The Irish Times

Ms Deirdre Kelly, the conservationist and environmental campaigner died yesterday, aged 61. Once described as "the conscience of the city", Ms Kelly was prominent during the 1970s in the Wood Quay marches and the protests over the demolition of Georgian buildings off St Stephen's Green. The protest later became known as the Battle for Hume Street and ended in June 1970 when demolition men broke into the houses and beat those inside, demolished the roof and wrecked the interiors. Ten years earlier, she had highlighted the threatened destruction of the city to make way for commuter traffic in her book Hands Off Dublin. Her other book, Four Roads to Dublin, a history of Ranelagh, Rathmines and Leeson Street, was published in 1995.