Plans to name a bridge near Croke Park ‘Bloody Sunday Bridge’ should be dropped in favour of a name that remembers the victims rather than the violence.
That’s according to Ballymun-Finglas Councillor Mary Callaghan who was speaking after a public consultation narrowly rejected the ‘Bloody Sunday Bridge’ plan.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Cllr Callaghan said she is opposed to the idea.
“I feel the name Bloody Sunday Bridge has so many violent memories and connotations and it was a very sad day and in fact, many sad days, because we have several Bloody Sunday days throughout our history.
“My preference would be, if we were to rename the bridge, call it something like Remembrance Bridge, so we remember the people that died that day and experienced that tragedy that day but do it in a way that is not remembering the violence but remembering the people.
“In a way that hopefully moves forward into a more peaceful world.”
"Very suspicious"
Also on the show, North Inner City Cllr Nial Ring told the show he was “very suspicious” about the results of the consultation.
He said the poll was carried out online, which prevented elderly people from taking part and left it open to manipulation.
He insisted that there is strong support for the idea in inner city – and said he would support another poll, “if it was done correctly”.
Consultation
Cllr Callaghan said she would want to see a large majority in favour in order to rename the bridge.
“When I looked at the results, there was a very, very small minority in those areas that wanted it,” she said.
“It wasn’t conclusive. It was almost evenly split and my sense of it is that if something is really wanted in a community and something is being pressed by a campaign, you really want to see 70% or 75% to know that it is really what people in the community want.
“Now, maybe we need to rethink this and go out again and get a more definitive answer – but when we have a poll that says less than 50% are in favour of this, I don’t think we can move forward with it.”
Bloody Sunday Bridge
Cllr Ring said we should be more comfortable about commemorating the more painful parts of our history.
“This is about coming of age by the Irish nation and acknowledging, respecting and celebrating where necessary or commemorating where necessary our past,” he said.
“We’re just coming up to the end of the Decade of Commemorations. The end of the Civil War will be commemorated next month so, we have to be mature enough to be able to call a bridge after Bloody Sunday.
“I mean it was an atrocity that happened.”
He said the council should be prepared to “commemorate our history and not be afraid of our history”.
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