A chara, – Michael McDowell (“Being republican doesn’t mean we cancel the past”, Opinion & Analysis, November 22) is a bit confused. The survey carried out on the bridge naming was not of local people but was an experimental online survey with no geographical limit. The decision to name Bloody Sunday Bridge was taken by the full city council by a majority. The bridge was not previously named. There was no question of “cancelling” anything.
I was a member of the Commemorations Committee which recommended the name on the proposal of local people. I was Lord Mayor in 2017/2018 and I wore the chain with the William of Orange medallion as an acknowledgment of the complexities of our history. I welcome the debate on the removal of “royal” from the titles of Irish organisations. Again, no “cancelling” is involved and the matter is entirely up to the members of such organisations.
My grandfather was an eight-year-old boy in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday and, like thousands of people with such connections to the event, I welcome the naming of the bridge. – Yours, etc,
Cllr MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA ,
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Sinn Féin,
City Hall,
Dublin 2.