Do you care what your constituency is called? Some people in south Dublin do

One of the unforeseen changes from the recent redrawing of constituencies was the killing off of Dublin South East. Some people are not happy. We suspect these people have a lot of free time.

The recent redrawing of Ireland’s electoral boundaries caused a bit of fuss with some counties split or put back together. But it was the decision to kill off Dublin South East, and replace it with Dublin Bay South that has annoyed some people. Really.

According to reports in today’s Irish Independent, some Terenure residents are unhappy with the new name. It was residents of Terenure who asked to be moved from Dublin South Central to South East earlier this year as the old one was too 'working class'.

"Well, I think the new name is ridiculous," said Brendan Heneghan from the Terenure West Residents' Association. "We're very happy with the new constituency in the sense that Terenure is all in the one place.

"The reason we've been stuck with Dublin Bay South, to my mind, is because they had to have a Dublin Bay North -- and they had to have the same on the southside. This part of the world has been in (Dublin South-East) before and I don't see anything wrong with it.

"Dublin Bay North seems a bit more sensible in that it's got Howth, Clontarf, and Dollymount, which are all next to the bay. The only bit of this constituency which abuts onto the bay is Sandymount."

Having a place 7km from the coast in a constituency called Dublin Bay is a bit silly but surely there are more things to be worried about.

However, local TD, and Minister for Education, Ruari Quinn has confirmed he has had letters to his office looking for a change back to the old name, as has Fine Gael’s Eoghan Murphy. Good to hear our TDs are dealing with the real issues affecting the country.

The paper also asked northside TD Finian McGrath, who has seen his Dublin North Central area change to Dublin Bay North, what he thought. We liked his response.

"I think it's a beautiful name," McGrath said. "We don't do elitism and snobbery on the northside."

Picture from Google Maps