One hundred and nine years after Pádraig Pearse read out the Proclamation on the steps of the GPO, a planning application has been granted to a UK company to seize back the building. Hammerson PLC, a major UK‑based real estate investment and development company founded in 1942, has steadily been permitted by the Irish government to create a strong boot-print in Ireland over the last decade. The Ilac Centre, Moore Street, Swords Pavilion and Dundrum are just a few of the company’s conquests.
Hammerson’s application for planning permission, granted by An Bord Pleanála in April 2025, includes adaptive re-use of a protected structure at 61 O’Connell Street Upper—featuring cultural spaces alongside leisure, apartments, cafés, and small retail units.
As conversations online and in the media take place surrounding how this building is to be repurposed, there’s little mention of the absolute spiritual assault and level of evil that comes with the deliberate disrespect to the memory of all the men who were executed following the Easter Rising of 1916. Their legacy eroded, by an Irish Government happy to charge a British company reshape the cultural architecture of a building that for generations has been a steadfast physical reminder of our history.
As a child, I remember my grandfather taking me to two special places in Dublin, one of which was the GPO. It was there he would point out the bullet holes in the pillars and tell the story of the Easter weekend of 1916. I’d heard the story over and over, never once did I walk by the GPO again without hearing his voice in my head, while visualizing the images of the building being seized by Irish Volunteers who risked and paid with their lives to secure eventual Irish independence after eight hundred years of occupation.
The other place he would take me was to the crypt at St. Michan’s Church, a church that dated back to the 11th century in north Dublin. I’d be fascinated looking at the mummified remains, hundreds of years old. The crypt at St. Michan’s Church has since been destroyed by a man the courts described as having ‘clear ties to Ireland.’ Christian Topiter, a Romanian national living in a hostel just 200 meters up the road from the church, decided to set a fire there last year. Speaking to RTÉ News at the time, the Archdeacon of Dublin and Vicar of St. Michan’s Church said that the incident was:
“Disastrous for Dublin’s history and for the parish, before going on to state: He believed the people involved in the Crusades were damaged beyond any hope of salvation.”
Described as having ‘mental health difficulties,’ in sentencing, Judge Martin Nolan noted that Topiter had form for arson, stating:
“For whatever reason, when he’s insensible, he decides to start fires — that seems to be a particular vice.”
Despite the previous convictions, Topiter was permitted to remain in the country, enabling him to continue a spree that destroyed eight hundred years of our carefully preserved history.
Upon hearing of the destruction of St. Michan’s crypt, many people at the time not even involved with the church expressed their intense sadness, as the realization hit home that we were the last generation to visit that sacred space. The anger, though, was suppressed and stage-managed by RTÉ and the gutter press, who played down the fact that the arsonist was a non-national with a history of lighting fires.
Writing about the GPO yesterday in an article entitled "GPO Redevelopment Plan: A Summarised Breakdown," Stephen Sutton presents some sterling research and proposed ideas for the GPO—one that includes the prospect that it may be repurposed as the headquarters for the ‘Department of Truth,’ a.k.a. RTÉ.
“The relocation of RTÉ—an organisation that has repeatedly lied to and misinformed the Irish people, that has been bailed out to the tune of €750 million, an organisation full of overpaid propagandists—looks like it could be rewarded for all those ineptitudes with a plush new office in the heart of Dublin, inside the GPO no less! Of all the suggestions, this is the most ludicrous of all and sums up Official Ireland and the contempt it has for the people of this country.”
The GPO redevelopment touches a nerve deeper than bricks, mortar and repurposing it resonates with Ireland’s foundational mythos. It is not a cautionary tale of symbolic erasure; it is a direct, full-on assault on the Irish psyche. The debate over the ‘cultural space’ omits the point that this emblem of Irish independence is being handed over to an English company who have already managed, thanks to our democratically? elected leaders to monopolize so much of Dublin. Entrusting interpretation and management of the GPO to a British developer, Hammerson PLC, carries heavy symbolic baggage given Britain’s colonial role. The 1916 Proclamation explicitly speaks against “alien Government”; a vivid reminder to many of the emotional stakes.
In a project named ‘Project Jewel’ echoing of a military operation this acquisition company has now collected a significant portfolio in Ireland; One redevelopment was that of historic Moore Street, in moving article penned in January 2025 Stephen cites
“In 2021, Hammerson, a property firm from the UK were granted planning permission to redevelop a section of Moore Street, close to the row of terraced houses at numbers 14-17, which is now a national monument due to it’s historical significance during the Rising. The occupants of the GPO headquarters, retreated to these buildings and the decision by the leaders to surrender, was made in the backroom of No. 16, the increasing loss of innocent civilian life, was the reasoning put forward by Seán MacDermott to the surrounded men who wanted to fight on. Pearse formally surrendered to the British on Moore Street, but 24 hours earlier Michael — more commonly known as The O’Rahilly, perished close by on Sackville Lane after he led a charging party of men into British gunfire, he died after lying there bleeding for hours in which time he penned a note to his wife.”
Once bustling with over 70 fruit and vegetable stalls in the 1960s, Moore Street now sees fewer than 20 licensed traders. An entire cultural resurfacing has been enacted on a Street you would now be forgiven for thinking was not even in Ireland.
In early 2023, Moore Street traders mounted new protests against interim redevelopment steps, such as proposed car park installations and delivery access reroutes, describing them as "business death sentences. The planned ‘Project Jewel’ reconstruction of Moore Street is anticipated not to end until 2030, assuming this goes ahead unhindered.
The determined effort to strip the cultural heritage and spirit from Dublin and Éire on the whole, cannot be accidental. The only difference between the Irish government and the Romanian that set fire St. Michan’s Church is the fact he got caught.
Though there are some opposing voices, it’s beyond belief that there seems to be no debate regarding the British acquisition of our land. This extends to other British companies I’ve mentioned before such as Brava Capital LTD, who managed to procure purpose built student accommodation in Sligo, for the purposes of turning it in to IPAS accommodation. Benbulben Court and Milligan court, once housed hundreds of students, now Sligo faces one of the largest student accommodation deficiencies in the country.
This is not about Hammerson or any other British company as much as it’s about the history of a nation who less than two hundred years ago suffered the deaths and forced emigration of millions, because our land was taken from us. The ‘famine’ so many people inaccurately refer to was a direct result of land ownership concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of landlords, often absentee landlords who lived in England, whether they did or they didn’t they had no problem burning down the homes of those who couldn’t pay their rent on the tiny patches of land they were permitted to live on. I grew up in England, and its with absolute disbelief I have returned to a country whose custodians are allowing this to happen again. Those in Leinster house, and this includes those who in recent months who have slipped quietly out the back door have committed the most heinous crime of all. While we had our heads turned as military aged foreign men were welcomed in to this country, these snakes were busy selling our soil, culture and memories to the highest bidders. There’s a word for this, it begins with T.
The below information for time purposes has been pulled from Chat GPT,
2015 Entry via “Project Jewel”
Hammerson entered the Irish market by acquiring a portfolio from NAMA (~€1.85bn), including a 50% stake in Dundrum Town Centre and key shopping centres: Swords Pavilions and Ilac Centre in Dublin dublininquirer.com+6lauderteacher.com+6rte.ie+6.Dundalk & Swords
While the acquisition didn’t include a centre in Dundalk, Hammerson’s broader investment in Irish retail reinforced its position.
In Swords, Hammerson took over the Swords Pavilions shopping centre; commercial operations have continued under their oversight.Residential Expansion Adjacent to Dundrum
More recently, Hammerson advanced into residential, adding The Ironworks—107 apartments next to Dundrum Town Centre
Hammerson plc; It’s main share holders are the following;
APG Asset Management NV: ~20–20.4%
Coronation Asset Management: ~7.1%
Wellington Management: ~3.6%
The Vanguard Group: ~3.5% (~17.3 million shares)
Other investors: Schroders, BlackRock, SSgA, Janus Henderson, Norges Bank, etc.
OMG!!! This is outrageous. Is nothing sacred to those charlatans in government. How low can they go? This information should be shouted from every roof top in the country. Absolutely heart breaking.
I've read this with tears streaming down my face. The silence around this is as disturbing as what is happening. What has happened to us as a nation is criminal and so heart wrenching. I can't bring myself to go into town anymore. It's too traumatising. Thanks to you and Stephen for writing so well about this horrific assault on our GPO. So blatantly obvious they hate us and our history. Ill keep having conversations about what is happening and continue to get the zombie stare and smart dismissive comments, it's all i can offer.