Dublin City council will meet later today to discuss the possibility of renaming the Dublin Spire in honour of Nelson Mandela who passed away last month. The idea for the possible renaming of the Spire came about when the Lord Mayor Oisin Quinn received a letter from a member of the public suggesting that the monument be renamed in tribute to Mandela who received the honour of being named a free man of Dublin in 1988.

Mr. Quinn believes that Dublin should honour the former South African leader and is searching for an appropriate way to do so. Speaking about the idea he said “There’s no doubt that the Mandela name should become a permanent fixture of the city. There are a lot of links — Dublin was the first capital city to award him the Freedom of the City while he was still in prison. There’s the proximity in that area to the Dunnes Stores where staff staged their strike over apartheid.”