Mary Lou McDonald tells Reclaim Moore Street rally Irish unity will happen

The rally focused on protecting Moore Street as a place of national memory. Mary Lou McDonald called on the Irish State to acquire the historic terrace and surrounding laneways. She said the land should be held in trust for the Irish people. The campaign also supports turning the area into a cultural quarter.

McDonald linked the site to generations of struggles for freedom, language, land, heritage and identity. She said the State should hear that the struggle was not finished. Her vision was for Moore Street to remain connected to the Republic proclaimed during the 1916 Rising, rather than being treated only as a commercial development site.

She also declared that “we will live in a united Ireland”. The rally therefore connected a local preservation campaign with a wider political goal. The State has not acquired the remaining terrace, which is owned by Hammerson, so the site’s future remains contested.

Moore Street is a street and surrounding area in Dublin city centre. It is important because it was used as the last headquarters of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. The site connects the physical city with Ireland’s national story, including the courage and sacrifice of the people involved in the rebellion.

Numbers 14 to 17 Moore Street were where the 1916 leaders held their final council of war. Those four houses were designated a national monument in 2007. The Office of Public Works is constructing a 1916 visitor centre there, giving the site an educational role as well as a memorial one.

The wider area remains disputed. A property company owns the remaining terrace and nearby areas, with an approved plan for offices, hotels, apartments and a town square. Campaigners want the historic area protected and developed as a cultural quarter instead.

Numbers 14 to 17 Moore Street were designated as a national monument in 2007. They are the specific houses where the leaders of the 1916 Rising held their final council of war. Their protected status recognises the national importance of the events connected with the buildings.

The four-house terrace marks the final headquarters used by the Rising’s leaders. The location is more than a collection of old buildings. It is tied to the final phase of the uprising and to the decisions made by its leaders before the fighting ended. The surrounding laneways also form part of campaigners’ concerns.

The Office of Public Works is currently constructing a 1916 visitor centre on the site. However, the remaining terrace and nearby areas have a private owner and an approved commercial masterplan. That contrast drives the campaign to secure the wider site for public trust and cultural use.

The remaining Moore Street terrace and surrounding areas are owned by Hammerson, a UK-based property group. This ownership is central to the dispute because campaigners want the State to acquire the historic buildings and laneways for the public. They fear the site could be lost as a historic place.

Hammerson’s approved masterplan sets out a major redevelopment. It includes a new town square, office spaces, hotels and apartments. The plan would change the wider area while the protected Numbers 14-17 remain linked to the 1916 Rising and a visitor centre under construction.

The Reclaim Moore Street campaign wants a different approach. It calls for the area to become a cultural quarter, in line with regeneration planned around the GPO and nearby city-centre areas. The article does not state whether the approved plan will change or whether the State will purchase the land.

If the State acquired the terrace and surrounding laneways, the Irish people would become the effective public beneficiaries of the historic site. Holding it “in trust” means preserving it for future generations rather than treating the land only as a commercial asset. The proposal reflects Moore Street’s national importance.

The practical aim would be to protect the buildings and lanes connected with the 1916 Rising. It could support a cultural quarter linked to the planned regeneration of the GPO and nearby areas. The existing visitor centre at Numbers 14-17 would sit within a wider publicly protected historic setting.

The article does not specify the legal structure, purchase price or final design. It does show the competing reality: Hammerson owns the wider area and has an approved plan for a town square, offices, hotels and apartments. Acquisition would therefore shift control of the site from private development to public stewardship.

Moore Street was the last headquarters of the 1916 Rising leaders. The leaders and volunteers made their last stand there, after the Rising’s fighting had reached its final stage. The site therefore preserves the location where the courage, sacrifice and determination of those involved became part of Ireland’s national story.

James Connolly-Heron described Moore Street as the “last extant 1916 battleground in the city”. In this context, “extant” means the battleground still survives as a recognisable historic place. Numbers 14-17 were where the leaders held their final council of war, and those houses became a national monument in 2007.

The description matters because campaigners believe the surviving place could be lost to commercial redevelopment. Hammerson’s approved plan includes offices, hotels, apartments and a town square. The campaign instead calls for State acquisition, public trust and a cultural quarter protecting the site for future generations.

“A united Ireland” generally means governing the whole island of Ireland as one sovereign state, instead of maintaining separate jurisdictions. In the article, McDonald connects that goal with the Republic proclaimed during the 1916 Rising and with a continuing struggle for freedom, identity and national self-determination.

The article does not explain partition itself. As established historical context, the British Government of Ireland Act 1920 created separate political arrangements for Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. After the Irish Free State emerged in 1922, Northern Ireland remained within the United Kingdom, while the Irish state developed separately. That created the constitutional division still recognised today.

A united Ireland would therefore require changing that constitutional arrangement and bringing Northern Ireland and the Republic into one state. The article presents McDonald’s statement as a political aspiration, not as a change that has already happened. It gives no timetable or mechanism for achieving it.