through streets broad & narrow: crying five for 50, and ten for a pound. The end of Moore Street?

Thursday May 12, 2005 17:40

by kevin

Moore Street in Dublin is one of the oldest surviving street trading districts in the city. Recently the City Council announced that it was raising the yearly cost of a trading license by roughly 450%, depending on the size of the trader's stall. Some traders pay around 150 euros a year (rising to 750 euros a year) for a smaller stall, such as the fish traders; whereas the flower sellers at the Henry Street junction, because of their location and the area of space they take up, could see their trading license fees rise to over 1500 euros.

All of the traders I spoke to were adamant they would not pay the increase, and a couple said that this measure was just the latest in a long line of attempts to rid the street of the traders by the authorities, short of ordering them off the street which would be far too politically sensitive. Other proposals have been made in the past that would ultimately mean the removal of the traders, such as the idea to have Moore St and Henry St covered with a glass roof (discarded eventually), or the construction of a new hotel and conference centre on the Carlton Cinema site, which would include the demolition of many existing small shops on the east side of the street, and the eventual removal of trading space from the street.

Moore Street and Street Trading On Other Sites:
Lar Boland’s photos of ‘The Hill’ Dublin’s grubbiest flea market, evoke echoes of the grim twilight world of Monto’s slum tenements, deprivation, shebeens, and prostitution for Alan Murdoch from the Irish Arts Review. | Street Trading In Belfast | Dublin Street Traders need not become victims of Rip Off Ireland (Sinn Fein Press Release) | The Legal Side of Street Trading: STREET TRADING ACT, 1926 | CASUAL TRADING ACT, 1980

Commentary and photos on proposed changes in the north inner city.

Why is Dublin City Council putting the squeeze on the street traders? They are a part of Dublin folklore at this stage, and the street is a shining example of a living city centre, with noise, colour, food and drink from all over the world. Even in the last ten years, the character of the shops on the street has undergone a radical transformation, reflecting the continuing mutli-ethnicity of the north inner city. Shops selling Eastern European, Russian, and African food sit alongside old reliables such as Trader Johns pub and Buckley's butchers. Dublin City Council says the rise is to cover the costs of cleaning the street daily, but the main reason for the squeeze relates to a very important and strategic piece of property that belongs to the Council, which is a big part of their regeneration plans for the inner city, and specifically the "markets" district near Smithfield in Dublin 7.

Dublin City Council's Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market Building is located at Mary's Abbey, which is the continuation of Abbey Street west of Capel Street. You can see it on your left as you are on the LUAS on the way out to Tallaght. It is a listed building, and was built in 1892. It is considered an architectural 'jewel' on the northside of the city, with its red and beige brick, arches, pillars and distinctive features. At the moment most of the fruit & veg that comes into the country is collated here by wholesalers, strapped onto pallets, and then delivered by truck to different parts of the country. Night owls passing through the district early in the a.m. are often astounded by the amount of activity, with forklifts, pallet trucks, and even horse & carts shunting and packing all sorts of food. This is repeated daily, and the activity usually dies down mid-morning. The area could be considered a "primary industry" zone, with numerous warehouses surrounding the central core of the Market Building.

The Council wants to turn this building into a public food market, similar to the English Market in Cork City. The market would sell upmarket food direct to the public, as happens every weekend in the market in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar. There are no indications as yet of how much it would cost to run a stall at the new market. The plan is to move the current wholesale market out to a greenfields site somewhere on the M50 motorway ring, so that nationwide deliveries would have easier road access. There has been resistance to this move by many of the fruit importers, such as Fyffes, who have large premises close by, as well as other medium-sized businesses. The large fish market building next door to the fruit market is being closed down, and this is earmarked for demolition for the creation of a large public plaza/square, with the nearby public house The Hacienda being turned into a historial interpretative centre for the locality*.

None of the other buildings in the area are considered to have any architectural value, many admittedly are fairly ugly warehouses and depots. The departure of the central Fruit Market would probably have the knock-on effect of most of these premises being demolished, bought out by private investors (or quite possibly the City Council) and redeveloped into residential units. The other effect of the removal of the Fruit Markets from this area would mean the demise of the Moore Street traders. They purchase most if not all of their produce in this locality. It is cheap and easily accessible, and these prices are reflected in the prices on the street stalls, which are usually much cheaper than supermarkets. The Moore Street traders are primarily from long-established inner city working class communities, and most quite simply would not have the capital or outlay required to set up in the new gourmet public market.

To put this into a bit of perspective. If there are roughly 50 traders on the street (I only counted about 30), and each of them is paying an average increase of 850 euro, this means that Dublin City Council will take in an extra 42,500 euro in license fee revenue. Anti-asylum seeker TD Noel O'Flynn's recent fact finding trip to South America with 2 other Fianna Fail and 1 Fine Gael TDs cost in the region of 14,000 euro. Other TDs have been on similar trips. Perhaps a plebisicite could be held for the citizens of Dublin, deciding whether the money should be designated to pay the increase for the Moore Street traders, or instead fund three fact finding missions for Fianna Fail & Fine Gael TDs. After all it is the taxpayers money (i.e. yours!) that is bankrolling all this.

(* this is a joke)

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Round two.

Thu May 12, 2005 14:07

More pictures.

From Henry Street, facing towards Parnell Street

Trader John's pub.

Is it that expensive to clean up the street?

Fishmonger.

LIDL. The maddest pub in Dublin ("The No Name Pub", "The Looney Bin") was demolished for this

Round three.

Thu May 12, 2005 14:10

More pix.

The Fruit and Vegetable Market building.

Horse-drawn cart deliveries of fruit and vegetables to inner city district shops.

The fish market building next door.

Round four.

Thu May 12, 2005 14:16

Last 5 pix.

One of many smaller businesses in the area.

Food industry.

Here today... gone tomorrow...?

The present interior of the Fruit & Vegetable Market.

One of the entrance archways.

previous moore st. links

by dunk

Thu May 12, 2005 15:05

is this the death of moore street?
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66571&condense_comments=false#comment107388

communication is the key
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=62183#comment53386

Articles for successful revolution: A Granny Smith, Herring, Rooster, a few Tulips &great characters

by Damien

Thu May 12, 2005 15:12

Excellent article and photos kev.
Very good analysis of the systematic ethnic cleansing of Dublin's great characters and theur goods.

So very important to take our fruit and veg. and fish and flower shopping out of LIDL, ALDI, SUPERVALU, CENTRA,SPAR,LONDIS (TOP Oil warplanes refuelling at Shannon affiliated), DUNNES STORES, and I'm positive i've missed loads of super/hypermarkets......

and onto the streets (e.g. Moore st.), or even more preferably into our gardens (rivers, lakes, seas - you get the point) or windowsills for us acre-less.plot-less city dwellers.
See the great Indyfeature on Community Gardening in Dolphin's Barn, etc. for good experiments of this organic praxis.

Don't have access to Pat Ingoldsby's poems at the moment, but there was an excellent piece written by him which was hanging up on the wall next the staircase at the Winding Stair Cafe (no longer- Anyone know why?), regards the cleansing of buskers and street traders to facilitate the IFSC and other traditional inner city spots of grassroots/no shite music in the background or annoying cash register noises, retailing.

In with the old, out with the new.

Important to come up trumps and show solidarity with these good folks if and when a campaign is waged by the Moore st. traders to not pay these over-inflated charges which will inevitably line the pockets of DCC's brightest and finest whipper-snappers.

Seriously doubt if the bin man in the photo is getting a four-fold wage increase.
I would imagine it is quite possible the bin men's brother or sister, cousin or aunt/uncle is one of the traders themselves, or minimally I'm sure they have a good relationship built up over the years.

La lutta continua for the Moore st. traders.

www.geocities.com/dublincatholicworker

everyone off the streets

by the fog

Thu May 12, 2005 15:26

this is yet another way of getting us to do all our shopping under one roof in kips like aldi or liffey valley and the likes. not allowing the street vendors encourages people to purchase everything from the one place. rationalisation of shopping.

Link to 1987

by James R

Thu May 12, 2005 17:50

Anyone got a link to the protests over casual trading in t1987? Where gregory got jailed over night...

There must be a history/article/retrospective somewhere online?

There were no 'links' in 1980's so it might not exist online

by eeekkkk

Thu May 12, 2005 18:39

The whole thing is documented in an amazing documentary by Se-Mary Doyle which was screened on tv at some stage in last few years- name of it is escaping me now. Maybe we could ask him if we can pirate and make it into a 'link'?

I feel wretchedly homesick

by mustapha mond

Thu May 12, 2005 22:48

bring me to the island! lovely feature. what do you poster on the walls there?

"it was a good fight anyhow", says the O'Rahilly

Thu May 12, 2005 23:18

link to o'rahilly sculpture recently unveiled on moore lane

City Manager proposal on casual trading fees rejected

by Council Corr

Fri May 13, 2005 12:21

Councillor Killian Forde, Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson on Dublin City Council has welcomed the support given by all political parties on Monday night rejecting a proposed exorbitant increase in casual trading fees.

The Sinn Féin motion at the monthly City Council meeting, attended by a delegation of Dublin traders hosted by Sinn Féin, ensured that the arbitrary and inconsistent increases of up to 600% were rejected and that the traders of Dublin did not become the latest victims of Rip Off Ireland.

The City Council agreed to the motion to refer the issue of the fees to the Council's Finance Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) for consultation, discussion and recommendations.

Councillor Forde who is a member of the Finance SPC, said: "Sinn Féin has held a number of meetings with Dublin traders and will ensure that their voice is heard at the new discussions. We will be insisting that the new review of the fees will be fair, transparent and negotiated."

why send it to a committee?

by John

Fri May 13, 2005 15:20

Why would you send it to a committee for recomendations. sounds like they'll get screwed after the ctte comes out with something similar.

SF know where there bread is buttered on this one

by Kier

Fri May 13, 2005 17:16

I doubt it, FG and Labour D4&D6 types in the Arts, Sports and Leisure SPC came up with these charges.

Councillor Forde will be under strict instructions from SF to ensure that they keep the costs down. Many of these market traders are in the Dublin Central area - number one target for SF in Dublin. Remember along with Gregory, veteran SF Councillor Christy Burke went to jail over the Moore street traders.

Forde is evolving into one of SF's real stars for the future and one of the only able to argue ideology with the blueshirt wingnuts on the council. Unlikely to drop the ball on this one.......

what does moore street mean to the irelands architectural community?

Fri May 13, 2005 20:28

discussion about moore st, recent DIT film about street and other various on irelands architectural forum
not sure if its still current theme

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?s=0677ec0105038763e74c7634d88ca0de&postid=26340

dublin school of architecture is 1 minute from moore st, you would think that there is a strong connection with the students and their city.
there is not
but that might change with a few little events, films, workshops, wanders, visits, games.......

DIT architectural website
http://www.ailtireacht.com/

Minsk - city without spirit and the past

Sat May 14, 2005 13:58

connection made with minsk, belorus on similar story that happened with destruction of old city to make way for the new "IDEAL SOVIET CITY", also issues of green city brought up

ta mael mordha ag teacht- gaelic doom metal to the streets

Sat May 14, 2005 14:39

bhfeidir gur mbeidh mael mordha ag teacht go dti sraid ui mordha

Nice one kev

by villagist

Fri May 20, 2005 20:52

This site cited as key source of info on moore street and these licences by the village today. They even included the web address.

Cheers

Mon May 23, 2005 10:21

Thanks for that. Hopefully should have a related story up soon about the community based in the markets area/Greek St/St. Michan's House, and the pressure that they are under at the moment with the potential further redevelopment planned for Smithfield.

from the net to the street

Tue May 24, 2005 19:42

printed copies of this story and
is this the death of moore street?
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66571&condense_comments=false#comment107388
have been passed on to the traders committee
further connections are being made

casual event license

by tonyd - street trader

Thu Mar 13, 2014 22:20

how do the council justify 85 euro for a permit on patricks day for a couple of hours, and restrict you to selling from the hand

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through streets broad & narrow: crying five for 50, and ten for a pound. The end of Moore Street?

Comments (20 of 20)