We want Moore!

It looks like the Corpo's and An Bord Pleanála's long term plan for Moore Street is finally coming to fruition.
They have gradually managed to smother it into near oblivion. 
Were it not for the last few remaining seagulls-cum-pterodactyls and handful of surviving fruit and veg stalls, I would not have recognised the place. 
Moore Street used to be the epicentre of dublinicity. One of the most photographed streets in the capital, and for the right reasons. 
Even in the mid nineties, when the economy started growing like there was no tomorrow (and indeed, there was no tomorrow...) and waves of immigration lapped the Irish shores, Moore Street remained Moore Street. It was even more Moore Street than Moore Street, if that's at all possible. 
There were at least five butchers. Real ones. With saw dust on the floor and Health and Safety inspectors who'd think twice before coming into close proximity with meat cleavers. And then there were the Black hairdressers, specialising in hair extensions. And the Chinese restaurants-cum-gambling dens. And the Lithuanians long-distance call cards booths (remember these?). And the Pakistani grocer. And all the fruit and veg stalls of course, where you soon learned that in the 6-for-a-Euuuuuuuro pears one would be rotten, but that was part of the deal, and the newcomers soon learned the rules or got blacklisted. 


Moore Street today looked like a shadow of its former self. With a worrying number of shops with the shutters down. It looks like that mad plan for a shopping centre linking O'Connell Street to Moore Street might be back on the cards. Fuckwits...