Council decides not to name Spire after Nelson Mandela

A suggestion to rename the Millennium Spire in O’Connell Street, Dublin, in memory of Nelson Mandela has been dropped after a Dublin City Council committee yesterday agreed to abide by existing protocols.

Under the so-called “20 year rule” major pieces of infrastructure in the city can only be named after an individual who has been dead for at least two decades.

However, an alternative plan to name a strip of Henry Street or an adjoining laneway as the “Nelson Mandela Walk” will now be referred to the local area committee. This would not impinge on the “20-year rule”.

"People have ideas that sometimes lead to better ideas," said Labour councillor Dermot Lacey who chairs the Commemorative Naming Committee which discussed the issue yesterday.

“Another one of the reasons why we didn’t do it was that when the spire was eventually adopted by the council, there was a specific condition in that it shouldn’t be named after an individual; that it should be about Dublin and the aspiration of the city.”