30 April 2009 Edition
Ireland's history should not be for sale
MEMBERS of Sinn Féin placed a picket on Adams Auctioneers on Dublin’s Stephen’s Green on Tuesday in protest at the sale of significant Irish historical artifacts.
Speaking at the picket South Dublin Sinn Féin by-election candidate Shaun Tracey called on the Government to compulsorily purchase the items and put them on public display in the National Museum for the benefit of all Irish people and tourists to our country.
Tracey said, “Over the last number of years James Adams Auctioneers have ‘celebrated’ Easter by selling to the highest bidder significant historical artefacts relating to the 1916 Rising and the Tan War period.
This goes completely against the grain of what the men and women of this period stood for. All significant artifacts relating to this period of our history should be in the hands of the Irish people.
“I am calling on the Government, in the spirit of their renewed enthusiasm to celebrate the 1916 Rising, to compulsorily purchase these items and put them on public display in the National Museum for the benefit of all Irish people and tourists to our country.
“The Government should also move to protect 16 Moore Street, the last headquarters of the leaders of the Rising, from the threat posed by developers.”