Michael Moynihan: Who should we immortalise when we name Cork's new bridge?

Consulting the Cork bridge names immediately informs you of when, broadly speaking, those names were assigned

The deadline to nominate a name for the new pedestrian bridge linking Grange/Frankfield to Tramore Valley Park arrives on Friday. Picture: Larry Cummins

Attention, citizens! Cork City Council is looking for your help.

May I refer you to the local authority website? There you’ll learn that aid is needed “in putting forward suggestions for the naming of the new bridge, which is currently being built from over the N40/South Ring Road to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.

“The new bridge connects Grange/ Frankfield to Tramore Valley Park via a 4m wide pedestrian and cycle path.” (The closing date for submissions is Friday, April 28, 2023, at 4pm. Tomorrow, in fact. So get a move on.) The first point worth making is that this new bridge joins an already varied cohort: the bridges of Cork range from the well-known (St Patrick’s Bridge, Mary Elmes Bridge) to the more obscure, such as the Cavanagh Bridge and O’Neill-Crowley Bridge, though in the age of Google Maps there can be no prizes for locating those instantly.

What’s interesting is that with bridge names you can glimpse a particular line of development in the chronology. Consulting the Cork bridge names immediately informs you when, broadly speaking, those names were assigned, as you can track the general march of political development. We can see colonial celebration in some names (Victoria Bridge) giving way in time to the heroes of the War of Independence and onwards (Michael Collins Bridge), before arriving at neutral geographic descriptions (Shandon Bridge) and thence to the spotlight being turned on people who should have been celebrated far earlier, like the Mary Elmes Bridge mentioned earlier.

(Yes, I’m aware that the likes of Brian Boru Bridge and Christy Ring Bridge blow this unified theory apart. Don’t mail in.) 

The Mary Elmes Bridge over the River Lee, Cork City.

The Mary Elmes Bridge is a good starting point for discussing the latest addition to Cork’s infrastructure because the involvement of the public in this process was a particularly welcome development. 

As reported here back in 2019, Elmes “was one of five historic figures shortlisted following an invitation from the city council to the public to suggest names. It is the first time this process has been used to name a piece of public infrastructure.

“A total of 92 submissions were received and a long-list of 35 names emerged ... The longlist was considered by the council’s party whips, who in turn recommended a five-name shortlist ... to full council for agreed naming process and vote.

“Councillors spent just over 45 minutes debating the names before voting.” And Mary Elmes Bridge was the result. Fair enough: credit where it’s due. Rather than a naming system which ends up reflecting the prejudices and beliefs of a select few, this is a participative process which removes complaints about non-consultation.

What’s not to like?

However, if we can go back to 2019 it was interesting to see some of the names that were long-listed for consideration for the then-unnamed bridge.

To wit: Rory Gallagher Bridge, Merchant’s Bridge, The Provisional Republic Army Crossing, The Rebel’s Bridge, Share Bridge, The Corkonians Bridge, Legends Bridge, the Myrtle Allen Bridge, and Boole Bridge.

Longlist

I’d divide this into the following categories: famous individuals, historic commemoration, local attributes. And because I’m a helpful soul at heart, I felt Leesiders would be encouraged by my willingness to share  my longlist of names for the new bridge over the N40/South Ring.

Under Famous Individuals who might be immortalised by this facility, I have two possibilities.

The Bouncer Who Wouldn’t Let Me In To The Grand Parade Hotel The Night Of My Leaving Certificate Results Bridge is one possibility, because I can still recall the sense of deflation as I was told to ‘take a walk around the block’.

The other is The Horse’s Ass In The Red Van Who Cut Me Off At The Christy Ring Bridge Bridge.

This remains vivid in my mind years later because of the sense of cold in my tummy when I thought, for a very long second, I was going to end up in the river thanks to this beauty. Whose licence plate I may or may not have committed to memory. (Obviously the problem here is getting all that text onto the bridge in the first place.)

 Under Historic Commemoration can I recommend the Did You Know That Nirvana Played At Sir Henry’s Bridge?

The old venue on South Main Street was visited by more people on this occasion than squeezed into Thomond Park in 1978 and the GPO in 1916 combined, it seems. To deepen the experience 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' could play through speakers on the bridge if you press the N in Nirvana on the sign. Interactive, you know?

(A big argument in favour of this name is that if we don’t use it we’ll end up with a statue of Kurt Cobain on the Grand Parade. Next to Michael Collins on his bike.) 

Finally, Local Attributes. If one were to stand on the new bridge and admire the traffic hurtling below — sometimes hurtling very slowly indeed — then what local attributes could be deployed as the facility’s name?

Slim enough pickings. The Dump View Bridge? The Fog Of Diesel Fumes Bridge? The Gateway To Civilisation For The Less Enlightened From Other Counties Bridge?

The last is probably too discriminatory, but business is business.

Cork City Council tells us that the overall bridge project is expected to be completed this autumn, at which point the bridge and pathway will be available for use by the public. Presumably, we will have a nameplate on the bridge by then, but even if you don’t agree with whatever is chosen all is not lost.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Earlier this month Clare County Council invited submissions to rename the Victoria Bridge in Ennis, which dates back to 1840.

(On the point raised earlier about the progression from description to colonial to native names, by the way, the Clare Champion tells me that when the adjoining road was first built, the road was known as New Road, then became Victoria Road, then Cusack Road. Which I’m glad to see is a strong validation of my theory.) The favoured option in Clare seems to be to rename the bridge after Mike McTigue, the famous boxer from that county.

The fight between Mike McTigue and Battling Siki. McTigue won by decision.

While the process of renaming a bridge is my main focus in raising this matter here, I must also pay tribute in passing to McTigue, who won the world light-heavyweight boxing title when he beat the famous Battling Siki on March 17, 1923, in Dublin. A a boxing writer of the time described Siki’s belief he could beat an Irish boxer on St Patrick’s Day in Dublin as the definition of misguided optimism.

(Please don’t bombard me with a list of Cork sports icons worth immortalising with this bridge. We’ll be here all night.) 

I mention this because it shows there’s a mechanism if we make a mistake with this bridge name, unlikely though that is, we can change it and go again. Knowing my fellow citizens as I do, that’s unlikely, but time is ticking. Get nominating.