Two city bridges officially named

Cork City Council has agreed on the names of two bridges in the city centre, one at Proby’s Quay and another at Lambley’s Lane.

The bridge at Proby’s Quay was named for the late sculptor Séamus Murphy, a native of Mallow.

He is best known for his designing of the Church of the Annunciation in Blackpool, but also for his sculptures of Éamonn De Valera in Fitzgerald Park, and the Onion Seller in Bishop Lucey Park.

The bridge at Lambley’s Lane was named for Cumann na mBan, the women’s wing of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Army.

Originally founded in 1914, it became the women’s wing of the Irish Volunteers in 1916. It continued this auxiliary role in the War of Independence between 1919-1922.

The organisation took the anti-Treaty side during the Civil War and was declared an illegal organisation by the Irish Free State in 1922. This was reversed by Fianna Fáil on its coming to power in 1932.

Cumann na mBan has remained active in some form or other until today and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014 at the Wynn Hotel in Dublin.

Councillor and local historian Kieran McCarthy said that he was “so excited” at the naming of the bridges, and was particularly happy with the public engagement.

“It has been really great to see the public engagement with the naming process. Over 100 names were submitted for both bridges respectively. Many of the proposed names came with very valuable historic detail on why someone or a place should be remembered.

“The sense of pride for the city’s history was very present by all proposers. It took a while to whittle down proposed names with much robust debate across the process. I have called for the public call out to continue for the next infrastructure project,” he said.

Controversial past

Attention was drawn during the meeting to the political history of Séamus Murphy by Solidarity councillor Brian McCarthy.

He said that Murphy had, in 1945, stood as a local election candidate for the fascist party Ailtirí na hAiséirghe (Architects of the Resurrection).

Murphy was one of four local election candidates who stood for the party in the 1945 elections to Cork Corporation, the precursor to Cork City Council. He was ultimately unsuccessful.

Cllr McCarthy pointed out that the party was a vocal supporter of the Axis powers during the Second World War, and that they wanted to set up a “one-party Christian-fascist dictatorship here in Ireland”.

Ailtirí na hAiséirghe was a small fascist party established in 1942 by Belfast-born Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin. The party aimed to create a one-party state in Ireland, to ban English from public use after five years in power, and to discriminate against Jews and Freemasons.

Objections were raised to Murphy’s characterisation as a fascist by councillors Albert Deasy and Terry Shannon.

Cllr Deasy said that “it’s a problem nowadays that anybody you don’t like, you defame them, you call them fascists”, and that it was “unacceptable”.

Cllr Dan Boyle, whose 2017 book ‘Making Up the Numbers’ explored the role of small parties in Irish politics, said that he would put Murphy’s membership of the party down to a “youthful indiscretion”, which shouldn’t take away from his artistic work.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.