Dublin bridge named after Rosie Hackett

 Dublin city council has voted to call the new bridge over the river Liffey at Marlborough Street after Rosie Hackett, a Dublin trade unionist who co-founded the Irish Women Workers’ Union (IWWU) in 1911. It is the first time that a bridge over the Liffey has been named after a woman.

An original list of 85 names was whittled down to five which, apart from the winning entry, included Willie Bermingham, the founder of the ALONE organisation in aid of the elderly; Bram Stoker, the 19th-century author of Dracula; Kay Mills, celebrated player of camogie, the female equivalent of Irish national sport hurling; and Frank Duff, a high-profile lay figure within Irish Catholicism, best-known for establishing the Legion of Mary movement in 1921.

However after much deliberation the council settled on Rosanna "Rosie" Hackett (1892-1976) who organised the strike of women workers at Dublin's Jacob's biscuit factory in 1911 and was a member of the Irish Citizen Army – a group of trained trade union volunteers established for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the police – during the 1916 Easter Rising.

In May the council’s Commemorative Naming Committee revealed that it had received almost 10,000 supporting submissions for names for the public transport, cycle and pedestrian bridge which connects Marlborough Street and Eden Quay on the north side with Hawkins St and Burgh Quay on the south side.

The bridge will cost an estimated €13 million and is due to open in February.