Campaigners seeking to have a street in Cork named after anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass are hopeful of success as an online petition to honour the former slave gathers momentum while the 175th anniversary of his visit to the city approaches. Before that however, he had published his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and embarked on an 18-month tour of Great Britain and Ireland which saw him arrive in Dublin on September 1st, 1845. Arriving in Cork in October 1845, Douglass gave a series of well-attended lectures including one at Cork City Courthouse. He also met temperance campaigner Fr Theobald Mathew, who also supported abolitionism. “So we’re looking at St Peter’s Park on Grattan Street or the plaza at the junction of Adelaide Street and North Main Street – they are two places that you wouldn’t have to go through a full vote of rate-payers, so it would make it easier to commemorate Douglass.

Source: The Irish Times October 04, 2020 05:00 UTC