Dublin City Council felled the last 10 mature trees on O'Connell Street yesterday evening despite continuing objections from environmentalists.
A large team of local authority contractors moved into the site at 7pm, and had successfully topped four of the 100-year-old London Plane trees within less than an hour.
Crowds of onlookers watched with some astonishment as 20ft branches came crashing to the ground - one of them toppling over a perimeter fence to the site and landing in a lane of moving traffic.
Some people expressed anger at the local authority's actions, among them passerby Eddie Brennan, from Glasnevin. "I can't believe it," he said. "The trees are beautiful. They're part of O'Connell Street, and just like that they're gone."
His views were echoed by Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe, who had been campaigning for the retention of the trees. "It's a shame. They were very venerable trees and very much part of the character of the street. While I welcome most of the O'Connell Street regeneration project, I think the trees could have been saved if greater thought had been put into it," he said.
A spokeswoman for the council said the felling was necessary to complete the regeneration plan for O'Connell Street and Parnell Square. "The plan for the street was approved by the council, and that included getting rid of the final ten trees."
Asked why the felling had taken place so suddenly yesterday evening, she replied: "Because of the traffic it couldn't be done during the day. It was nothing more sinister than that."
More than a dozen members of the forestry service, Coillte, worked in three separate teams to fell the trees. The fallen branches were quickly chopped into smaller pieces and pulped in two separate vans, while the trunks - still decorated with Christmas lights - were toppled over on to the ground.
The felling paves the way for the regeneration of the second half of O'Connell Street, from the Spire to Parnell Square, in line with the first phase of development, which included the planting of smaller,nursery trees.
Cllr Michael Conaghan, who as lord mayor last year spoke out against the council's plans, said last night he had hoped the local authority would retain at least a few of the ten trees. However, he said, "On the balance of it, there is broad acceptance that once the plan was started it was better to continue with it."
