The 20-year rule for naming public spaces in Dublin should be reviewed to give communities the chance to honour their most-famous members.
Independent Cllr Damien O’Farrell is calling for the rule to be changed – noting that it has out a stop to campaigns to honour the likes of the late Boyzone star Stephen Gately.
Cllr O’Farrell said he would personally like to see a public space named after former Dublin Lord Mayor Sean "Dublin Bay" Loftus, who is known as one of Ireland’s first political environmental activists.
Under Dublin City Council (DCC) guidelines, public spaces can only be named after someone if they have died at least 20 years ago, or they were born at least 100 years ago.
The rule prevented a park along the royal Canal being named after Sherriff Street native Stephen Gately in 2020.
It also prevented an attempt to name a street after Savita Halappanavar in 2016.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Cllr Damien O’Farrell said people who are important to communities can fall out of the public consciousness if they can’t be honoured for 20 years after their death.
“I just think we are ending up with 20-year gaps in our social history and we could forget to recognise them,” he said.
“I won’t be a councillor, you know, we’ll be moving on; there will be new councillors and new people around and people will be forgotten about.
“You mention there Stephen Gately. He died in 2009 and there was a move to rename a park after him some years ago but he came under the 20-year rule so that couldn’t happen.”
Sean 'Dublin Bay' Loftus
He said he is calling for a review of the laws, noting that a ten-year wait should be introduced instead.
He said there should be an area in north Dublin named after Sean ‘Dublin Bay’ Loftus who famously changed his name numerous times in order to highlight campaign issues.
Loftus is known as one of Ireland’s original environmentalist politicians and is one of the people credited with preventing the building of an oil refinery in Dublin Bay in the early 1970s.
“Sean ‘Dublin Bay’ Loftus would be very well known in this community out here in the northside,” he said.
“Really Dublin Bay would not be a protected biosphere only for the likes of him – only for him probably.
“He is not as famous as some of the other people we have today. He didn’t exist in a time of social media and mass publicity. Mass fame and big fame. I’m just calling for a review just to discuss it.”
20-year rule
Cllr O’Farrell said the 20-year rule was introduced due to Jimmy Saville.
He said thousands of places in the UK were named after the now-disgraced broadcaster following his death in 2011 – only for local authorities to have to undergo an “enormous process” renaming them all after his crimes came to light.
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