High Court action launched over renaming rules that blocked Herzog Park

A legal team representing six DCC councillors arrived in the High Court this morning, launching a judicial review against the Minister for Housing

News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 13:11, 13 Jul 2026 Updated 13:28, 13 Jul 2026 View Image Herzog Park in Rathgar (Image: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos)

A legal case around place naming procedures led by Dublin City Councillors began today.

A legal team representing six DCC councillors arrived in the High Court this morning to pursue a judicial review case against the Minister for Housing. Citing his failure to introduce regulations required for councils to complete the legal process for renaming public places, this issue was central to controversies surrounding the planned renaming Herzog Park last December .

People Before Profit Cllr Reddy is taking the case alongside Independent councillors Cieran Perry, Nial Ring and Vincent Jackson, and Sinn Féin councillors Ciarán Ó Meachair and Mícheál Mac Donncha. The case concerns Part 18 of the Local Government Act 2001, which provides a process for councils to rename public places, including public consultation and a local ballot.

Although the relevant provisions were commenced in 2019, the regulations needed to hold public ballots have still not been introduced. As a result, Dublin City Council has been blocked from progressing two major renaming proposals.

The proposal to rename Diamond Park in Dublin 1 as Terence Wheelock Memorial Diamond Park, and the proposal to remove Chaim Herzog’s name from Herzog Park in Rathgar. Both proposals came before Dublin City Council in December 2025 and were deferred after legal issues were identified around the absence of the necessary regulations.

“This case is about local democracy. Thousands of Dubliners have campaigned and petitioned for renamings, councillors have responded to those petitions, and now the whole process is being frustrated because the Minister has failed to introduce regulations that should have been in place years ago,” Cllr Reddy stated.

“The law provides for public consultation, council debate and a local ballot. Minister after Minister has signalled an intention to bring forward the regulations needed for those ballots to happen, but seven years on, we are still without the regulations we need.

"So we have a law that exists on paper, but which communities are blocked from using in practice.”

The call to rename Diamond Park as Terence Wheelock Memorial Diamond Park has been led by the Justice for Terence Wheelock campaign. Terrance died in 2005 after falling into a coma as a result of injuries sustained at Store Street Garda Station. While his death was ruled a suicide by a coroner’s jury, the campaign has raised around the treatment of detainees and protocols followed by law enforcement.

Speaking on behalf of the Justice for Terence Wheelock campaign, Terence's brother, Sammy said: “For years, our family and our community have fought for truth and justice for Terence. The campaign to rename Diamond Park as Terence Wheelock Memorial Diamond Park is part of that wider fight.

“Thousands of people in the North Inner City have supported this demand. Councillors across parties in the Central Area have supported it. The community has spoken clearly, and this should now be allowed to proceed. We should not be blocked by bureaucracy or by a Minister’s failure to do his job.”

The campaign to remove Belfast-born Chaim Herzog’s name from Herzog Park was jointly led by Irish Sport for Palestine and 1815 FC. As the Israeli president from from 1983 to 1993, his association with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict led to calls from some for the renaming.

“I supported the campaign to remove Chaim Herzog’s name from the park because public spaces in Dublin should not honour figures associated with the violent dispossession of Palestinians, the Nakba, or the building and defence of the racist Zionist state,” Cllr Reddy said.

“Thousands of Dubliners want to see that name removed, especially as the genocide in Gaza has exposed the brutality of Zionism to the world. The people should have their say through a ballot on what the park should be named.

“Personally, I would love to see the park renamed after a great Jewish Dubliner like Max Levitas or Estella Solomons. The debate around the park has cast light on the lives of so many great and under-recognised Irish Jewish people. Hopefully it can be a turning point for us and we can more proactively commemorate people and communities who have been overlooked in official memorials, despite their contributions to this City and to the world.”

Others described the campaign to rename Herzog Park as antisemitic with Taoiseach Micheál Martin calling for it to be “withdrawn in its entirety and not proceeded with”. "The proposal is a denial of our history... and will without any doubt be seen as anti-Semitic," he said last November.

But, the renaming case raises a wider issue about the weakness of local democracy in Ireland according to Cllr Reddy. He said local government is “weak enough already” and that other renaming proposals have not been able to proceed around the country for similar reasons.

“The Minister’s failure has prevented us from exercising our statutory powers and prevented local communities from having their say. The regulations should be introduced, the law should be allowed to operate, and communities should be allowed to decide what names are honoured in their public spaces,” he said.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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