New bridge name may honour Dracula writer

Cormac Murphy

ONE of the city's main Liffey crossings will have a decidedly bloody image if a new plan is accepted.

DUBLIN City Council is to consider a plan to rename the East Link Bridge after Dracula author Bram Stoker.

The bridge, located just a stone's throw from Stoker's birthplace, connects Marino and Fairview with the southside of the city.

As part of the same proposal, councillors will consider naming the new Liffey crossing at Marlborough Street the William Butler Yeats Bridge.

Lord Mayor Andrew Montague tabled the propositions.

"It is 100 years since Bram Stoker died and he is one of our great Dublin writers," the Labour councillor told the Herald. "We have a history of naming our bridges after our great writers."

If accepted by the protocol committee, Mr Montague's proposals will go before a meeting of the full council.

Stoker's birthplace was 15 Marino Crescent in Fairview. He died in 1912, 20 years before his most famous character, the blood-sucking Dracula, was made into a film starring Bela Lugosi.

Work is already well under way on the new €15m bridge across the Liffey that will link Marlborough Street to Hawkins Street in the city centre.

The project will allow the Red and Green Luas lines to be linked and will also be open to buses and cyclists.

comurphy@herald.ie