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28 Jun 2012
Dubliner's will already know that we're getting another new bridge (It's been a great few years for bridge geeks in this town), this one only yards from O'Connell Bridge itself, and willl be carrying the LUAS and other public transport. I haven't posted much about it yet even though it's also only yards from my place because at this stage the construction is at the unexciting pile-driving stage and I don't want to bore you all with my bridge geekery. I'll wait till we get to a more picture-friendly phase of the construction.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times letters page has a running thread of people suggesting names for the new bridge - mostly naming it after the great and the good - and they have run the gamut from sportsmen to scientists to (as usual) writers. But so far, unless I missed it, no one has suggested a woman.
Currently there are seventeen bridges between the East Link and Heuston, and all seventeen are named after men. Not one of them is named after a woman.
If you go a little further out there's the Anna Livia Bridge in Chapelizod, but I don't count a poetic 'female' personification of the river Liffey as an actual woman. And the bridge at Island Bridge was previously called Sarah's Bridge after Sarah, Countess of Westmoreland, wife of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who laid the first stone of the original bridge in 1791. However the brdge we have there now was renamed Island Bridge after independence.
Now I'm not one for advocating gender quotas for the naming of bridges, and of course in times gone by it was much more difficult for a woman to leave a historically significant mark on the city, but when you have seventeen bridges (twenty three, if you go out as far as Lucan) and every single one is named after a man (bar the couple named after landmarks), well, it begins to seem deliberately insulting.
So I say when it comes to naming the new bridge over the Liffey, let's name it after a great Irish woman.
"Artivist" Will St Leger feels similarly about the representation of women among the statues in the city centre, and yesterday morning he tried to restore a semblance of balance by adding a new female statue to the city's statuary. She didn't last too long unfortunately.
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bridge notes
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23 Jul 2010
Peter Tatchell confronted British National Party Nick Griffin in front of the press, asking him if it weren't time for him to apologise to "the British people" for his party's "anti-semitism, homophobia and attacks on the Muslim community". Griffin remained silent and walked away as Tatchell was manhandled away by the BNP leader's goons.
You've got to admire Tatchell's unceasing energy!
The Pink Paper reports:
Tatchell sneaked between photographers and strode up to Griffin as he was displaying his Buckingham Palace Garden Party invitation, which was subsequently withdrawn by the Queen.
"As soon as he saw me he had a look of horror on his face," said Tatchell.
"I asked Griffin: 'Isn't it about time you apologised to the British people for your party's long history of anti-Semitism, homophobia and attacks on the Muslim community?'"
"Griffin looked sheepish. He seemed stumped for an answer. I asked him again. Then he just ran off. What a coward.
"Griffin's minders shoved me down the stairs. It's proof that the BNP doesn't believe in free speech or in the public asking their leader awkward questions. It shows the kind of autocratic society the BNP would impose if they ever won power.
"For many years, the BNP has preached a totalitarian ideology of anti-Jewish, anti-black, anti-gay and anti-Muslim hatred. The party has a long and strident hatred of non-white immigrants and asylum seekers. It's racist views are an affront to democratic values.
"Behind Nick Griffin's silky words and smiles lurk his party's neo-fascist roots. The BNP is a threat to human rights and social solidarity," said Tatchell.
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