Galway’s newest bridge will be christened ‘Droichead an Dóchais’ – Bridge of Hope – at an official naming ceremony next month.

The Galway City Tribune has learned that Droichead an Dóchais is the preferred choice of name for the new €10m pedestrian and cycling bridge over the Corrib, south of the existing Salmon Weir Bridge.

Other suggested names included ‘Salmon Eile’, and more serious ones such as naming it after the late Galway historian Peadar O’Dowd, and Nora Barnacle, wife of author James Joyce.

Republicans had mounted a high-profile campaign in the past year to have the bridge named after Julia Morrissey, who fought in the 1916 Easter Rising.

Led by Éirígí’s Galway representative, Ian Ó Dálaigh, the campaign for the Galway-born Cumann na mBan commander included lobbying of politicians, online petitions, and public meetings.

Proponents of that name argued she had been ‘written out of history’ while other revolutionaries, such as Liam Mellows, had statues and other things named in their honour.

However, this newspaper understands the bridge naming committee steered clear of naming it after any one individual.

The committee included a city councillor from each of the three Local Electoral Areas of Galway City Council, as well as Mayor of Galway, Councillor Eddie Hoare (FG), and staff from various departments within City Hall.