Four names in contention for Tuam's inner relief road

By JACQUELINE HOGGE IT'S been open to traffic just over a month now but Tuam's newest thoroughfare remains nameless, despite a raft of suggestions as to what the inner relief road should be called. Built to take traffic away from the town centre, the €1m road links the Shop Street and Bishop Street roads via a route that bypasses Presentation College, and the Tuam Leisure Centre and Swimming Pool. While many people have already taken to calling it the Joe O'Toole road, given that the businessman paid for its construction, a final formal name has yet to be decided. [private] Town Manager Frank Gilmore said the matter will be brought before the Tuam electoral area members of Galway County Council over the coming weeks for approval of an official name for the road. 'I've received a suggestion from Presentation College that the road be named Presentation Road due to its location, but other than that no official submissions have been received,' he said. However, at a meeting of Tuam Town Council this week it is understood a proposal has been made to name part of the road after Gaelic football legend Jack Mangan, who captained Galway to an All-Ireland title in 1956. The Town Council has agreed to hold a civic reception over the coming months in honour of the former Tuam Stars' goalkeeper who now lives in Wolverhampton, England. A fourth suggestion can be found on the property website www.daft.ie where a house to let on the Bishop Street Road is described as being located 'close to the new Joe Burke Road.' Cllr Sean Canney said he had not been approached by anyone in relation to the naming of the road. However he said he understood it had informally been christenend the Joe O'Toole road. 'I thought it had been fairly accepted around the town of Tuam that it will be called the O'Toole Road and no one has suggested anything different to me,' he said. 'We will however discuss this at a future electoral area meeting and I'm sure a reasonable conclusion will be reached on the matter.' [/private]