Jennifer Horgan: Herzog Park renaming debacle shows how difficult it is to think with nuance

Irish people used to be known for their ability to think in 'grey areas' and not reduce everything to a binary argument. Jennifer Horgan asks if we have now lost it

A plaque commemorating Chaim Herzog in Dublin, Israel's sixth president. Dublin City Council has prepared a motion to rename 'Herzog Park' to 'Hind Rajab Park' after Hind Rajab from Gaza. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

My parents were a young couple living in London during the IRA’s bombing campaign there.

Merlyn Rees, the Secretary for Northern Ireland lived nearby and his security police regularly passed up and down their road, a reminder of the ongoing tensions and violence of the time. Not that my parents needed reminding, given the anti-Irish sentiments shared on British television and radio daily.