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Updated 18:43
A POPULAR, LARGE-SCALE mural on the northside of Dublin city centre was ripped down today and put in black bags.
The colourful mosaic – ‘Sweeney Astray’ – was well-known in the area and had been part of the Irish Life Centre on Lower Abbey Street since 1987.
The glass mosaic was comprised of 12 panels depicting the story of Sweeney’s wanderings through forests and hills, from prose and poems dating back to the 1600s and updated by Seamus Heaney in the early 1980s.
Derry artist Desmond Kinney, who completed the work 26 years ago, also has 29 other works around the city including on Nassau Street and on the AIB centre.
A reader who works in the Irish Life Centre told TheJournal.ie that the work was being removed with “hammers and put in black sacks” this afternoon.
She said the workmen were “removing another piece of Dublin’s heritage,” and asked, “could it not be preserved or restored instead of being torn off the wall with hammers?”
Aramark, the property management company that looks after the Irish Life Centre, had to take down the mural as it has been damaged and is rotting underneath. In a statement today, Irish Life Group said that it is “following best practice guidelines” and that it has the agreement of the artist.
The company said it is removing that artwork from public display “due to safety concerns following irreparable weather damage”.
The mural, which was installed 27 years ago at Abbey Court garden, has suffered significant damage and erosion to its underlying hanging structure, caused by weather, which only became apparent in recent months leading to loss of a significant portion of the tiles. Irish Life Group, advised by Business to Arts, made contact with the artist to alert him of the damage, and commissioned reports from both a noted ceramic conservationist and public art consultancy on the possibilities of repairing the work. However, this is not economically viable due to the sheer scale of the structural damage to the work.
The mosaic materials will now be stored by the company which is in dialogue with the National College of Art and Design “with a view to a future decision on how best to use them”.
(Images a TheJournal.ie reader)
First published 16:42
- Additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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One of the truly great songwriters, one of lifes mystery’s is how he made 60, a true testament to the resilience of the human body.
Congrats Shane, deserves it
Legend !
@Gavin O’Brien: absolute legend,
Such a pity Dolores o Riordan didn’t get one also.
He looks in a bad way.
@@Kevinro1980:
What happened to him?
@@Kevinro1980: Dubliners song seven drunken nights comes to mind
@John Byrne: 40+ years of alcohol and drug abuse will do that to you. Unless you’re Keith Richards, in which case you walk away unscathed. I think Shane also broke his hip recently.
Would love to have been at this,absolutely love Shane McGowan, and to top it all off,Nick Cave was there too,would literally have fainted on the spot,Anyway congratulations Shane,legend.
Well deserved but, something tells me 2018 may claim him soon too
The greatest poet of my lifetime.
One of Ireland’s most talented artists
Immensely talented, no doubt about that, but he’s from England not Ireland.
@O Swetenham: born in England to irish parents, spent the first 6 and a half years of his life in Tipperary, considers himself Irish and has spent more of his life living in Ireland than England. That makes him irish in my opinion.
@Dermot Lane: Yeah you’re right. I’m being a wee bit pedantic I suppose.
The picture reminds me of one of those creepy Victorian post mortem photos where family members would pose for one last family photo with the dressed up corpse.
@TechProducts: he looks like a waxwork statue
Does anybody know if this was recorded and if so will it be made available for viewing?
@Brian Brogan: There was a some professional camera men there last night along with notices saying it was being recorded so hopefully it will become available.
Incredible night but I was annoyed to see some empty seats in front of us from no shows when there was a few hundred people queuing up outside hoping to get a ticket.
@Brian Brogan: Yes it was recorded.
Everyone loves him now.
Very well deserved. What a great night that must have been!
what a poet. Well deserved
who’s the guy dressed up as Johnny Depp?
@Johnhunky Dory: Oh… it IS Johnny Depp!!
@Johnhunky Dory: Bah humbug, I like Johnny Depp…
@Johnhunky Dory: don’t think he will offering to blast Shane out of a canon when he goes .
Thompson cost him a packet
When he was good he was very good, the music industry,it’s not for the faint hearted
have your say