W1B-026 Residents' letters-5.txt
Councillor Ivor Callely, T.D. "Lansesdale House", St. Lawrence Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3.

RE: Naming of Public Parks

Dear Councillor, The question of the naming of public parks has been raised in the context of Ashington Park, Navan Road and also in the Marino/Fairview area. It was requested that a brief note explaining Corporation policy on this subject be circulated to the local Councillors.

In the case of the naming of municipal housing estates, a purposeful attempt is made to select a name which relates them to some local, historical, social or political connection with that area of the city. As a consequence, the name of the local public park usually follows this practice but in any event the public tend to link the name of that park with the name of the surrounding area.

There have been two departures from these guidelines where the names were changed but the public continued to call them by their old names because of their strong associations with the area. This has happened in Merrion Square Park and also Nephin Park which was officially named Pope John Paul II Park. I enclose for your information a map of the Dublin City Parks which shows amongst other things a list of the names of 52 parks from which you can see that all the names relate to the locality in which the parks are situated or to some historical name or association with the area.

These considerations form the basis of official policy in naming public parks.

Yours sincerely, C. Geoghegan PRINCIPAL OFFICER
