Madam, – In response to Tom Cooper (December 30th), I strongly believe that the suggestion to change the name of Victoria Quay in Dublin is outrageous.
I fully agree with Mr Cooper on the significance of the Guinness company to Dublin and particularly to Victoria Quay, however, we must also acknowledge the importance of the name “Victoria Quay”.
Ireland has a long history. Some of your readers may feel that parts of this history are quite dark and they would rather erase all memory of them – but the fact is, Ireland was for many years under the control of Britain.
We are now enjoying our independence, but does this mean we should forget what our fathers and grandfathers went through before this great country finally achieved this independence from Britain?
Contrary to Mr Cooper’s opinion, I feel most Dubliners are more than happy to continue using the name Victoria Quay. We only have to look back to 2005 when the 700-year-old name of the town Dingle was officially abolished and replaced with the Irish form of the name – “Daingean Uí Chúis” or “An Daingean”. The people of An Daingean weren’t too pleased about the name change.
In my opinion, a monument dedicated to Arthur Guinness and the Guinness family would be a lot more fitting. – Yours, etc,