All-Ireland manager Jim Gavin to get Freedom of Dublin

All-Ireland senior football team manager Jim Gavin is to be awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin.

The decision to bestow the honour follows the team’s historic five-in-a-row win in the All-Ireland final against Kerry earlier this month.

Mr Gavin was a man who “personified the idea of service” said Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe, who nominated him.

“When I asked his permission to put his name forward he was both reluctant and honoured,” he said. “He is somebody who you don’t have to quite explain why he would receive the freedom of the city because it is instantly recognisable why it would be fitting.”

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Mr Gavin’s nomination was approved by the full council.

However, Labour councillor Rebecca Moynihan said she was “disappointed” a woman was not chosen for the award.

“Yet another nomination put forward that doesn’t address the gender imbalance. Why does it have to be men, why can’t it be women?”

The award was surrounded by controversy two years ago after the council decided to strip Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her Freedom of the City of Dublin award,

Councillors voted in 2017 to rescind the 2000 decision to bestow the Freedom of the City on Ms Suu Kyi and instructed council chief executive Owen Keegan to remove her name from the “Roll of Honorary Freedom” because of the repression of her country’s Rohingya Muslims.

The council also agreed to a request from Bob Geldof to remove his name from the roll.

The Dublin-born singer, activist and businessman handed the scroll recording his freedom of the city back to city council officials the previous month in protest at the honour being held by Ms Suu Kyi.