Councillors at Dublin City Council put forward a motion to dename Herzog Park in Rathgar, Dublin. Chaim Herzog who the park was named after was the sixth president of the Zionist state of Israel. He had previously been a member of the Zionist paramilitary organisation Haganah, from which sprang the infamous Irgun gang. They were a key part of the Zionist takeover of Palestine and the Nakba. His son is the current president of the Zionist entity and thus bears responsibility for the current genocide, even though the Israeli president is somewhat like the Irish president: mainly though not entirely ceremonial.
The call to remove his name from the park is in response to the current genocide being carried out by Israel and also the role of Herzog in the Nakba. He is like all the leaders of the Zionist paramilitary groups a criminal. When he was elected in 1983, the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and Israeli atrocities, including the massacre of Sabra and Shatila in which up to 3,500 people were murdered at the behest of the Israelis with the involvement of the then Israeli minister of defence Ariel Sharon, was a very fresh memory. Only months had elapsed between one event and the other. That anyone would consider him worthy of having a park named after him, is bizarre. But such are politics in the southern Irish state.
The political establishment were outraged, showing their true colours, claiming that this was tantamount to an erasure of Jewish history in Ireland. It is nothing of the sort. We should remember the pogroms against Jews in Limerick in 1903 and the role played in them by people who went on to found the Irish state itself. We should also remember that as with Jews in Europe, many played an important role in the Irish trade union movement and also took part in the War of Independence.[1]
Not that the neoliberal extremists who run Ireland would want to remember them. In fact, this very interesting aspect of Jewish life in Ireland is not commemorated by the great and the good and most of the Irish population is blissfully unaware of it. There are no parks named after these particular Jews. It is the establishment which erases Jewish life in Ireland. Herzog was Irish, but so was the Nazi propagandist William Joyce, known as Lord Haw Haw. Being Irish and being part of our past is not merit enough to have a park named after you. In one case, one of these two openly collaborated with the Nazis and the other actively took part in the Nakba and all that ensued thereafter. The right-wing Irish government minister Helen McEntee has tried to draw a distinction between the current Zionist regime and its genocide and the previous regimes. But there is none. Chaim Herzog is one of the founding criminals of Israel. Without him, there would be no Netanyahu and no genocide in Gaza.
The powers that be scuppered the attempt to rename it.
An alternative name already exists for the park and that is Hind Rajab Park with activists erecting street names in Irish and English on the park. Hind Rajab is the little girl who was murdered by the Israeli forces as part of their genocide in Gaza. It was a particularly brutal slaying, even by the abysmally low standards of the Zionists. Her last call was recorded and is heart breaking.[3] She should have 335 parks named after her, one for every bullet that struck the car she and her family was in.
Though the southern establishment has never been good at renaming streets. The GPO was the centre of the 1916 rising against the British. The main thoroughfare was then known as Sackville Street, named after a previous British Lord Lieutenant. They renamed it after Daniel O’Connell a sectarian quisling who saw Ireland’s role within the Empire and who would have been horrified by the actions of Pearse and the rebels of 1916. To add insult to injury, two streets that border the GPO are Prince’s Street North and also Henry St. - this being named after Lord Henry Moore. On the opposite side of the street, two other streets are to be found, North Earl Street and surprise, surprise Sackville Place. Nelson’s Pillar no longer looms over the GPO, in its place is an ugly metal Spire, having been blown up in 1966 by a republican group to mark the anniversary of the rising. But even Nelson has been spared the ignominy of having Nelson St. renamed.
In fact, after independence the Dublin Corporation seemed loathe to change street names. It was proposed at the time:
That Capel Street be renamed Silken Thomas Street.
That Beresford Place, home of trade union headquarters Liberty Hall, be renamed Connolly Place.
That Gardiner Place and Row be renamed Thomas Ashe Street.
Some suggested street name changes put before the Corporation at the time were accepted, for example, renaming Great Brunswick Street to Pearse Street.[4]
However, many British imperial rulers and gentry still have streets, indeed major thoroughfares named after them, Westmoreland and Grafton being two of the more prominent ones. And appropriately perhaps for the neoliberals now moaning about the attempts to remove the name of a murderous criminal like Herzog from a park, even property developers have streets named after them, such as Bachelor’s Walk, Sir John Rogerson Quay and Westland Row. Quite telling in the midst of a housing crisis. As a child I recall being told that Talbot St was named after a pious Catholic teetotaller, given to Opus Dei like mortifications of the flesh, one Matt Talbot, but it was not. In 1821 It was named after a former Lord Lieutenant one Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2nd Earl Talbot, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, from 1817 to 1821. Our rulers crop up everywhere.
The people who are kicking up a storm over attempts to rename Herzog Park to Hind Rajab Park are the same ones have refused to change the names of streets of those involved in dominating Ireland for centuries, largely because they have continued that domination through various guises. It as James Connolly said:
The south of Ireland, is a neo-colony, it should not surprise us that the government wants nothing to do with name changes that would upset the Zionists or the British. We should see to it that the street signs Hind Rajab Park remain in place and regardless of what the government do, the postal service and other public services should always use that name, not the Zionist name and refuse to attend to service requests with that name. A simple instruction from the unions to their members would suffice, but they have done nothing on the genocide. So don’t hold your breath.
The powers that be scuppered the attempt to rename it.
Lord Mayor Ray McAdam said that the legislation pertaining to the renaming of placenames has not fully commenced and there was insufficient information contained in the report submitted for the elected members of Dublin City Council to make “an informed decision” in relation to the proposal.[2]
An alternative name already exists for the park and that is Hind Rajab Park with activists erecting street names in Irish and English on the park. Hind Rajab is the little girl who was murdered by the Israeli forces as part of their genocide in Gaza. It was a particularly brutal slaying, even by the abysmally low standards of the Zionists. Her last call was recorded and is heart breaking.[3] She should have 335 parks named after her, one for every bullet that struck the car she and her family was in.
Though the southern establishment has never been good at renaming streets. The GPO was the centre of the 1916 rising against the British. The main thoroughfare was then known as Sackville Street, named after a previous British Lord Lieutenant. They renamed it after Daniel O’Connell a sectarian quisling who saw Ireland’s role within the Empire and who would have been horrified by the actions of Pearse and the rebels of 1916. To add insult to injury, two streets that border the GPO are Prince’s Street North and also Henry St. - this being named after Lord Henry Moore. On the opposite side of the street, two other streets are to be found, North Earl Street and surprise, surprise Sackville Place. Nelson’s Pillar no longer looms over the GPO, in its place is an ugly metal Spire, having been blown up in 1966 by a republican group to mark the anniversary of the rising. But even Nelson has been spared the ignominy of having Nelson St. renamed.
In fact, after independence the Dublin Corporation seemed loathe to change street names. It was proposed at the time:
That Capel Street be renamed Silken Thomas Street.
That Beresford Place, home of trade union headquarters Liberty Hall, be renamed Connolly Place.
That Gardiner Place and Row be renamed Thomas Ashe Street.
Some suggested street name changes put before the Corporation at the time were accepted, for example, renaming Great Brunswick Street to Pearse Street.[4]
However, many British imperial rulers and gentry still have streets, indeed major thoroughfares named after them, Westmoreland and Grafton being two of the more prominent ones. And appropriately perhaps for the neoliberals now moaning about the attempts to remove the name of a murderous criminal like Herzog from a park, even property developers have streets named after them, such as Bachelor’s Walk, Sir John Rogerson Quay and Westland Row. Quite telling in the midst of a housing crisis. As a child I recall being told that Talbot St was named after a pious Catholic teetotaller, given to Opus Dei like mortifications of the flesh, one Matt Talbot, but it was not. In 1821 It was named after a former Lord Lieutenant one Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2nd Earl Talbot, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, from 1817 to 1821. Our rulers crop up everywhere.
The people who are kicking up a storm over attempts to rename Herzog Park to Hind Rajab Park are the same ones have refused to change the names of streets of those involved in dominating Ireland for centuries, largely because they have continued that domination through various guises. It as James Connolly said:
England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.[5]
The south of Ireland, is a neo-colony, it should not surprise us that the government wants nothing to do with name changes that would upset the Zionists or the British. We should see to it that the street signs Hind Rajab Park remain in place and regardless of what the government do, the postal service and other public services should always use that name, not the Zionist name and refuse to attend to service requests with that name. A simple instruction from the unions to their members would suffice, but they have done nothing on the genocide. So don’t hold your breath.
References
[1] Come Here to Me (18/11/2013) Jewish links to Irish Republican and Socialist politics (1901-1960s). Sam.
[2] RTE (30/11/2025) Report relating to renaming Herzog Park to be withdrawn – Lord Mayor.
[1] Come Here to Me (18/11/2013) Jewish links to Irish Republican and Socialist politics (1901-1960s). Sam.
[2] RTE (30/11/2025) Report relating to renaming Herzog Park to be withdrawn – Lord Mayor.
[3] See.
[4] Come Here to Me (10/07/2014) What’s in a name: Some Dublin street names that survived the chopping board. Donal.
[5] Shan Van Vocht, January, 1897. Reprinted in P. Beresford Ellis (ed.), James Connolly - Selected Writings, p. 124
⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.
