Across the world, public murals have given bursts of cultural and political expression to cityscapes. Some of their creators, such as Banksy, have even become millionaires in the process.
But in Ireland, a collective of street artists known as Subset are about to enter a court battle as part of a 10-year “game of cat and mouse” with Dublin city council over three murals, including one celebrating the life of Sir David Attenborough.
Under Irish law, organisers of public murals need planning permission. Subset argues Dublin is behind the times and should embrace street culture as others cities have, such as Melbourne where the authorities say artists are free to paint murals in certain zones providing permission has been granted by the building owner and the content is apolitical.
Previously, they say they have complied with any enforcement proceedings on the 12 sites they have used across the city by painting over the murals or replacing the mural in question with a fresh work of art, any time they were issued with warnings or enforcement proceedings.
The council is now taking the artists to court for alleged breaches of planning laws which require prior consent for public murals.
But Subset have decided to fight legal proceedings in relation to three of their murals – the Attenborough work, another known as “horseboy” celebrating the traditional horse fair in city centre Smithfield and a third which marked mental health awareness month.
Subset said all their murals are painted with permission and consultation of the buildings occupants or owners but are calling on the government to liberalise the rules governing murals.
“We have put forward proposed amendments to the laws in conjunction with architects, solicitors, but we were left just going around the houses; speaking with city council representatives, Arts Council representatives, ministers and really to no avail.
“We thought the only way we could actually grab the attention and focus of the city council was to engage in the legal proceedings that they have brought against us because we have tried on multiple occasions to have this conversation and got nowhere,” said a spokesperson who requested anonymity as do all the collective’s artists.
Subset’s works are well known in Dublin with impactful takes on contemporary issues including Covid, LGBTQ+ rights and the abortion referendum in 2018.
The Attenborough mural which covers a gable wall and rear extension on a privately owned house close to the city centre took 10-12 people eight days to paint and was designed as a tribute for his 93rd birthday in 2019.
Horseboy took two artists five days and is based on a photograph taking by an Australian artist who agreed to his work being the basis on the work on a council house wall.
Proceedings were initiated in 2020 with a district court hearing scheduled for next month.
In many cities across the world, public murals are illegal but authorities turn a blind eye to their existence but Subset has said that other cities have relaxed the rules in certain zones.
“We don’t want artists to be in a position of weakness, which is the case when you don’t have the law on your side,” said the spokesperson.
Dublin city council said it could not comment on active legal proceedings.
