I condemn the attempted renaming of Herzog Park in Dublin. It is a deeply misguided and hurtful political gesture that targets one of the very few visible markers of Irish-Jewish heritage. The councillors responsible should issue an apology directly to Ireland’s Jewish community.

Chaim Herzog died in 1997 — 28 years before the current Gaza conflict. He was born in Ireland, raised in Dublin, and was the son of Ireland’s Chief Rabbi. His connection to this country is one of roots, identity, and contribution. Attempting to drag his name into a modern conflict he never lived to see is historically illiterate and morally indefensible.

Removing a Jewish-associated name in the present climate — when anti-Semitism is rising across Europe — is not a neutral act. Whether intended or not, it signals that Jewish heritage is expendable, that Jewish names may be erased to suit political anger, and that the community’s history in Ireland can be rewritten.

We have seen this pattern before in history. The tactic of singling out Jewish names or Jewish-linked symbols for removal — based on manufactured associations and political resentment — is not new. It belongs to an old and dangerous tradition once exploited by propagandists such as Julius Streicher. I am not comparing today’s councillors to those figures, but the logic of targeting Jewish heritage for unrelated political grievances is unmistakably drawn from that same, toxic playbook. It retraumatises a small and vulnerable community and has no place in Irish public life.

This issue is deeply personal to me. My grandmother, Anna Marie Gruenberg, was German and a founder member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, who worked with Kurt Schuhmacher and Willi Brandt. She was a committed socialist who risked her life in Berlin during the Second World War to protect members of the German Jewish community. Her family hid Jewish children and passed them off as non-Jewish so they could be safely removed from danger. Members of my family — both Irish and German — fought fascism. I am disgusted that people today who describe themselves as socialists would act with such historical ignorance and disregard for the suffering and sacrifice of those who came before us.

Those who supported this proposal should examine their consciences. They followed an ideology blindly, repeating dangerous tropes without regard for the impact on Ireland’s Jewish community. They should apologise without qualification.

Herzog Park honours an Irishman who served his country, represented Ireland internationally, and whose legacy has nothing whatsoever to do with modern Gaza. Linking the two is a distortion and an injustice to Irish Jewish citizens.

Dublin should be a city that protects minority heritage, not one that erases it. This proposal was wrong in principle, wrong in fact, and wrong in its impact on a vulnerable community. It should never have been placed on the agenda.

Cllr Maurice Dockrell BL