Mary Lou McDonald appeals development on site 'of the last battle of the Easter Rising'
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Sinn Féin party leader, Mary Lou McDonald TD has emerged as one of nine separate parties to lodge appeals to An Bord Pleanala against the green light for a planned €500 million transformation of central Dublin.
Last month, Dublin City Council granted planning permission to UK property giant, Hammerson, for twin applications for the redevelopment of a 5.5-acre plot stretching from O’Connell Street to Moore Street.
The applications includes 79 build-to-rent apartments a hotel, shops, restaurant, and cafe as well as cultural uses. However, Deputy McDonald has lodged appeals with An Bord Pleanala against both planning permissions.
Others to lodge appeals include street trader, Peter Hickey, the Moore Street Preservation Trust, Amanda Higgins and others; Patrick Cooney on behalf of Save 16 Moore Street Committee, Troy Family Butchers, Míchéal MacDonncha and the Dublin One Business Alliance.
The applicants, Dublin Central GP Ltd, has also lodged a first-party appeal against condition(s) attached to the grant of permission.
Last June, Hammerson lodged three applications for the mixed retail, office and residential scheme on the city block formerly known as the Carlton site. A decision on the third application has yet to be made by the City Council.
The City Council’s planner’s report, which recommended a grant of permission for the main scheme, stated that the most historically and architecturally sensitive parts of the site are nominated for retention.
The Council stated it welcomed the application for a comprehensive mixed-use development across the site as part of the wider Dublin Central Masterplan site and noted that the wider redevelopment and regeneration of the site is supported by a range of national, regional and local policies.
However, in her original objection, Deputy McDonald stated that “the proposed development is not sympathetic to nor does it recognise in full the opinion of the National Museum of Ireland that Moore Street is ‘the most important historic site in modern Irish history’.
Deputy McDonald argued that the “application does not protect or preserve all of the 1916 elements on site as it intends to demolish a part of the last Headquarters of the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic”.
The Dublin Central TD further argued that “the proposed development will erase for all time Moore Street’s unique plot grains and courtyards which give this site its historic core differentiating it from other competing locations nationally and internationally”.
Deputy McDonald stated that the scheme failed “to protect and preserve this area of unique historical, architectural, social, cultural and economic importance”.
In a follow-up objection lodged with the Council, Deputy McDonald stated that “the unnecessary demolition of the Moore Street streetscape, location of the last battle of the Easter Rising, should not be permitted”. Deputy McDonald argued that the scale of the scheme remains inappropriate for the local area.
She was one of a number of Sinn Féin figures to make submissions to the City Council - others included Gerry Adams, John Brady TD, Matt Carthy TD, Rose Conway Walsh TD and Chris Andrews TD.
The Dublin One Business Alliance claim that the scheme would overwhelm Moore Street and change its whole character for which it is famous worldwide.
In his joint appeal with fellow authorised street trader, Bridget Mooney, Peter Hickey has told the appeals board that the two have had their pitches on Henry Place for many years.
The two said: “There is a long history of street trading in inner-city Dublin and as individual traders without a real voice we look to An Bord Pleanala to protect and preserve our positions in Henry Place and prevent big business from brushing us aside.”
A decision is due on the appeals by An Bord Pleanala in June.