Bob Geldof and Olympic gold medal winner Ronnie Delany are to be awarded the Freedom of Dublin City following their nomination by Lord Mayor Catherine Byrne at a Dublin City Council meeting last night.
Ms Byrne said she was nominating Delany to honour his achievement in winning a gold medal for Ireland at the 1956 Olympics. The honour, which comes just before the 50th anniversary of his medal win, was "long overdue", she said. She was nominating Geldof because of his work on behalf of the people of Africa and his "courageous attempts to eradicate poverty".
Ms Byrne's nominations were accepted by the council despite an earlier attempt by the Fianna Fáil group to block the process. In the first council meeting since the summer recess, Fianna Fáil group leader Maurice Ahern said Ms Byrne had not followed the proper procedures by failing to put her nominations to the council's protocol committee.
He also said that by bringing forward two names, Ms Byrne had risked not having unanimous support for her nomination. "You had set the potential for this to be divisive and compounded whatever problems people might have voting one way or another," he said.Ms Byrne called a recess to allow the Fianna Fáil group to consider the matter.
Following a 20-minute break she told the council she believed she had brought forward her nominations in a proper manner. She also said it was wrong for the Fianna Fáil group to say it had not been informed about the people nominated.
Mr Ahern said they had never said anything against those nominated. He said his only issue had been with the correct protocol being followed and he hoped that both nominees would accept the honour.
