Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PLANS TO RENAME CITY STREET AFTER REPUBLICAN ICON
Ex-cllr wants Connolly to be honoured
A FORMER Belfast councillor is proposing a city centre street be renamed after one of Ireland’s most famous revolutionaries.
Jim Mcveigh plans to approach City Hall next week with a proposition that Castle Street should be changed to James Connolly Street.
The republican is widely recognised as being a leading figure in Ireland’s trade union movement and the Easter Rising – for which he was executed in 1916.
A centre dedicated to Connolly opened on the Falls Road last year after a campaign by Mr Mcveigh.
His petition, he adds, will be presented to the council on Monday. Mr Mcveigh also said the street sign should be bilingual with Sraid Seamus Ui Chonghaile alongside James Connolly Street.
He told the Mirror: “We are a small group of historians, trade unionists and community activists who think it’s time the city centre streetscape, including its street names and public art, needs to be changed to reflect the rich and very diverse history of the city.
“Women, labour, the working class, Irish and ethnic groups, are invisible in the city centre. We want to change Castle Street to James Connolly Street as a start and we have the support of the majority of businesses for the name change.
“We would also like to see another two streets named after Frederick Douglass and Mary Ann Mccracken.”
Douglass, according to History.com, was
YESTERDAY
“an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker” and “a leader in the abolitionist movement”.
Belfast woman
Mccracken was also well-known for fighting for women’s rights.
In his letter to Castle
Street firms Mr Mcveigh said Connolly “was a resident of Belfast and a trade union leader who along with
Jim Larkin helped organise many thousands of workers into the
Irish Transport & General Workers Union between 1911 and 1916”.
The letter adds: “He was a hugely important historical figure who was one of the founding members of the modern Irish trade union movement.
“He was also a significant international figure who during his time in America helped establish the International Workers of the World, America’s first big general union, at the beginning of the 20th century.”
Belfast City Council declined to comment saying it would be inapproptriate to do so ahead of an “application being received and being considered by members at committee level”.