{"id":570016,"date":"2026-07-27T07:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570016\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T07:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:25:11","slug":"signs-used-to-rename-dublin-streets-with-colonial-links-will-be-removed-by-council-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570016\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs used to \u2018rename\u2019 Dublin streets with colonial links will be removed by council \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Street signs in Dublin<\/a> city which were covered as part of a campaign to \u201crename\u201d those with colonial links are being removed and repaired by officials.<\/p>\n

A makeshift white placard covers a Dawson Street sign near Trinity College which reads, \u201cMadeleine Ffrench-Mullen Street\u201d with an Irish translation below. <\/p>\n

A similar sign that has been placed over a Gardiner Street Lower plaque says, \u201cHelena Molony Street\u201d, also accompanied with atranslation. <\/p>\n

Lasair Dhearg, a socialist republican organisation which it says is committed to anti-imperialism and antifascism, has claimed responsibility for these signs. <\/p>\n

The group says in recent months they have begun a campaign to rename streets that bare the \u201cnames of those responsible for a myriad of crimes across many generations, and many hundreds of years\u201d that \u201clitter Irish streets\u201d. <\/p>\n

A recent video posted on their social media account shows hooded individuals using a ladder to place the Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen placard over the Dawson Street sign. The video says that this is part of the organisation\u2019s \u201creconquest of Ireland campaign\u201d. <\/p>\n

The organisation says Dawson Street, called after Joshua Dawson was \u201crenamed\u201d in honour of Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen, an Irish revolutionary and 1916 Rising volunteer. <\/p>\n

Lasair Dhearg says that these actions are part of a broader campaign of decolonisation that aims to highlight and remove all the symbols of imperialism across Ireland. <\/p>\n

The groups says that they have not been penalised for any aspect of their campaign, but they are \u201cunder no illusion about the prospect of that and are organising accordingly\u201d. <\/p>\n

They think that highlighting these street names will build support and create a conversation nationally and locally. <\/p>\n

In May, Lasair Dhearg members covered a Drury Street sign with one that read \u201cBobby Sands Street\u201d. <\/p>\n

A placard with a new name was also placed over Bedford Lane. The group says it \u201crenamed\u201d the lane in honour of Mair\u00e9ad Farrell, an IRA volunteer. <\/p>\n

Dublin City Council<\/a> has said that they are aware of the damage to the sign on Dawson Street and other signs around the city. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council is in the process of having the damaged sign removed for repair,\u201d the council said in a statement. \u201cThe legislation prohibiting the defacing of a public road is contained in the Roads Act 1993.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lasair Dhearg was also behind the recent paint bombing of an anti-immigrant artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) mural in Newtownabbey. <\/p>\n

In 2024 the group covered a \u201cWelcome to Northern Ireland\u201d sign, on the border between Derry and Donegal, with one that read \u201cWelcome to Occupied Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Street signs in Dublin city which were covered as part of a campaign to \u201crename\u201d those with colonial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[218,615,13288,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-570016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}