A PROPOSAL to remove the name of Chaim Herzog from Herzog Park in Rathgar is now expected to be withdrawn from Dublin City Council’s agenda.
This follows what the council’s Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare described as an “administrative oversight” and a failure to follow the legislative procedures required for altering a place name.
Shakespeare announced on Sunday evening that he would advise councillors to pull the report entirely, explaining that the document “does not take account of the correct statutory procedure and is missing information for a valid resolution to be adopted.”
A detailed internal review, he said, will now be carried out and presented to the Lord Mayor and councillors.
The expected withdrawal follows strong intervention from the Irish government.
Earlier on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin urged that the motion be “withdrawn in its entirety and not proceeded with”, according to RTÉ.
He argued that renaming the park after nearly three decades would “erase the distinctive and rich contribution to Irish life of the Jewish community over many decades, including participation in the Irish War of Independence and the emerging Irish State.”
Martin added, “The proposal is a denial of our history and will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic. It is overtly divisive and wrong.”
He said the contribution of Ireland’s Jewish community “should always be cherished and generously acknowledged” and called on councillors to “seriously reflect on the implications of this move.”
The controversy has attracted international attention.
The office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it was watching the situation “with concern” and that removing the name would be “shameful and disgraceful.”
Its statement stressed that such a move would injure “the unique expression of the historical connection between the Irish and Jewish peoples.”
The office pointed to the fact that Chaim Herzog was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, and that “his father, Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Herzog, served as the first chief rabbi of the Irish Free State and left a significant mark on the life of the Irish nation in those days.”
A plaque in Belfast commemorating the birthplace of Chaim Herzog (Wikimedia Commons/Photo by Albert Bridge)US Senator Lindsey Graham offered a particularly forceful rebuke, claiming that “modern Ireland is a beautiful country with great scenery, but unfortunately it has become a cesspool of antisemitism”, according to the Irish Independent.
He said, “When you think it couldn’t get any worse in Ireland regarding animosity toward Israel and the Jewish people, it just did.”
Lord Mayor Ray McAdam expressed frustration at the eleventh-hour revelation that the necessary regulations for a placename change remain incomplete.
McAdam said he does not personally believe it is “appropriate or right to look to rename Herzog Park.”
The move to remove the Herzog name dates back to December 2024, when councillors Fiona Connelly and Conor Reddy questioned the procedures involved in the park’s original naming.
Independent councillor Cieran Perry, who supported the renaming, criticised the council’s decision to pull the proposal at the last moment.
He called the development “extremely disappointing”, saying, “It seems very suspicious that at this very last minute, all of a sudden there is an excuse found to withdraw the items from the agenda. I suspect political interference.”
Perry said the proposal was intended as “a small action” highlighting the suffering in Gaza and rejected claims that it was antisemitic.
He said he would gladly support naming the park after “a progressive Jewish person who hadn’t been involved in ethnic cleansing and who had contributed to Dublin or to Ireland.”
Supporters of the proposed change, including Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, argued that the campaign has broad grassroots backing.
Doherty said, “This proposal is a community response… It has cross-party support, including support at the committee before the summer.”
He also claimed that the park’s original naming “wouldn’t comply with the rules that apply to Dublin City Council at the moment.”
The proposal is now expected to be referred back to the Commemorations and Naming Committee so that the proper statutory procedure, including public consultation and a potential secret ballot, can be clarified and completed.
For now, Herzog Park appears likely to keep its name.