Ireland's history should not be for sale

BID TO SAVE HISTORY: Oisín Ó Dubhláin and Ruadhán Mac Aodháin erect an imitation Dublin Tourism plaque at Adams Auctioneers: ‘Ireland’s revolutionary history 1798-1923 sold off here 2009’

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.”