Supporters of the Julia Morrissey Bridge campaign have gathered at Galway City’s new pedestrian and cycle bridge to call for it to be named after Galway’s forgotten 1916 leader.
Julia Morrissey from Athenry was a key figure in Cumann na mBan’s Galway branch, commanding a group of 50 women during Easter week in Galway in 1916.
Campaign chairperson, Ian Ó Dalaigh, said they organised this action to highlight their ongoing campaign to honour Galway’s 1916 woman leader, Julia Morrissey.
“Galway is a city that has commemorated many republican men – including those who had Galway connections, such as Liam Mellows and Éamonn Ceannt,” he said.
“Mellows was honoured with a statue in Eyre Square in 1957, while the city’s train station was renamed Ceannt station in 1966 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.”
Ó Dalaigh also pointed out that we have named two bridges after republican men, neither of whom had any Galway connections – the Wolfe Tone Bridge and O’Brien’s Bridge.
He said that naming bridges after republican leaders is nothing new, but what would be new would be naming one after a woman.
“As we approach the end of the decade of centenaries, it would be fitting indeed if Julia was to be to finally honoured here in Galway. And with next March marking the 50th anniversary of her death, it would be all the more poignant.”
He said that Galway City Council has “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to right an historic wrong” against one of Galway’s bravest daughters, and that the council cannot let that opportunity pass.
