Frustration over ongoing delay in renaming Cork city street  

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.”