Letters to the editor - Village Magazine

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LETTERS

On Dublin’s City Bridge Naming Committee

Dear Editor,

Good to see the work of the Dublin City Council Bridge Naming

Committee receive some coverage in Village. Sometimes it would

appear that only actors and make-believe performers from this part

of the City make it onto your hallowed pages. However, I would like

to correct some, I am sure unintended, inaccuracies.

While Village and I share an admiration for the role of James

Connolly in Irish life it was not the view of the Committee that the

new Bridge should be named after him. There were practical and prin-

cipled reasons for that decision.

Contrary to your inference regarding another name suggestion I

have been scrupulously fair as Chairperson of the Committee and all

our procedures have been transparent. After each meeting we issued

a Press Statement detailing the remaining names and inviting com-

ment from the Public.

We carefully looked at every suggestion, based on criteria deter-

mined prior to the Committee being established. The terms of

reference were determined by the full City Council and not by our-

selves and we adhered to those terms.

There were eighty-ﬁve diﬀerent suggestions for one bridge. James

Connolly came through the ﬁrst two de-selection processes and was

included in the ﬁnal ten names considered.

The fact that his name was so included in the last ten surely shows

that it was not easily disregarded.

At each stage Committee members were asked if they required a

direct presentation on the remaining names. On each occasion they

decided they did not.

The non-inclusion of James Connolly does not reﬂect any nega-

tive view of his role or that of the Labour Movement in Irish life. It

was a process of whittling down a lot of good names to enable the full

Council an opportunity to come to an agreed and consensus deci-

sion. To be honest it was the most collegiate Committee that I have

worked with in my twenty-one years on the Council and I am proud

of the sincerity and commitment of the members and the integrity of

their recommendations.

The process that we have undertaken has been transparent, demo-

cratic and fair. While I have every respect, of course, for James Connolly

I also have respect for the ﬁve people remaining on the list.

Over the next nine months Village might usefully focus on the real

possibilities for a reformed local government system and a progres-

sive majority on our Councils across our country. That is what I want

to see and I suspect on that we are both at one.

Yours faithfully,

Councillor Dermot Lacey

Chairperson of the Bridge Naming Committee

Dublin City Council

City Hall

Dublin 

On rural murder-suicides

Dear Editor,

A recent Irish study found nineteen murder-suicides in a twelve-and-

a-half year period (-) where twenty-seven victims were

murdered. Fifteen of the killers were men and four were women. Their

victims included their children (%), partners (%), friends

(%), whole families (%), ex-partners (%) and parents (%).

The methods used for these killing were shooting or asphyxia-

tion. Eighteen of the recorded incidents took place in rural Ireland

with just one in Dublin. Most of the men involved were aided in their

horriﬁc actions by drink, drugs or mental illness and then commit-

ted suicide

This study is just a snapshot of an ever-growing problem in rural

Ireland whereby a person, usually a man, with access to a ﬁrearm due

to their involvement in live shooting has a mental lapse and descends

into a black hole of believing the world is against him and those who

are closest to him would be better oﬀ dead.

Years of shooting bullets into animals has rendered obsolete the

compassion gene therefore shooting a person is no diﬀerent from

taking down a high-ﬂying pheasant.

Yours faithfully,

John Tierney

Campaigns Director

Association of Hunt Saboteurs

PO Box 

Dublin 

Letters to the editor

Please address letters to: editor@villagemagazine.ie. Village reserves the right to edit letters. Village oﬀers a serious

right of reply or clariﬁcation to readers.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY:

Mark Dearey

Article on Louth Planning, Aug-Sept 2013

Mark Dearey was not a member of Louth County Council in  and so did not vote, indeed could not have

voted, for the Carnbeg material contravention mentioned in our News section article on withdrawn planning

appeals, “Nearly € million paid for planning appeal withdrawal’ (Village, Aug-Sept , pp -).

Village apologises to Councillor Dearey and wholeheartedly accepts his assertion that he is ﬁt to seek

public oﬃce and that there is no question mark over his probity in planning matters.