U-turn on renaming of Herzog Park sparked angry backlash against Dublin council

Records show the council received messages from Ireland, the US, and further afield after plans to change the name of the park, named after former Israeli president and Dublin-born Chaim Herzog, were withdrawn last November. File photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie

Dublin City Council received dozens of angry emails after it halted a proposal to rename Herzog Park, with correspondence accusing it of everything from antisemitism to “capitulating to pressure” over the war in Gaza.

Records show the council received messages from Ireland, the US, and further afield after plans to change the name of the park, named after former Israeli president and Dublin-born Chaim Herzog, were withdrawn last November.

Some writers welcomed the decision not to go ahead, saying renaming the park would amount to erasing Irish Jewish history.

“Please do the right thing and maintain the name of this Dublin park,” one email said. 

There are other ways to help the victims of this war in Gaza other than erasing Ireland’s Jewish history. We should stand by our Jewish citizens. 

Another warned the move would be “a disgraceful antisemitic action and would shame the Irish people". 

Others expressed opposing views, accusing the council of bowing to pressure from Israel and its allies.

“You cowards bottled it when it came time to doing what’s right,” one message said. “Every single one of you is now Israel’s bi**h. Pathetic and weak.” 

Several emails focused on the ongoing war in Gaza and Chaim Herzog’s role in Israeli history, with one labelling him a “genocidal war criminal”. 

“It is terrifying that a public park should be named after such an individual,” one person claimed, calling for the park to be renamed “Hind Rajab Park".

Another writer said: 

Israel is a genocidal apartheid state led by a wanted war criminal — those tainted by its inception and by its expansionist, genocidal nature, have no place in Ireland’s public spaces. 

The correspondence also included hostile and abusive messages, with some contributors invoking Nazi Germany and claiming Ireland was becoming “the most antisemitic country in Europe”. 

Others framed the controversy as a moment to celebrate Herzog’s Irish roots.

“Chaim Herzog was born in Belfast, raised in Dublin, educated at Wesley College,” one person said, arguing the park honoured “an Irish man from Ireland’s own Jewish community who rose to global prominence".

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One Irish American said they would never visit this country again while one said their memories of coming to Ireland “have been severely tarnished”. Another message said: “This is self-evidently a very bad idea and smacks of antisemitism. I hope common sense and common decency prevail.” 

The proposal to rename the park in Rathgar had been publicly criticised by senior politicians in Ireland, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris.

It also generated controversy worldwide with the office of current Israeli president Isaac Herzog (Chaim Herzog’s son) issuing a statement calling the proposal “shameful and disgraceful".