Dublin City Confirms Plans to Prosecute Portobello Mural Artist by Brendan Morris

The removal of the beloved public art piece has elicited a negative reaction from the D8 community.

Dublin City Council (DCC) confirmed a decision made in 2019 to pursue legal action against street-artist collective Subset, with the trial scheduled to take place in March 2022.

The charges brought against Subset accuse the group of making the mural without adequate planning permission from the City Council. In addition to the charges, the Council has issued a removal of the mural.

The mural in question depicts Sir David Attenborough, unveiled on the famous documentarians 93rd birthday in May 2019 to celebrate his lifelong dedication to the battle surrounding climate change, and can be found on the north end of Longwood Avenue. Subset justified the preservation of the piece by claiming the local community of South Circular Road supported the mural and were against its removal. Steven Byrne, who owns the garage adjacent to the mural, confirmed the local community’s support: “

We think it’s great, it’s fantastic. Tourists come up all the time and take pictures of it. We’re happy with it

Subset are facing similar charges for a famous mural of their titled “Horseboy” in Smithfield, similarly claiming approval from local residents. The Council have been making attempts to remove the piece in 2019, before which the tenant of the building it was painted on submitted an application to DCC that it should be allowed to remain, however, the owner of the property requested to have it taken down on multiple occasions. A petition to keep Horseboy in place has gathered 6000 signatures from the community of D7. Similarly, in 2017, the Council made motions to remove the groups mural of the artist Stormzy, which prompted Subset to launch a visual protest against the Councils decisions.

This is not the first instance of the Attenborough mural attracting controversy. On Christmas Eve 2019, the residents of Longwood Avenue awoke to find the mural defaced in anti-environmentalist graffiti. Scribbled on the wall was “climate hoax”, slandering Attenborough’s devotion to climate change activism.

Dublin City Council has not made any statements related to the case.

In September 2019, Dublin City Council made their initial motions to take the piece down, claiming it was “unauthorised development” according to the Planning and Development Acts. The trial has been repeatedly delayed due to COVID restrictions, and now is scheduled for March 3rd. The Councils position on this has sparked unanimous controversy across the city, as nearly 1000 local residents have signed a petition on Change.org to keep the artwork in place.