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Call To Look At Dublin Street Names And Statues After Black Lives Matter

Emma Tyrrell
Emma Tyrrell

08:18 11 Jun 2020


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A Dublin councillor says there needs to have a conversation about who the city's street names and statues honour in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, including Westmoreland Street.

It's named for John Fane, the tenth Earl of Westmoreland.

Critics have pointed to a speech he made in the House of Lords in 1799 when he argued against ending the slave trade in the British Empire.

The Green Party's Janet Horner says it's time to have a debate over Ireland's involvement in the slave trade;

"These are all names that we don't give much thought to and maybe we need to give a little bit more thought to them and give thought to whether we can do better."

Seán Russell statue

The National Graves Association has accused the Taoiseach of historical revisionism by describing former IRA chief of staff Seán Russell as a "Nazi sympathiser".

It's after Leo Varadkar said the monument to Russell in Fairview Park in Dublin is one "we need to talk about" in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Seán Whelan, chairman of the National Graves Association, says Russell's overriding interest was an armed struggle against Britain.

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