Sign on Cork city bridge recognises one of Ireland's first female TDs

A tip off from a member of the Blackpool Historical Society led Cork city Green Party councillor Oliver Moran to research the name of the bridge over Dublin Street on the north side to ascertain its name, research which led to an event on Friday which will ensure its name will remain in place for coming generations.

And his discovery of an obscure statutory instrument marking the route of the N20 which was signed in 2012 by the then Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar, was the final clue which led the Cork City North East representative to discover that the bridge was named after Máire MacSwiney, the sister of former Cork lord mayor Terence MacSwiney.

On Friday, the question of for whom was the bridge named was marked in steel naming it in Irish and English as Droichead Máire Nic Suibhne/Máire MacSwiney Bridge, was installed on the Eastern side of Dublin Street, which is the boundary between Cork City North East and Cork City North West.

Mr Moran, who was elected in Cork City North East, said there had been some confusion over the name of the bridge as even though it had been ratified by the City Council, they needed to find an official Government record of it.

"The overbridge was named some time in the mid-noughties but the name was never marked and looked set to fall out of memory. If it wasn't for an obscure statutory instrument describing the route of the N20, it might have been forgotten about altogether. That was the only confirming document we could find.

“MacSwiney was a controversial figure but significant in her role as a suffragette, one of the first women TDs, and the first vice-president of Sinn Féin after the split with Fianna Fáil,” he said.

“At the launch on Friday of 'Mary MacSwiney', the latest book from Cork author and historian Dr Leeann Lane, the author confirmed to me that the bridge was named after her and she commonly went by Máire in person, which would explain the name."

Confusion arose because the daughter of Terence MacSwiney and his wife Muriel was also called Máire. She went on to marry the son of Cathal Brugha, Ruairí Brugha, and published a book, History’s Daughter: A Memoir from the Only Child of Terence MacSwiney.

Mr Moran explained that the Máire MacSwiney Bridge was one of three pieces of public infrastructure in Cork city named after women. He named the other two as the Nano Nagle Bridge which was opened in 1985 and the Mary Elmes Bridge (2019).