Council reveals contenders for name of Liffey bridge

Writers, a trade union activist, a former TD two scientists and a theatre are among the 17 individuals or entities shortlisted as potential names for the new bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin.

Dublin City Council today published the shortlist after a committee assessed some 85 nominations for the accolade.

The individual names on the shortlist include Willie Bermingham, founder of the charity Alone, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising James Connolly, founder of the Legion of Mary Frank Duff, Lady Augusta Gregory and the late Dublin Central TD Tony Gregory.

Also on the list are writers Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, Jonathan Swift, James Plunkett , Bram Stoker and scientists George Sigerson and Ernest Walton.

Camogie Legend Kay Mills and trade union activist Rosie Hackett are also shortlisted.

Three other shortlisted names are the Abbey Theatre Bridge, the Returned Home Bridge and the Patriots Bridge.

The submission to have the bridge named the Returned Home Bridge was initiated “ to remember, appreciate and acknowledge those who enlisted and who returned home to Ireland and to Dublin” following the first World War.

The council’s Commemorative Naming Committee met yesterday to consider the nominations, for which almost 10,000 supporting submissions and petitions were received.

The 17 shortlisted names will be reviewed at the committee’s next meeting on June 12th.

Chairman of the committee, Councillor Dermot Lacey, said the process had assisted in bringing to public attention people and events that had made "a unique and outstanding contribution to the life and history of Dublin".

“It has brought into focus a rich variety of names, many of which will give the City Council suggestions for the naming of infrastructure into the future,” he said.

He said the council welcomed the public’s engagement in the process and was aiming to have a decision on the naming in autumn 2013.

The bridge, linking Marlborough Street on the north side of the river with Hawkins Street on the south, will link the two Luas lines in the city.

It is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed later this year.

A commemorative naming policy for monuments and infrastructure approved by the council in December specifies the person must have been born or lived in the city and have had “strong and/or enduring connections ” with it.

He or she must have made a “unique and outstanding contribution to the life or history of Dublin through outstanding achievement, distinctive service or significant community contribution”.

Where a monument is named after an event, it will have to have occurred at least 20 years previously “unless it is of extraordinary and long-lasting consequence to the city”.