Legal Barriers Block Bishop Lucey Park Renaming Consultation

Three Cork city councillors have criticised legal obstacles preventing a public consultation on the potential renaming of Bishop Lucey Park, months after a majority vote called for the process to begin.

In July 2025, Cork City Council agreed a Section 140 motion requiring the Chief Executive to explore renaming the park as part of its newly opened redevelopment. The motion, put forward by councillors Ted Tynan, Oliver Moran and Niamh O'Connor, passed by a majority vote.

However, officials responded last week that the process cannot proceed due to missing government regulations. An internal group established that since Bishop Lucey Park is already a named location, specific legislative procedures must be followed.

The legislation requires the council to pass a resolution by at least half of its members, conduct a consultation process with relevant persons and bodies, and then hold a ballot. Officials confirmed that whilst the legislation on placenames is in place, the regulations governing how to hold a ballot have not been established.

The Chief Executive of Cork City Council is now writing to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage seeking an update on when the regulations will be completed.

Oliver Moran, Green Party councillor, said:

"We're in an absurd place where a majority of councillors have agreed to open a consultation on the name of the park, but that consultation is being held up over how to hold a vote of residents of the park. We're not even that far down along the process and, even if we were: it's a park, there are no residents to ballot on a name change."

He added: "The renaming of the park is a perennial question. I don't know if it is something there will be an eventual majority to do, but unless we can even open the question, hear suggestions, and have the debate, we'll never get to the end of it."

Niamh O'Connor, Social Democrats councillor, expressed disappointment at the timing: "I'm really disappointed in how this matter has progressed. Our motion was for this to happen as part of the redevelopment of the park. The park has now reopened, and a plaque has been erected bearing a name that a majority of city councillors have voted to review at the very least."

She continued:

"In my view, this is a two-step process. We first need to decide what name the people of the city want to give the park, whether that be Bishop Lucey Park, the People's Park, or another option. Until we have the answer to that, we don't even know if the regulations will be required. That first step could and should have been progressed before the park was reopened."

Ted Tynan, Workers Party councillor, called for broader reforms:

"The Workers Party calls for the amendment of The Local Government Act 2001 such that the change of street names and localities within a local authority are a fully devolved power. That would eliminate the necessity for the Minister to make any such regulations in respect of the holding of a ballot."

He proposed: "Instead, a set of local regulations made by the local authority for the holding of a plebiscite should be put in place. A new budget line from Central Government should be opened up to facilitate and fund such a new development in local democracy."