Sir, – Every few years there is a flurry of interest in how grim O’Connell Street is. The same issues (anti-social behaviour, derelict buildings, drug dealing) and the same solutions (more gardaí, refurbishing buildings, moving drug treatment centres) are rehearsed once more. Nothing of note changes.
Something that would have had very positive effects for O’Connell Street – a plan to turn Parnell Square into a cultural quarter – collapsed in 2019, as the philanthropy required to fund it did not materialise. This plan was modest in comparison to similar initiatives in other European capitals, but obviously not modest enough.
That one of the richest countries on the planet has so long been unable to improve 600 metres of street beggars belief. Are members of the Government, including the Minister for Finance, whose constituency includes O’Connell Street, able to show their counterparts Ireland’s “national street” without acute embarrassment?
Do they consider the street’s problems too overwhelming and complicated to be remedied?
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If so, perhaps the Minister for Finance, a man who, although interested in cultural matters, appeared to do little over the Parnell Square debacle, might allow a former mayor of a French or German city take charge, exercise power, and do what the Irish State evidently cannot? – Yours, etc,
ANDREW QUINN,
Clongriffin,
Dublin 13.
A chara, – The Irish Times is to be commended for a comprehensive and fairly balanced feature on the O’Connell Street area, including Moore Street (“Can O’Connell Street be fixed?”, Weekend Review, August 12th).
It should be noted that at the time of writing we await decisions on appeals to An Bórd Pleanála against the Dublin City Council planners’ grant of permission to the Hammerson plans for the “Dublin Central” site. As your article highlighted, this site stretching from Moore Street to O’Connell Street has been effectively frozen for nearly two decades, leading to decay and deterioration.
In our view this is a result of the determination to carry through grandiose plans that would irreversibly damage the historic fabric and heritage of the area. It has involved a sizeable chunk of the city centre being “assembled” as a site, leading to decline, vacancy and dereliction. Contrast this with how quickly O’Connell Street and environs were rebuilt after the extensive damage to the streets in the 1916-1922 period.
There is an alternative plan for the Moore Street area, one that respects its scale, its 1916 heritage, as well as its long and still surviving (just) street trading and small shop tradition. We have presented this plan to Dublin City Council and to Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien.
It is time for such a people’s plan so that the historic heart of our capital city can be reclaimed for the nation. – Yours, etc,
MÍCHEÁL MAC DONNCHA,
Secretary,
Moore Street
Preservation Trust,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – Many capital cities feature an opera house. Dublin does not. Could funds be set aside from the cornucopia of corporation taxes to remodel the Carlton Cinema – which still retains its art deco style – for this purpose?
Such a development would, I believe, contribute significantly to the reversal of the desecration of O’Connell Street. – Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS PHELAN,
Artane,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – It is stated by the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe that the increasing attacks on tourists underline the need for more policing of our streets (“Violent attacks on tourists underline need for ‘ceaseless efforts’ to boost Garda numbers, says Donohoe”, News, August 15th).
Why is it that everything in Dublin must be framed through the lens of tourists? O’Connell Street should be improved – as what might the tourists think? A white water rafting facility should be built, so that tourists can avail of it. We need to increase policing – so that tourists feel safe. Airbnb regulation cannot be stringently enforced – as where might the tourists stay?
All of these things can also be done with a view to improving the lives of the people who actually live here.
Dublin is not the “good room” filled with dusty china that is vacuum-cleaned in advance of a visit from relatives from abroad.
It is a city filled with citizens who deserve better in their own right and there is seemingly no coherent or cogent strategy on how to deliver that. – Is mise,
COLM DOYLE,
Dublin 7.