Former US President in Derry yesterday with former SDLP leader John Hume, Photo: Lorcan Doherty Photography.
A number of suggestions have been put forward, including the re-naming of Guildhall Square as ‘John Hume Square’.
There have also been calls for the city’s Foyle Bridge or Peace Bridge to be named after the Derry politician, who passed away on Monday, August 3.
The SDLP has re-iterated its call for a “full sized university” for Derry city to be named after Mr Hume as “a fitting memorial”.
A party spokesman told The Irish News: “The SDLP is considering ways that a permanent memorial to John’s life and work could be established but as SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has already said, one fitting memorial would be a full sized university that provides hope and opportunity to a new generation of people in Derry.
“Of course it would be a fitting tribute to name the university after John but his first priority would be getting it delivered to offer opportunities for the people of Derry.”
County Cork Fine Gael TD, Colm Burke has suggested that a new cross border university be established and named after Mr Hume, saying it would be appropriate monument as Mr Hume had campaigned for a university for Derry in the 1960s.
The former SDLP leader led the failed campaign to have Northern Ireland’s second university (after Queens) established in Derry as the North’s second city.
The Stormont government’s government decision to locate the then New University of Ulster in Coleraine was considered one of the catalysts to the emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights’ Association.
Mr Burke said: “There is also great potential for a cross border university incorporating the existing colleges of higher education in the region into the structures of the university.
“These could include the Magee campus of the Ulster university, the Institutes of Technology in Letterkenny and Sligo and the North West Regional College.”
An online petition to have Guildhall Square – also known as Shipquay Place – named after Mr Hume has attracted a lot of support.
A petition has proposed: “Ireland’s Greatest, John Hume passed away on August 3, 2020.
“As a mark of our respect, appreciation and in light of his contribution to our city and to peace in Ireland, we, the people of the city and district are petitioning to have our main square renamed in his honour.”
By last night, the petition had attracted more than 1,600 signatures with many people also calling for a statue of Mr Hume to be erected on Guildhall Square.
Any moves by Derry City and Strabane District Council to rename any of its assets could run into problems as the authority has a policy of not naming buildings after politicians until a set time after their death.
However, a decision to re-name a street or square after Mr Hume would fall to the Stormont Executive and, in particular Nicola Mallon, the Minster for Infrastructure and the SDLP’s deputy leader.
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