Dublin bid to rename 'Herzog Park' as 'Free Palestine Park' rejected by Ireland government

Ireland’s government is taking a surprising step, opposing Dublin City Council’s intention to change the name of Herzog Park to 'Free Palestine Park'.

“The government has openly criticized the policies and actions of the Israeli government in Gaza and the West Bank, and rightly so,” Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said. “But renaming a park in Dublin in this way, removing the name of an Irish Jewish man, is not connected to that and has no place in our republic. In my opinion, this renaming should not proceed, and I call on members of Dublin City Council to vote against it.”

McEntee said the park is named for Chaim Herzog, who was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin. He later became Israel’s president, and his son currently holds that post. Herzog’s father served for many years as Ireland’s chief rabbi. “He is an important figure for many people, especially members of Ireland’s Jewish community,” she said.

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Ireland has been among the most hawkish countries toward Israel throughout the war. Diplomatic relations are at an unprecedented low. There are no longer direct flights between the two countries, and Israel’s standing in Irish public opinion is bleak. Recently, Ireland’s anti-Israel President Michael Higgins was replaced by a president viewed as even more hostile to Israel, Catherine Connolly, who has called Israel a “terror state.”

Herzog Park is located near Ireland’s only Jewish elementary and high schools. It was dedicated in 1985 under the name Orwell Quarry Park. A decade later, during celebrations marking 3,000 years of Jerusalem, it was renamed Herzog Park in honor of the late president, who was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, and in honor of his father, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog, who served as Ireland’s chief rabbi and later became Israel’s first chief rabbi.

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