Madam, - Dublin City Council's agreement to sell its Moore Street properties to to Chartered Land, which plans to redevelop the Carlton Cinema site, is disquieting, to say the least (The Irish Times, October 28th).
The planning application for this historic site, the birthplace of the Republic, proposes not only to seriously infringe on the national monuments at numbers 14 to 17 Moore Street, but to actually demolish part of them.
The Save 16 Moore Street Committee, of which I am a member, has been assured by senior representatives of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin that their parties fully support the preservation and protection of the national monument. The most obvious way to do this, of course, is to refuse to dispose of council property until such preservation and protection is fully guaranteed so that the area is developed with due regard to its historic importance.
Councillors should refuse, on principle, to countenance any plan that does not honour the national monument in its entirety. Anything less would be deeply insulting to the memory of those who gave their lives for our freedom. - Yours, etc,
JAMES CONNOLLY HERON,
Oxford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.