A GROUP OF Dublin City councillors has launched a High Court challenge over the housing minister’s alleged failure to introduce regulations that would allow councils to legally rename public spaces.
The judicial review proceedings concern two instances in which the council was “blocked” from renaming two public parks: one, Diamond Park in Dublin 1 in memory of 20-year-old Terence Wheelock; and Herzog Park in Rathgar, which is named for former Israeli president Chaim Herzog.
Terence died in hospital after losing consciousness in a garda cell in 2005. His family have long campaigned for Diamond Park to be renamed in his honour, as he spent a great deal of time there growing up.
The proposed renaming of Herzog Park stemmed from dissatisfaction amongst some councillors that it was named for Chaim Herzog, the father of current Israeli president Isaac Herzog, as Israel carries out its genocide in Gaza.
Chaim Herzog was born in Ireland and spent much of his childhood here. His father was the country’s Chief Rabbi. The park was named in his honour in 1995. Councillors proposed to rename the park and hold a public consultation process on what it should be renamed.
Both renaming proposals came before the council in December 2025, and were subsequently deferred.
The Chief Executive of the Council Richard Shakespeare said in a statement that he was proposing to withdraw the report and apologised for “administrative oversight”. This oversight related to the authority to change a place name, he said.
People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy and five co-applicant councillors – three Independent and two Sinn Féin – brought proceedings today.
The councillors’ legal representative Roman Shortall said in a statement that the proposals to change the place names of the parks “have stalled due to the Minister’s inaction”.
Independents Cieran Perry, Nial Ring, and Vincent Jackson, and Sinn Féin’s Ciarán Ó Meachair and Mícheál Mac Donncha, who are Reddy’s co-applicants, are also all members of the council’s Commemorations and Naming Committee.
Reddy set out that the challenge concerns “the Minister’s failure to introduce regulations required under Part 18 of the Local Government Act 2001, which would allow councils to complete the legal process for renaming public places.
“Although the relevant section of the Act commenced in 2019, the regulations needed to hold local ballots have still not been introduced.”
Reddy today said that the case is “about local democracy”.
“Communities have a right to shape the names and symbols in their own areas, and councillors have a right to use the powers given to them in law.
“The law provides for public consultation, council debate and a local ballot. The Minister and previous Ministers have signalled their intention to bring forward the regulations needed for those ballots to happen, but seven years on, it still has not happened.
“So we have a law that exists on paper, but which communities are blocked from using in practice. This is not acceptable.”