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.