With the required formal second approval by a Bronx community board secured all that is needed now for the naming of a street near Gaelic Park in tribute to the late Frank Durkan is the approval of the full New York City Council.
Supporters of the renaming proposal expected that the council will move on the matter within the next few weeks, and hopefully by St. Patrick's Day.
About fifty members of the Irish community attended the decisive meeting of Community Board 8 which unanimously passed a resolution that should now result in Durkan's name being added to that of Tibbett Avenue.
"It will then be calendared and submitted to the city council and we will be looking for support from (Speaker) Christine Quinn and other City Council members including Oliver Koeppel who will likely be asked to present the resolution," said attorney Martin Galvin, a leading proponent of the name change.
Durkan, for many years an attorney with the Manhattan law firm of O'Dwyer and Bernstien, took on a number of contentious cases related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but his popularity in the city's Irish community and broader Irish America extended well beyond the bounds of his legal work.
"Frank always supported the underdog and was generous with his time and expertise in supporting community efforts," Martin Lyons, one of the leading campaigners for the street name change, stated in a letter to the community board prior to its positive vote.
