People calling to ‘decolonise’ streets in Ireland with links to the British Empire need to “grow up”, Shane Coleman has argued. 

In the wake of the Herzog Park naming controversy, Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan has suggested other place names should also be changed. 

The Ballyfermot/Drimnagh representative on Dublin City Council noted that Sackville Street was changed to O’Connell Street following independence. 

However, there are numerous other streets in the capital that have distinctively imperial roots - such as Marlborough Street, North King Street, Queen Street and Grafton Street. 

“So, I think councillors need to wake up and realise we have had a culture and a history of renaming and indeed reclaiming our city,” Cllr Doolan told the Irish Independent. 

 On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Shane Coleman said he opposes the idea, despite considering himself an Irish nationalist and a “republican in both the Irish and the European sense”. 

“I’ve little time for royalty or that kind of stuff,” he explained. 

“But I also love history and I’ve an absolute horror of people looking to re-write history. 

“Look, we had a colonial past; that is the reality. It has influenced us. 

“What next? Are we going to start levelling Georgian Dublin to eradicate that from history as well? 

“This isn’t Stalin’s Russia. We’ve been independent for 100 years now, we need to grow up. 

“I tell you one thing, if we want a united Ireland - and I would like to see a united Ireland - one way we will not do it is by showing unionists that we’re trying to re-write history and pretend the last 800 years didn’t happen.” 

Wellington Quay at sunset. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said she felt ambivalent about the prospect of change. 

“I think there are probably better people in Ireland’s history to celebrate than Marlborough and the Duke of Wellington,” she said. 

“But I do agree with you that the idea that we sort of re-write the past and white wash everybody out of our history doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

“We have changed certain things; we changed Kingsbridge Station to Heuston - when we stopped doing it was during the Troubles. 

“Because it was considered to show support for the Provisional IRA and inflame tensions with unionists in the North.” 

Despite this, she considers herself to be “on the fence”. 

“There are better people to celebrate than the Duchess of so and so,” she said. 

“But I also don’t want to change our streets.”

Main image: Shane Coleman and Wellington Quay. Pictures by: Newstalk and Alamy.com.