Mayo TD says people of Mayo dismayed at 'offensive' Government plan for GPO

Sinn Féin TD for Mayo Rose Conway-Walsh has said that she has received numerous calls and emails from Mayo people who are disgusted at the Government’s plan to turn the GPO into shopping and office units.

Conway-Walsh called for the government instead to properly honour Ireland’s proud revolutionary history by developing a 1916 Cultural Quarter in the area and implement the Masterplan developed by the Moore Street Trust.

Rose Conway-Walsh said: “The GPO is one of the most significant places in Ireland’s revolutionary history. It’s disgraceful that the government intends to turn this historic building, an iconic site of our nation’s struggle for freedom, into shopping units and office space for corporations.

“The attendance at the Sinn Féin organised rally on Saturday in support of the sensitive and appropriate development of the area demonstrates the depth of animosity across the nation to the government’s sell off plans.

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“Over the last few weeks since the plan was announced I have been stopped by many people on the streets of Mayo voicing their opposition to the government’s move.  Mayo people, regardless of which party they support, simply cannot fathom the government’s thinking on this issue.

“This plan for the GPO follows the government’s shameful decision to back the handing over of the Moore Street battlefield site to a British property developer to and its rejection of the Sinn Féin proposal to honour Mayo woman Dr Kathleen Lynn by naming the new children’s hospital Ospidéal Náisiúnta Kathleen Lynn do Leanaí.

“It appears that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are hellbent on erasing the legacy of the Easter Rising. I have no doubt the government will point to its proposal for a museum and cultural centre at the GPO but this is laughable given that the promise of a 1916 Commemorative Centre at 14-17 Moore Street just around the corner still hasn’t been fulfilled almost a decade later and those buildings are being left to crumble.

“Sinn Féin has published proposals for the whole of this revolutionary area to be redeveloped as a Cultural Quarter.  This dovetails with the Moore Street Preservation Trust’s masterplan.

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“It is possible to reimagine this entire area of Dublin to drive regeneration, jobs, housing, community revitalisation and an exciting future while also paying a fitting tribute to those who inspired the nation to rise up against occupation by the British in 1916.

“The legacy of the Easter Rising, our proud rebel history, the GPO, do not belong to private interests. It never has. It never will. Ireland’s revolutionary history belongs to the people, to future generations, to our nation. “We will never give up and will never give in until this government’s disgraceful plan is defeated and consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”