Heritage of 1916 ‘lost for all time to a wrecking ball’
Great grandson of Rising hero wants Clarke house protected before:
DEVELOPERS are taking a ‘wrecking ball for all time’ to the heritage of 1916, according to the great grandson of James Connolly.
James Connolly Heron spoke out after the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed last week that a vulture fund is the latest owner of the former home of Thomas Clarke, one of the signatories of the Proclamation.
The fund is currently involved in a High Court action to evict 24 Romanian tenants from the house in Fairview, north Dublin where Clarke lived with his wife, Kathleen, a former lord mayor of the city.
Mr Connolly Heron said the house must be protected ‘as a matter of urgency’, unlike 19 significant heritage sites relating to 1916 which have been bulldozed.
‘Of 30 locations in the city directly associated with the events of that momentous week in Irish history, 19 have been altered beyond recognition or lost to the developers wrecking ball for all time. And nobody cries halt,’ he said.
‘The Mail on Sunday’s disturbing report on the future uncertainty of the family home of Tom and Kathleen Clarke represents the latest threat to our physical link to the pivotal event in our history.
‘It is another example of a gradual dismantling of our connection to our past through the failure of successive administrations to protect and preserve 1916 sites and buildings from the prey of greedy bankers and developers. And we know where this has led us in the past.’
Pepper Finance Corporation was in the High Court recently seeking the eviction of tenants from 31 Richmond Avenue in Fairview.
The house was formerly owned by Fianna Fáil member and landlord Jerry Beades and was made a subject of High Court possession orders in 2008, affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014.
Locals who spoke to the MoS, describe the house as a slum that has been allowed to fall into ‘appalling disrepair’ over the years.
They now fear that, despite the house having a preservation order, it could eventually be demolished like the home of fellow 1916 leader, The O’Rahilly, which was bulldozed in Ballsbridge last year.
Writer Arja Kajermo, who is from Finland and who lives locally, contacted the conservation section in Dublin City Council in 2016 about the Clarke house. She points to the rich history of the house as described in the book Revolutionary Woman by Kathleen Clarke.
In the book Kathleen described how the night before the Rising, Thomas and herself and their two bodyguards planned what to do in case of a raid.
She wrote: ‘If a knock came, I was to go to the door and ask who was there. If the answer was the police or the military, I was to say nothing but open the door, keeping close behind it.
‘Tom was to be in the door of the room on the other side of the hall door, and Tommy and Seán were to take up a position at the head of the first flight of stairs. We were to fire at each man as he came in, and it was to be a fight to the finish.’
The next day Thomas Clarke left this house to start the uprising.
The book reveals the house also had another famous occupant, Clarke’s fellow 1916 revolutionary Constance Georgine Markievicz. It details how, in 1919, ‘Madam Markievicz’ moved in with all her ‘valuable furniture’ that filled four rooms.
The house was raided by the military several times while Kathleen and her children and Madame Markievicz lived there.
Grace Gifford, widow of Joseph Plunkett and subject of the eponymous song, also set up the Fairview branch of Cumann na mBan from the basement of the house.
Rich history such as this, according to Mr Connolly Heron ‘cannot be monetised’.
‘The State has an obligation to preserve and protect our heritage and history for future generations,’ he said.
‘All 1916 buildings should be accorded blanket protection immediately. At the stroke of [Housing] Minister Darragh O’Brien’s pen, preservation orders can be placed on them as buildings of national importance. They are then protected as national monuments.
‘We call on Minister O’Brien to act on this immediately acting in the public interest as the guardian of our heritage and history.’
‘Link to a pivotal event in our history’
‘Obligation to preserve our heritage’