THE proposed renaming of Anglesea Street will not take place until early next year due to a procedural stipulation.

At last week's full council meeting, councillors signalled their intention to move forward with the process of renaming Anglesea Street to MacSwiney Street.

Proposals to rename the busy thoroughfare date back to 2019.

Sinn Féin councillors Kenneth Collins and Henry Cremin proposed that the local authority would examine the possibility of renaming the street to honour former Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney.

Following discussions at committee meetings since, the renaming of Anglesea Street is intended to honour the MacSwiney family as a whole.

Now that the vote has been passed, the next stage is for the local authority to notify the public of the change.

Cork City Council must invite submissions in writing from members of the public in relation to the proposal not later than two months from the date of the publication of the notice.

Once all submissions have been considered, a final decision on the name change will be made.

However, if a change is to take place it will not come into effect until next year as a stipulation states:

“If the declaration is not made within three months of the 1st January, the new place name would not come into effect until the following 1st January.” 

Speaking to The Echo, Cllr Kenneth Collins said he was delighted by the unanimous support by councillors to rename the street.

“It’s about Terence MacSwiney but it’s his family as well, his sisters and his brothers - they were all activists.

“They were all instrumental in a part of Irish history and for us to fight for our sovereignty,” he said.

“It’s absolutely an honour to have my name next to that motion, along with Cllr Henry Cremin of course,” he continued.

There was some disagreement at the last full council meeting regarding the Irish translation of the new street name, however, Mr Collins said this has since been resolved.

The Irish translation of the proposed street name will be ‘Sráid na Suibhneach’.

“I’m on the board of management at Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers and I contacted the Principal there and he got onto a scholar at UCC to get the exact translation,” Mr Collins said.

Mr Collins said renaming Anglesea Street to MacSwiney Street would be particularly significant given the fact that the street was the site of MacSwiney’s arrest by the British Forces on August 12, 1920.

“It’s one of the most important streets of our city and to have it named after one of the most important fathers of our city would be historic and very special,” he added.

In relation to the cost of the potential renaming of the street, Mr Collins said it would not be significant.

“It’s advertising it and two name plates – it wouldn’t be a huge cost whatsoever.” 

Meanwhile, Cllr Henry Cremin also welcomed the unanimous support to rename the street.

“It still has another one or two phases to go before it’s actually official.

“I think it’s something of real significance to do in memory of Terence MacSwiney because while we’ve had a lot of commemorations over the last year or two this will be something of real significance that will be remembered for a long time.”