Battle to save The Hill

Adam Daly 

LOCAL politicians are determined to save a historic inner city market under threat from closure.

Traders have bought and sold at The Hill on Cumberland Street North for generations but proposed new council bylaws could see it closed down.

Draft casual trading bylaws proposed by Dublin City Council and designed to tackle issues with waste management and illegal trading threaten the future of the traders.

Some of them have been selling on The Hill for generations but if the new bylaws are passed it will put an end to generations of Saturday morning trading.

However, Councillor Janice Boylan (SF), who’s on the council’s Markets and Casual Trading sub-committee, is optimistic the bylaws won’t be approved.

Boylan says the subcommittee asked to see proof as to why they should re-designate Cumberland Street but claims none was provided before the suggestion was included in draft bye laws. 

“Myself and my colleagues were concerned about that so we contacted The Hill traders,” she said.

“After speaking with them it became obvious that they did want to remain there and any issues that were presented could be dealt with and they asked for their support of myself and others.

“The reasons that DCC cited for the draft bye laws to de-designate the Hill was illegal trading and dumping. They were trying to say traders were leaving their stuff around place.

“That does happen sometimes but the illegal dumping element was coming from surrounding properties as well. People were taking advantage of the fact that DCC clean up the area after the market and were leaving stuff out.” 

The subcommittee are due to meet again shortly to go through the council’s proposals and Cllr Boylan remains confident that her council colleagues won’t pass them if The Hill is threatened.

Councillor Christy Burke (IND) is also optimistic about the future of The Hill. He has been behind the Save Our Hill movement since news broke last month of the possible changes to the trading bye laws. 

Since the campaign started online, Cllr Burke says that he has received responses from all over the world. People who used the Hill over the years have all been in touch asking him to save the market.

“This was a service that was provided to a very poor community,” he said.

“The traders provided that service and there’s no official that can come along and get rid of them. They have rights, it is our heritage and it is our culture, so you’ve got to stand up for them."