AMONG the 107 submissions to City Council in relation to the controversial proposal to rename the Shannon Bridge after JFK were alternative recommendations to rename it after JP McManus, Kate O’Brien or Sean Sabhat.
The local authority invited local people to have their say on Cllr Pat Kennedy’s proposal to rename the bridge after the assassinated US President earlier in January. Mayor Kathleen Leddin urged anyone with an opinion on the matter to make a submission so as to “guide the Council in its deliberations on the proposal”.
Over 100 submissions were sent to to City Council’s Corporate Service Department by the February 10 deadline. Last week Mayor Leddin told the Limerick Post, “We held the public consultation which showed that over 70 per cent were in favour and just over 20 per cent against the proposal.”
Cllr Kennedy’s motion was passed by 7 votes to 6 and three FG councillors have since submitted a notice of motion to the City Council calling for the renaming of the Shannon Bridge to be put to a public vote on local election day on May 23.
Among the more than one hundred people who made submissions to City Council ahead of the motion being passed, ‘The McManus Bridge’, ‘The Black Swan Bridge’ and ‘Kate O’Brien Bridge’ were among the alternative names suggested.
Other submissions suggested the ‘Brian Boru Bridge’, ‘Donogh O’Malley Bridge’, ‘Sean Sabhat Bridge’ and ‘JP McManus Bridge’. The ‘Michael Joyce Bridge’, ‘Charlotte Grace O’Brien Bridge’, ‘Denis Leonard Bridge’ and ‘Bridge of the Wild Geese’ were also proposed.
