WHAT’S in a name?
Well, according to Fianna Fáil activist Pat O’Neill, it means everything.
“Over the years, the name of Caherdavin Cross became lost and became known country wide as ‘Ivan’s Cross’. This was mainly due to the great Ivan’s shop that was established at the crossroads but now as this shop is now long gone it angers local residents that the cross is still been referred to as Ivan’s,” he told the Limerick Post.
Mr O’Neill, who is chairman of Clonmacken Residents Group, says they now aim to reinstate the name of Caherdavin Cross.
“We will do everything to reinstate the name.
“Last year having been contacted by local residents and businesses, we set out to put a plan in place and we were delighted to secure the funding from Casey Motors who themselves are proud Caherdavin residents.
“This funding has allowed us to provide details to the stone mason and once we get the green light from the Council, then the mason will commence with the nameplate. All this is at no cost to the Council.
“As no planning was required, all we needed was confirmation from the local council area engineer on the exact location we wanted to place the stone nameplate.
“To my horror the council engineer came back to me and stated he wanted a debate with local councillors whether the cross should be called its original name of Caherdavin or have it called after the shop that no longer exists,” he claimed.
The Residents Group are now asking the Council to dismiss this “ludicrous” decision to debate its name and give the local community the go ahead to commission this piece.
“This nameplate will give back the name of Caherdavin Cross to the people, so we’re hoping that common sense will prevail here and we can move with the commission of works with the stone mason. I have been involved this project now since the beginning and we won’t stop until we see Caherdavin getting its cross back.”
There was no response from the Council at the time of going to press.
