Image Credit: William Murphy (Flickr. Many more images of Dublin: http://tinyurl.com/nmnkpeb, Creative Commons copyright)
Given the never-ending controversies that came with his O’Connell Street column, many Dubliners may be surprised to hear there is a Nelson Street in the city today, named in honour of Horatio Nelson. Located in Dublin 7 in the north inner-city, I walk by it on an almost daily basis, though Sráid Nelson didn’t catch my eye for quite some time.
The renaming of streets in the Irish capital was already long underway by the time Irish independence was achieved in 1922, with an increasingly nationalist Dublin Corporation from the late nineteenth century onwards attempting to reflect nationalist history on the streets of the city. A 1921 ‘Report of the Paving Committee’, contained within the minute books of Dublin Corporation, advocated the following changes among others:
That Capel Street be renamed Silken Thomas Street.
That Beresford Place, home of trade union headquarters Liberty Hall, be renamed Connolly Place.
That Gardiner Place and Row be renamed Thomas Ashe Street.
Some suggested street name changes put before the Corporation at the time were accepted, for example renaming Great Brunswick Street to Pearse Street.
Certainly, the issue of renaming particular streets and locations in Dublin continues to pop up to this very day. In recent years some have advocated for example that the quays be renamed after Irish writers, something that was proposed by Gay Mitchell in 2006. This was something Mitchell had first proposed in 1991, and speaking in support of the plan at the time, Tony Gregory remarked “I feel that most Irish people have a pride in their own cultural heritage and very few would have any great interest in the old imperial legacy of Wellington and Essex. I don’t think Burgh Quay is named after Chris de Burgh!”
While the Corporation has proven quite willing to rename streets historically, a few interesting ones like Nelson have survived long into the days of independence.
Nassau Street. Its historic blue street marking is still visible under the contemporary sign. (Image: smirkybec, http://www.wikipedia.org, Creative Commons)
That Nassau Street managed to retain it’s name is surprising, as the street was only thus named in the eighteenth century, after the coming to power of King William of Orange, who belonged to the House of Orange-Nassau. J.T Gilbert in his classic history of Dublin wrote that in the eighteenth century a life-sized bust of King William III was to be found on this street.
Very oddly, the Irish language name for this street has appeared as both Sráid Nassau and Sráid Thobar Phadraig, with the later reflecting the streets historical name of St.Patrick’s Well Street, after a 12th century well found there. It’s unusual that both names have appeared in street signage historically, and indeed at the very same time on different ends of the street!
One family who are more than honoured in Dublin are the Wellesley’s, and in particular Arthur Wellesley, better known as the Duke of Wellington. Wellesley Place, Wellington Road, and Waterloo Road, after the Battle of Waterloo, all reflect the contribution of this family to history. While Dublin folklore suggests Wellington remarked “being born in a stable does not make one a horse”, nowhere on record did he actually make this remark, so perhaps he would actually approve of streets named in honour of him and his family in this city!
It is likely that sheer familiarity alone prevented many streets in the city from being renamed, for example Talbot Street, named in honour of a former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the third Earl of Talbot Charles Chetwynd. We’ve previously looked at the movement to rename this street in the 1940s after Irish republican Sean Treacy, a campaign which led to a sustained campaign of flypostering the proposed name over the streetsigns in the area and interruptions of Corporation meetings.
On November 1st 1943, members of the Ailtirí na hÁiseirghe organisation created uproar at a meeting of Dublin Corporation, by shouting from the public galleries while the Corporation was sitting. At the time of the interruptions, the Corporation was discussing the planned removal of Queen Victoria’s statue from Leinster House. One man rose and shouted: “Get rid of all the symbols of slavery in the streets! We demand that Talbot Street be renamed Sean Treacy street. Young Ireland is awakening.”
Often we walk down our streets without knowing who or what their names commemorate, but in a city with such a troubled relationship historically with monuments and statues – it’s interesting that our British past is still often commemorated in the street names around us. Something to think about as you walk down Horatio Nelson’s street.
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Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Love it, absolutely fascinating.
Great work as always.
Read somewhere that it was O’Connell in the House of Commons who said of the Duke of Wellington that “being born in a stable does not make one a horse” and somehow it has transmogrified into a quote from the Duke himself.
i think lord Edward st is a sad one given that he renounced that title and his sister wrote a moving letter on his death saying he did not want to be remembered as a lord.
I always wonder when I pass by Prince of Wales Terrace in Sandymount. It seems to me that the bottom line is that Irish people seem to be pragmatical rather than ideological.
would like to see most of the streets in Ireland (including Northern ireland) named after national movements (NI Civil Rights Avenue, Fenian Road, United Irishmen St),rebellions (1798 Avenue, 1916 St, 1867 Road ), artists and singers (the Dubliners Broadway, Wolfe Tone Quays)with plaques underneath explaining the main points of the name
In NI we could have the Orange Order Right of Way, and the Queen’s Orange Highway, both planted up with orange flowers and shrubs on the verges, maybe with a hint of purple or black (for the royal preceptories) to break the monotony!!!
Really enjoyed this.It’s given me another reason to look up when I am walking along the streets of Dublin.
I don’t think street names should be changed anymore. They reflect our history, for better or worse, and are a reminder and a link to our past. Talbot Street and Nelson Street sound much better than Dana Avenue and U2 Road anyway. Leave the ‘British’ names there. We’ve been calling them that for centuries. Changing them denies our past.
Not forgetting the vestigial remains of Great Britain Street (Parnell St), Little Britain Street.
not sure if i would use the term ‘our past’. its the vestiges of an apartheid system but it is part of the story of dublin so get your point.
would change lord edward st the citizen edward st, more fitting to the mans story.
Great post – I hope they just leave them alone as we need to have a link to our past whether we like it or not! My mother always referred to Amiens Street and Kingsbridge Stations in spite of the fact that they were renamed. Love the old street signs you show here – they should be recorded and preserved!
Is it not still Amiens St? When did it change?
Think the original post is referring to the railway station, now known as Connolly Station.
I’m often fascinated by the fact that many Irish towns have different names in Irish compared to their English translation, but I never considered the history of Dublin street names.
Humour should sometimes be used in situations like this. Rename the Garvaghy Road in Belfast something like, All Ireland Way, you would not get a Orange Man to walk down that…
JUST THOUGHT i’D LET YOU IN ON A SECRET. nELSON ST IS DUBLIN 7 AND gAY mITCHELL WAS NOT AROUND IN 1911.
JUST THOUGHT I’D LET YOU IN ON A SECRET ARTICLE WAS EDITED AFTER IT WAS POSTED SO CHECK LATEST VERSION ON SITE WE ALL MAKE TYPOS!
I think it’s amazing that we have a street call “Little Britain Street”. Wales is called “An Bhreatain Bheag” in the Irish Language but I sometimes like to gag that “Little Britain Street” is called after Ireland.
It’s a matter of record that it was O’Connell who made the born-in-a-stable jibe ABOUT the Duke of Wellington. Not in the House of Commons but in a monster meeting at Mullaghmast.
His speech there was recorded by a shorthand writer who gave evidence during O’Connel’s State Trial in 1844. The transcript of that trial was published and is now viewable online.
You can read it here. http://books.google.ie/books?id=dpKbWonMghwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Page 93 carries the relevant testimony.
Great post, and very informative. Those readers interested in the story of street name changes in Cork and Dublin may like my book ‘Layers; the Design, History and Meaning of Public Street Signage in Cork and other Irish Cities’ available online from Associated Editions. It focuses on Cork, but there are good illustrations from the capital, Waterford, Kilkenny, etc.
Mayne82. The railway stations were renamed.Amiens street station is now Connolly
The renouncing of the title may explain one of the many different translations into Irish of Lord Edward St
I’m amazed Cromwells Fort Road in Crumlin has survived
Walkinstown.
Mar gheall ar Sráid Nelson, ceard faoi – Sráid Mhic Neighill; an bhfuil aon ghá leis an leagan Béarla a bheith ann fresin!
Personally I would love to see most of the old colonial streets renamed. When a tourist is walking around, it’s like they are in some English town, Whitworth Road, Nassau Street, Grafton St etc etc Surely we have enough of our own history to replace these British names. Sure hang on to a few as it is part of our past, but certainly not all of them, we are after all a totally separate country, might be time we slipped out of the shadow of our colonial past.
[…] names and their origins is something that has long interested us on the blog, see for example this piece on names that survived the chop after 1922, including Nassau Street and Waterloo […]
We in Wales continue to fight for the right to use our native place names rather than than those anglicized distortions of our native language, or those reflecting England’s colonial power and history.England-based building companies continue to ignore our native culture,but we are determined to fight them every step of the way and make our history visible for generations to come.
Thanks Colin, and as an Irish speaker may I say I have much admiration for Language activists in Wales.
i smiled when i seen burgh is not named after Chris De Burgh , AND THE old street are better than Dana and U2 ROAD ,BUT IN A DUBLIN CITY NORTH ,SUBURBS THERE ARE ROADS CALLED AFTER ELTON JOHN SLADE AND OTHER BANDS ELTON PARK ROAD ,SLADEMORE ,SO CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT NAME WAS GIVEN TO TYRONE STREET WHEN IT WAS CHANGED I’M SURE IT WAS DUBLIN NORTH , I ALWAYS THOUGHT TALBOT STREET AND MALAHIDE
WAS CALLED AFTER LORD TALBOT DE MALAHIDE ,
My grandmother was born (1896) at 10 Nelson St. Apparently at that time the building was associated with the Dublin Metropolitan Police – perhaps detective housing. Her father was a DMP constable.
I think that streets named after English oppressors of the Irish people should be changed urgently. For example Dublin’s Capel Street, named after Lord Capell who presided over the Irish Protestant parliament who imposed the terrible penal laws on Catholics during the 18th century. Another serious oppressor who has a street named after him was lord Heytesbury who was the British viceroy during the famine. There should be a street names commission charged with changing all such names. They belong in history books – not on our streets. Where is our pride as a nation?
Thank you for this. Do you have any knowledge of what became of Greek Street that existed in 1840? My GG- Grandfather said (on his prison record in 1920) that he had been born there, but I um unable to locate it. And/or does anyone know of a consolidated list of street name changes in Dublin? Thank you kindly.