From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 30, 2025
Irish PM urges Dublin to reverse plan to remove Chaim Herzog’s name from city park
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin joins other senior Irish officials urging Dublin’s City Council to reverse plans to rename a park named after Israel’s sixth president Chaim Herzog, an Irish native.
“The proposal to rename Herzog Park should be withdrawn in its entirety and not proceeded with,” says Martin on X.
“The proposal would erase the distinctive and rich contribution to Irish life of the Jewish communities over many decades, including active participation in the Irish War of Independence and the emerging State,” he continues.
He calls the proposal “a denial of our history” that “will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic.”
“It is overtly divisive and wrong,” he says. “Our Irish Jewish communities’ contribution to our country’s evolution in its many forms should always be cherished and generously acknowledged.”
His deputy, Tánaiste Simon Harris, called the proposal “offensive,” and the foreign minster also decried the plans.
Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the move to rename the park followed a campaign by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, but official council documents did not disclose a reason for the proposal.
Herzog, who died in 1997, was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and grew up in Dublin before serving as Israeli president between 1983 and 1993. His father was the first chief rabbi of Ireland after it gained independence from Britain in 1922.
The Times of Israel Community.