Frustration over ongoing delay in renaming Cork city street

EchoLive.ie, 19 Aug


In April 2021 Cork city councillors unanimously agreed to rename
Angelsea St to MacSwiney St in honour of the former Lord Mayor of Cork,
Terence MacSwiney.
Frustration over ongoing delay in renaming Cork city street

Parnell Bridge linking Parnell Place and Anglesea Street. Sinn Fein has
voiced frustration over the delay in renaming Anglesea Street as per an
agreement made nack in 2021. Picture: Dan Linehan.
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Amy Power

Sinn Féin members in Cork have voiced frustration over a roadblock with
national legislation delaying the renaming of Anglesea St.

In April 2021, city councillors unanimously agreed to change the name
of the busy thoroughfare to MacSwiney St in honour of the former Lord
Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, and the MacSwiney family as a whole.

However, the change has failed to come into effect yet due to an issue
with national legislation.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould sought an update on
the legislative amendments to allow for the renaming of streets in a
recent parliamentary question.

Commenced

He was informed by Darragh O’Brien, the minister for housing, local
government and heritage, that in early 2019, legislative amendments to
provisions relating to place name changes in Part 18 of the amended
Local Government Act 2001 were commenced.

However, the minister said there were issues with amended legislation
which made provisions for plebiscites to be held to change place names
and other provisions in the Official Languages legislation.

Slammed

Speaking following the minister’s response, Sinn Féin councillor for
the city’s North West ward Kenneth Collins slammed the lack of
progress: “This has been on the agenda since our motion was passed in
April 2021 to rename Anglesea St to MacSwiney St in recognition of the
sacrifice made by the MacSwiney family for Cork and for Ireland. We
were told then that there was an issue with legislation for the
renaming of this street which we accepted. It has now been over three
years and we are still getting the same answer back.

“Is it going to take 10 years to make a minor change to legislation so
that streets can be renamed?

“This is extremely important as the connection people have with an area
is integral to the name of the place.

“We should have moved on from this but I will not let it fall off the
agenda because our history is too important and because it is a symptom
of the bureaucracy that prevents so many decisions and ideas from
reaching implementation.”

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