take place on Wednesday April 24th in the GPO, and will bring together a range of Irish and international experts to discuss the Preservation Trust’s Alternative Plan for the Moore Street 1916 Battlefield site.

Speaking today, Teachta McDonald said:

“As part of the battlefield site of the Easter Rising where the courageous Irish volunteers of 1916 fought and died for the cause of a free Irish republic, Moore Street is hallowed ground.

“But it is not only that. It is also the location of Dublin’s oldest food market, one that predates the famine, where generations of people have come to witness and soak-up our capital city’s heritage and tradition every day.

“Despite successive governments consigning so much of Dublin’s north inner-city to serious neglect, I am firmly of the belief that the preservation and development of Moore Street is something that everyone in Ireland, but in particular the people of Dublin, can be enthused by and get behind.

“This is an area crying out for the right investment, and the care that it deserves – the kind of attention that would benefit all who inhabit our capital city as well as all those who visit or pass through it.

“The Moore Street Trust plan has the potential to drive exciting regeneration of Dublin’s North Inner City.

“Yet for too long, the plan of successive governments has been to turn the Moore Street area over to the whim of private developers, Hamersons.

“A site of such historical and cultural significance deserves so much better than that, and I am firmly committed to delivering the vision for Moore Street as set out by the Moore Street Preservation Trust.

“Part of that commitment is a Preserving our Past, Rising to our Future conference, which will bring together a range of Irish and international experts to discuss the trust’s plan for the site.

“Among those taking part will be Professor Terry Stephens, tourism advisor to the United Nations, Michael Murphy, architect of the National Lynching Legacy Museum in Alabama, USA, Seán Antoin Ó Muirí, architect of the alternative Moore Street plan, and well-known historian Liz Gillis.

“The legacy of 1916 and the national heritage of the Moore Street area belongs to each and every one of us, so it is hugely important that these voices are heard.

“Heritage and culture must be at the heart of the future of Moore Street, instead of the current Hamersons plans which are focused on commercial gain and private profit.

“That is the appropriate way to honour and protect our heritage and traditions, and bring the inspiring history of this area back to the public.”