A legal team representing Cllr Conor Reddy and five other Dublin City Councillors from the Council's Commemorations and Naming Committee will be in the High Court at 10.30am today, Monday 13 July 2026, applying for leave to take a judicial review case against the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage over his failure to introduce regulations required for councils to complete the legal process for renaming public places.
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.
Councillor Conor Reddy said:
“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.
“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 campaign to rename Diamond Park as Terence Wheelock Memorial Diamond Park has been led by the Justice for Terence Wheelock campaign and has received huge support in Dublin Central.
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 Chaim Herzog’s name from Herzog Park was jointly led by Irish Sport for Palestine and 1815 FC, with thousands of people signing a petition calling for his name to be removed from the park.
Cllr Reddy said:
“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.
“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.”
Cllr Reddy said the case also raises a wider issue about the weakness of local democracy in Ireland.
“Local government in Ireland is weak enough already. Renaming public places is a power councils do have, and even that is now being frustrated by the Minister’s failure to make the regulations required for the law to operate.
“This problem is not confined to Dublin. There have been other renaming proposals in other parts of the country that have not been able to proceed 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.”