New Lee crossing named: Cork’s bridge of remembrance

What’s in a name? Quite a lot when the task at hand is naming public structures —such as roads, buildings and bridges — or awards recognising outstanding achievements.

Cork City Council, in looking for a name for the city’s new bridge, is to be congratulated for inviting suggestions from the public, and also for choosing — having looked at 92 submissions — to honour Mary Elmes, known as Ireland’s Oskar Schindler.

It’s a choice from which few if any will dissent. Born in our city and educated at Trinity College, she went to Spain in the 1930s to help refugees during the civil war. They were missions that took her to southern France, where she put her life on the line by getting Jews — many of them children — out of the Vichy camps in which they were held before transportation to the east.

She survived six months in a German prison, choosing thereafter never to tell her tale, which was why she declined the Legion d’Honneur offered by the French government. It’s possible that, had she been able to, she might have demurred when in 2013 she had the honour of being the first Irish citizen to be named ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

Her silence, held until her death in 2002, left her an unsung heroine with no marked place in history. Now, as thousands cross the new bridge each day, her courage and spirit can be remembered.