Sinn Féin spokesperson for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Arts and Culture, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, has slammed the government’s proposed amendment to today’s Sinn Féin Dáil motion to save and redevelop the GPO and Moore Street as a 1916 culture quarter.
Teachta Ó Snogaigh said, “Today’s amendment from government shockingly proposes to delete a commitment ‘that no part of (the GPO) be made available for private commercial profit’ from our Dáil motion.
“We’re not talking about existing shops on Henry Street or in the self-contained Arcade under the GPO, we’re talking about the General Post Office where the Irish Republic was proclaimed on Easter Monday 1916.
“Every Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent TD who votes to delete these words will be showing themselves up as willingly complicit in the sell-out of Irish history, and I hope they reflect on that ahead of tomorrow night’s vote.
“The people of Ireland will be aghast that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are also deleting Sinn Féin’s call that “no more of Ireland’s republican heritage is allowed be subject to wanton destruction for private profit, and that the full heritage and cultural potential is honoured and realised”.
“The proposed weasel-words from government make absolutely no reference to the new intentions set out very clearly by an Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week to turn part of the GPO into ‘retail and office components’, comments which had no basis in the Dublin City Taskforce Report, the Interdepartmental Group Report or the Roadmap for Delivery, and which have sparked public outrage.
“Adding insult to injury, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to delete explicit mention from the motion of ‘the sacrifice of the men and women of 1916, who fought and died in the GPO, Moore Street, across Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland, so that Ireland may be free’.
“They are also proposing to delete recognition of the status of the GPO ‘as a national monument’, where the Irish Republic was ‘defended in arms’ in 1916.
“The government is shamefully refusing to commit to preserving the entire historic terrace at Moore Street where rhe rising leaders made their last stand, or to proceed with the 1916 Commemorative Centre at 14-17 Moore Street which was promised to be open in time for the centenary but lies derelict almost a decade later.
“Sinn Féin has set out an ambitious and unapologetically patriotic vision, rooted in the proposals of the Moore Street Preservation Trust, and laid out in detail in the bill I introduced four years ago to the Dáil, the Ceathrú Cultúir 1916 Bill, to conserve and sensitively develop the Moore Street area as a cultural historic quarter for the people.
“The most iconic site of Ireland’s struggle for freedom must not be turned into shops and office space for private profit. I ask anyone who agrees to sign Sinn Féin’s petition to ‘Save the GPO’.”
