Should Ireland rename places named after British people?

Advbrd wrote: »

Henry Moore was mentioned in the OP. His full title was Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda, which gave us Henry Street, Moore Street, Earl Street, Of Alley and Drogheda Street which used to be part of what is now O' Connell street. I think Mary Street was also named after one of the Moores.
That's a lot of re-naming.

Nope. Mary Street (and Abbey Street) long predate Moore's developments. They are both names after St. Mary's Abbey. They were both laid out more or less in the form that we have them today by Humphrey Jarvis, for whom Jervis Street is named.

Jarvis was English, but fussing about whether he was English or Irish highlights the stupidity of the OP's approach to this question. To rename Dublin streets and landmarks based on a xenophobic set of priorities is to obscure and erase much of the living history of the city. The lands of the dissolved Mary's Abbey were granted to the Moore family. The Moors sold part of the lands to Jarvis, an English carpetbagger who came over with the Lord Lieutenant, Capel. Jarvis developed his purchase, giving us not only Jervis Street, Mary Street, Abbey Street and (of course) Mary's Abbey but also Capel Street, whose name reflects Jarvis's dependence on his patron. Jervis's developments increased the value of the lands to the north which the Moores had retained, and in due course they developed those lands, giving us Henry Street, Moore Street and others. All these names mean something, and they tell us something about the social history and political significance of the locality to which they are attached.