There was disgust and outrage on Tuesday after the historic home of one of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, known as The O’Rahilly, who was one of the founders of the Irish volunteers and was killed in action during the Easter Rebellion was illegally demolished by a developer.
Dublin City Councillors had voted unanimously to support a motion to add 40 Herbert Park to a list of protected structures earlier this month but in the early hours of Tuesday morning a developer seeking to construct luxury apartments on the site had the Ballsbridge landmark demolished.
inn Féin spokesperson on Gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Culture and Arts, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, has branded the demolition of the O’Rahilly house in Ballsbridge as a “wanton act of vandalism on our culture and historical heritage”.
Deputy Ó Snodaigh also said
“I am calling on the Minister for Culture Catherine Martin and Dublin City Council to intervene immediately and order the developers to reconstruct the O’Rahilly House brick by brick to its former state.”
The campaign to save the historic home of the 1916 Rising leader enjoyed widespread public and political support in Dublin and across Ireland and Dubliners have been left bemused at just what the developer was thinking when he undertook to illegally destroy the historic site.
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