Country becoming 'cold place for Christians,' council meeting hears during debate over renaming Cork park

Cork City Council is to officially look into renaming Bishop Lucey Park, which the local authority says is set to reopen to the public in November following two years of renovations.

In a motion submitted this week under section 140 of the Local Government Act (2001), Worker’s Party councillor Ted Tynan, Green Party councillor Oliver Moran and Social Democrats’ councillor Niamh O’Connor cosigned a motion calling for the chief executive to undertake a process to explore the renaming of the park as part of the ongoing redevelopment.

At last month’s meeting, a motion by Mr Tynan to change the name in light of historical scandals in the church, and to rename it “Páirc na mBan Chorcaí”, was passed, stating council agreement with the name change, but further steps needed to be taken to allow the official process of name changing to begin.

Section 140 allows the elected members of a local authority to require the chief executive to carry out a specific executive function through a resolution.

Mr Moran said at the meeting: “If we were to do it now is the opportunity to do it, when the park is being redeveloped – the name of the park is something that regularly comes up. The motion doesn’t tie us into any decision… it is a once in a generation opportunity to look at the question, whatever the answer is.”

Speaking at this week’s meeting Mr Tynan said: 

“I’m not being anti-religion as such, but I think when there is an injustice done, it needs to be recognised and corrected.” 

Ms O’Connor added: “This park was named in 1985, obviously Ireland has changed massively social and culturally since then. In my view, we’re not renaming the park - it is a new park which just happens to be where the old park was, we should name it something that reflects our society in 2025.”

The motion was opposed by Terry Shannon, who said: “This is an attempt to rewrite history… this country is becoming a cold place for Christians and Catholics.” He acknowledged that “the church has a lot to answer for”, but said “it wasn’t all bad”, and that Bishop Lucey made several positive contributions to the city. But Independent councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy said he was in favour of looking at the name change while the park was being redeveloped, saying that the public should have their say on the park’s name.

The motion passed, receiving 17 votes in favour and 11 against, with the Fianna Fáil councillors as well as independents Paudie Dineen and Albert Deasy and Independent Ireland’s Noel O’Flynn voting against it.